Winter/director Sean Baker is back with a new film that stays close to his trademark penchant for realistic portrayals of working class segments of society not often explored that has been buzzing on the film festival circuit. Anora is a gritty NYC Cinderella story of sorts, following the titular character played by Mikey Madison, an exotic dancer and sometime escort from Brooklyn, as she embarks upon a whirlwind romance with a client and son of a Russian oligarch named Vanya, or Ivan in American English, (Mark Eidelstein). The two young lovebirds get married on a whim in Las Vegas, but once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as Ivan’s parents send their fixers Toros (Karren Karagulian), Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), and Igor (Yuriy Borisov) to find the couple and get the marriage annulled while they fly to the United States to confront their son.
The film begins with a peek into a night in the life of an exotic dancer that not only sets the stage for Anora’s environment and life experience, but also provides a window into the experience of what it’s like to engage in sex work for a woman. We see the bright lights, fast-paced hustle, and need to charm that exotic dancers live by, but juxtaposed with the personal conversations backstage and outside the club doors between the dancers as they discuss which customers were creeps and what they have to deal with on a regular basis. Here you see the dichotomy that they live by and duality they must hold mentally; holding contempt for men who see them as objects onto which they project their perversions but indulging their fantasies about exotic dancers in order to make money. This opening look at what it means to work as an exotic dancer in the strip club provides a necessary backstory that establishes everything that Anora subsequently does throughout the rest of the film. Baker does a great job in not just showing the audience this and not telling through extemporaneous dialogue but doing it in a way that also entertains and is engaging.
The film’s second act owes much to Martin Scorsese’s 1985 cult classic After Hours as well as the most recent work of the Safdie Brothers with the frenetic search for Vanya following the news that his parents had learned of his marriage to Anora and were headed to America to be sure it is annulled. Anora, Toros, Garnick, and Igor traverse the city looking for him and hilarious hijinks ensue as the unlikely foursome try to find the panicked and inebriated trust fund kid. Anora is a dramedy in every sense of the word and the comedy aspect is largely established during the second act and provides a lot of laughs, even if it does make the film drag somewhat. It is also during this portion of the film that its emotional component is slowly being set up through the relationship between Anora and Igor.
The two get off to a very rocky start when Igor has to restrain Anora during their initial confrontation over her and Vanya’s marriage and the demand that they annul. Anora of course hates Igor as a result, but throughout the night, Igor is the one man who shows concern for Anora amidst the situation, even to an extent that her new husband does not. His care for her, juxtaposed to how every other man in her orbit regards her due to her background in sex work, is shown to bother Anora through the antagonism she specifically doles out toward him despite his refusal to respond in kind. Anora is used to engaging with the darker, more uncaring side of men and Igor’s genuine concern makes her uncomfortable, which she displays by being mean toward him. Her fight against his care for her culminates in the film’s ending scene, encapsulating her resistance to vulnerability in response to what she has experienced and therefore thinks she deserves. It’s emotional commentary on the mental effects of sex work on sex workers and an empathetic glimpse into their treatment. It’s well executed by Baker with setup throughout the plot that pays off in the end.
Anora is a glimpse into the emotionally fraught world of sex work with a comedy sandwiched in between that ultimately works as an entertaining yet unflinching film at a segment of society we often look past. The formula has become a calling card for writer/director Sean Baker and he pulls it off here well with his best entry since 2018’s The Florida Project. Mikey Madison provides a funny portrayal of an exotic dancer from Brooklyn, but when a moment calls for emotion, the actress is capable of digging deep and providing that as well. The supporting cast does well with Armenian brothers Toros and Garnick, played by Karren Karagulian and Vache Tovmasyan being the standouts. Anora is another quality entry from Baker and worth a trip to the movies.
Image: NEON
