A masterful work from continually evolving auteur Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine, Red Rocket), Anora garners obvious points of comparison to Pretty Woman, but his approach is anything but skin deep and easily digestible. Part character study of a sex worker caught between fulfilling happiness and the promise of financial stability, and part raucous “one crazy night” romp, Anora is the kind of fully realized comedy and drama that captures some of life’s most complex emotional responses with good humour, tragic consequences, and fine detail.
Ani (a brilliant, wholly committed, award worthy Mikey Madison) is a Brooklyn sex worker and erotic dancer who has a chance encounter at the club one night with Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the energetic, childlike, and ludicrously wealthy son of a Russian oligarch. Ivan, a.k.a. Vanya, becomes increasingly obsessed with making Ani his girlfriend, offering her large sums of money to hang out for weeks on end. Eventually, they develop genuine feelings for each other and get spontaneously married during a trip to Las Vegas. But when his disapproving parents find out about the nuptials in the tabloids, they send a band of goons to try and force an annulment and get their son back to Russia.
Anora is Baker’s most polished, streamlined, and opulent film to date, but that doesn’t mean he’s turned his back on the type of intricately drawn stories of struggle and acceptance that he has built his career upon to this point. Ani is a perfect audience surrogate for this world of complicated familial politics, transactional love, and a whirlwind week of drinking, gambling, and debauchery.
Although Baker is more than willing to let things play out naturally and in their own time (with a lengthy section where Ani is left alone with the parent’s Armenian helpers emerging as the best, most calculated scene in any film so far this year), Anora escalates quickly in both comedic and dramatic ways. It’s a testament to Madison’s talents as a performer and the writing of the character that the audience is able to keep up with everything and remain invested. It hurts to laugh at some of the more outlandish situations in Anora, because they are both hilarious and the sort of thing that would leave someone devastated if it were to happen to them.
Big on New York energy and stylistic panache (dig all those complex uses of mirrors and windows), Anora is damn near perfect in every respect, ending on a note of catharsis and bittersweetness that ensures viewers will never forget it. There are plenty of reasons why it won the coveted Palme d’Or at Cannes earlier this year, and Anora probably isn’t done racking up deserving accolades just yet.
Sunday, September 8, 2024 – Royal Alexandra Theatre – 8:00 pm
