Anora
Ani (Mikey Madison, “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood’s” Sadie) is a popular exotic dancer at Manhattan’s Headquarters club whose boss, Jimmy (Vincent Radwinsky), asks her to take care of a rich young Russian one night because she picked up the language from her grandmother. Twenty-one year-old Ivan-call-me-Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) becomes so entranced, he hires her to be his girlfriend for a hedonistic week of partying that culminates in a Las Vegas wedding. Then his Russian oligarch parents find out and send in their goon squad to procure an annulment from “Anora.”
Laura's Review: A-
Writer/director/editor Sean Baker ("Tangerine," "Red Rocket") has become the champion of the sex worker, his latest film on the subject crowned with the Palme d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Anyone who followed Pamela Adlon’s brilliant series ‘Better Things’ is familiar with star Mikey Madison’s unique appeal and she and Baker’s improvised opener, set to British pop group Take That’s ‘Greatest Day’ in the actual HQ club, is a great introduction to her (very different) character, her inherent good nature a constant as she alters her approach with a series of clients she’s trying to get into a private room. It may be a hustle, but it’s an exacting one and the men being targeted are more than willing participants.
The broad Brooklyn accented, gum chewing Ani and the puppyish, video gaming Vanya delight in each other’s company and enjoy frequent sex (Ani will need to slow the boy down), but the exotic dancer is also bowled over by her entry into a whole new lifestyle, her new exclusive client living in a modern, water view mansion attended to by servants, a far cry from the Brighton Beach apartment she shares with her sister. Dancer friend Lulu (Luna Sofia Miranda) is knocked out attending Vanya’s NYE party, and when Vanya takes Ani and his friends to Las Vegas in a private plane, in addition to the constant stream of champagne and party drugs, she’ll be gifted with a Russian sable and engaged with a formidable rock. When she quits HQ, Lulu couldn’t be happier for her but rival Diamond (Lindsey Normington) is vindictive, predicting the marriage won’t last weeks.
Back home, wedded bliss is cut short when Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov, "Compartment No. 6") arrive to learn if the rumors that their boss Toros’ (Karren Karagulian, "Red Rocket") godson is indeed married are true. Ani will learn that Vanya is far less of his own man than he’s let on and that she has been sleeping with him in his parents’ bedroom, his own, childishly decorated one, down the hall. He’ll also prove a coward, running out of the house and disappearing, leaving his wife to face the music.
What ensues is a violent yet hilarious scene which will earn Ani respect and admiration from an unlikely source. From this point on, the film is a constant surprise, an overnight quest to find Ivan, who isn’t answering phone calls, which takes this mismatched quartet, Toros having left his own child’s christening to attend to the matter, through a trail of Brighton Beach establishments, before Ani goes full circle back to HQ. And even then, the journey is far from over.
Madison grabs the spotlight as the sweet paid party girl who turns Tasmanian Devil when threatened and who will put a real human face on the sex worker, her last scene an unexpected tonal shift which casts a new light on all that’s come before. She’s ably supported by Eydelshteyn, perfection as the irresponsible rich kid who is charming as long as things are going his way. Karagulian, a Baker good luck charm featured in most of his films, is hilarious as the frustrated fixer, whose vehicle ends the evening having been towed, vomited in and ticketed while his end goal faces an unexpected legal obstacle. Darya Ekamasova ("Give Me Liberty") is the rich bitch mother from hell as Ani’s biggest adversary (Artyom Trubnikov as dad Michael laughs uproariously at Ani’s parting dig, an interesting tell).
Come into “Anora” expecting to watch a former sex worker fight for her marriage and leave realizing you’ve seen a romantic comedy unfold where vulgar insults are a shield against deep emotions. To say more would spoil the experience.
Neon releases "Anora" in select theaters on 10/18/24, expanding on 10/25/24.
