Sean Baker is a filmmaker who’s known for exploring the lives of sex workers in his movies, such as Red Rocket. This is my first rodeo with the director, and Anora proves that he has the respect and love for the hard work that women put into this job. Anora debuted at Cannes earlier this year, where it won the Palme d’Or. Since then, it has made its way to other festivals, gaining critical acclaim at all of them. It has now made its way to the London Film Festival, where I’ve been lucky enough to get a chance to watch it before its initial press screening, and Sean Baker and Mikey Madison work in unison to deliver a film that’s so outrageously hilarious but emotionally impactful at the same time as it explores themes such as love and identity and provides a look at the broken American dream.
Anora follows the titular character, who goes by the name Ani (Mikey Madison), a New York stripper who’s seemingly good at her job. One day, she comes across a customer named Vanya/Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch, and hits it off immediately with him. The relationship between the two begins to escalate as she goes from having sex with him for money to eventually becoming his girlfriend for a week. When news reaches Vanya’s parents that he’s in love, they do everything in their power to bring an end to this relationship.
The False American Dream
The movie opens up inside the Headquarters strip club, we see a line-up of women dancing on customers before we pull up on Ani, we then follow it up with a montage of Ani putting her charm on display as she pulls in customers and finds opportunities to get extra money from them. No money on you? Well, Ani will show you the way to the ATM. This was the best possible way to display Ani as a character; she’s charismatic, sexy, charming, hilarious, and street smart. She eventually comes across Vanya, who has requested someone who can speak Russian, and luckily, Ani can.
Vanya’s character specifically holds a lot of the traits you can find within a stereotypical young adult in their early 20s. He’s rich and is clearly using his parent’s wealth but is using it to his advantage to live the life that he wants for himself; his way of living is his own idea of the American dream, and when Ani comes into his life, he finds an opportunity to make the American dream permanent for him. Vanya’s personality bounces off Ani’s so well, as they’re both humorous and just so full of life.
It becomes clear quite quickly that Ani isn’t just visiting him for the money but is actually falling for him and wants a taste of the American dream. Ani is portrayed wonderfully by Mikey Madison, bringing that radiating energy to the character and showing off her dance moves, which she helped create for the film. She delivers an award-worthy performance that leaves you speechless by the time the film ends.
It’s at this point where Vanya provides Ani with the offer to be his girlfriend for the week, which she accepts for fifteen thousand dollars. They end up flying to Las Vegas with their friends and having the time of their lives, but this isn’t the end for Vanya and Ani as he proposes to her, in hopes that he won’t have to return to Russia to work for his father’s business, in hope that he can continue living the American dream. Ani accepts, as this doesn’t only give her the life that she loves to live but also that she believes that she’s finally found someone that values her. This all comes crashing down rather quickly once news makes it back to Vanya’s family that he’s married a “prostitute.”
The Worst Thugs of the Year
We get introduced to some of the best characters in this film as it slowly transitions from this love film to a screwball comedy that’s filled with laugh out loud moments. We discover the true nature of Vanya, as when it comes time for him to face the consequences of his actions, Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yuriy Borisov) are sent to his house by Toros (Karren Karagulien), who has been sent by Vanya’s father, to ensure that Vanya and Ani get an annulment. Instead of calming down his wife in this situation, he flees and doesn’t give Ani anytime to come along with him. Her life has now come to a pause as it turns into the most chaotic situation, with items being thrown around the place, bitemarks on the neck, broken noses, and smashed tables.
Garnick, Igor, and Toros are written and displayed as threatening thugs. We still don’t really know what it is that Vanya’s parents do except that they run a business and are filthy rich. These thugs aren’t exactly that and are more reminiscent of the home invaders from Home Alone, who fail to get a simple task done without doing something utterly ridiculous.
Sean Baker writes a script that not only puts everyone involved in a stressful situation but also puts the audience in a stressful situation as we’re left in the dark as much as the characters we’re following on screen, and with how unpredictable these characters are, you can’t guess what’s to come next as they search New York for Vanya. The foolishness of the trio leads into one of my favourite scenes of the films, as what they’ve been working up towards ends up being for nothing, as just like Ani and Vanya, they rushed in without asking any questions, getting them into a situation that only gets them in more trouble.
Ani states numerous times to Toros that she’s in love with Vanya, and he responds, saying that she doesn’t know who is. That everything he owns doesn’t belong to him and belongs to his parents. It’s at this point in the film where I begin to even doubt if I know the character, and that’s the beauty of Sean Baker’s writing; it puts us in the shoes of the main character.
The Underdog
This film is essentially A Cinderella Story but flipped in reverse as it follows two people matched by fate, falling in love, and getting married without a second thought, but it’s a marriage that barely lasts a week as it quickly falls apart, opening Ani’s eyes as she tries to figure out what exactly is going on. No one answers her questions, leaving her in the dark as to why she must get an annulment with the man that she believes she loves. What I couldn’t get out of my head is how influenced this film is by the behaviours of Gen Z. A generation that struggles to understand the meaning of certain ideals and instead rushes in head first without any thought of the repercussions.
Everyone delivers a performance that helps give this film the energy it needs, but the actor that surprised me the most was Yuriy Borisov, who plays Igor. He’s made to look the most threatening and has that aura surrounding him, but it’s through little moments throughout the film where he speaks about his grandma and his living situation that we come to understand that he isn’t the man that we’re thought to think he is. He’s soft on the inside and caring, and although Ani felt assaulted by him back at the mansion, he was only ever trying to keep her safe from hurting herself.
Igor is the only character in the film to fully understand that Ani isn’t at fault here, that she simply fell in love with the wrong person, and that’s her only fault. It all leads into an unexpected gut punch of an ending where Ani is finally able to take control of her own body. It’s an emotional ending that’s tonally different from the rest of the film, and conceptually, the tonal switch is not something I’d see working, but it works perfectly as the ending to this film.
Final Thoughts
Anora is a reminder that, at the end of the day, sex work is still work and no different from any other job. Sean Baker does a great job of not dehumanising the work and is able to create a sex-positive film that doesn’t once judge its main character for the work she does but instead focuses on the villains who solely judge her as a person because of it. It’s a film that’s full of so many emotions; it’s hilarious, heartbreaking, and will leave you with many thoughts after the credits roll. If not for the stunning performance from Mikey Madison, this film might’ve not reached the level of impact it needed. Sean Baker and Mikey Madison provide a voice for all sex workers, and hopefully this film can provide a change in how they’re treated.
Anora releases in theatres October 18 in the US and November 1 in the UK.
