With Anora, filmmaker Sean Baker has delivered an exhilarating screwball comedy for the modern era featuring an electric performance from Mikey Madison as the eponymous stripper who falls head-over-lucite heels for the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. The winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes and easily Baker’s most entertaining film to date, Anora is the sort of intoxicating character study that the filmmaker has become known for – a riveting slice of life on the margins of society with John Cassavetes’ DNA coursing through its veins.
The Contemporary Answer to Pretty Woman
At the end of 1990’s Pretty Woman, wealthy businessman Edward (Richard Gere) shows up at the shabby apartment which Vivian (Julia Roberts) shares with a friend and fellow sex worker. The dreamy synth of Roxette’s “It Must Have Been Love” swells as Richard sweeps Vivian off her feet and (presumably) away to a life free from worrying about how many tricks she needs to turn in order to make rent next month. People with that kind of money don’t need to think about it too much. They also don’t appreciate its value.
Ani (Madison) understands her value in terms of currency – the cost of a lap dance or an experience in a private room at the back of the strip club. She hustles through her days collecting paper from men eager to part with it and even easier to please before sleepwalking back to the Brooklyn apartment she shares with her sister. Every day is essentially the same until Ani meets Ivan (Mark Eidelstein), a wealthy young man asking for a stripper who speaks Russian, which Ani learned from her immigrant grandmother. The pair have an easy chemistry, but then again, Ani could have chemistry with anyone.
A Marriage of Mutually Assured Desires
Still, there’s something different about Ivan, which is why Ani gives him a fully nude lap dance in private. “This is not allowed,” she says as Ivan sits on his hands, “but I like you.” And we’re off to the races. It’s not long before Ivan asks Ani to be his exclusive “horny girlfriend” for a week, likely his last in the U.S. before he goes to work for his dad in Russia. What follows is a whirlwind of all-nighters drenched in champagne and dusted in cocaine and an impromptu jaunt to Las Vegas on a private plane. When Ivan proposes to Ani after another night of partying and sex, it doesn’t feel like much of a stretch when she says yes.
But Ivan’s proposal and Ani’s acceptance are motivated by distinctly different desires: For Ivan, marrying Ani is a middle finger to his mega-wealthy absentee parents; if he becomes an American citizen through marriage, Ivan naively believes he won’t have to go back to Russia. For Ani, marrying Ivan is a one-way ticket out of a mundane working-class existence, trapped in a never-ending cycle of hustling from one paycheck to the next. When Ivan’s parents get wind of the quickie wedding, they send their local proxy and his goons after the couple to force an annulment, kicking off a darkly comic caper that doesn’t relent until the final frame.
Mikey Madison’s Star-Making Turn
Most moviegoers are familiar with Mikey Madison from her supporting roles as unhinged sidekicks in Scream (2022) and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. For those viewers, Madison’s performance in Anora must feel revelatory, but if you watched the excellent FX drama Better Things, her work here, while invigorating, is hardly surprising. For five seasons, Madison played the eldest of Pamela Adlon’s three daughters in an arc that saw her transform from a bratty teen into a surprisingly mature and insightful young adult.
As Anora‘s eponymous protagonist, Madison expands the boundaries of her range in a performance that calls to mind Marisa Tomei’s similarly star-making turn in My Cousin Vinny. Like Mona Lisa Vito, Ani is underestimated by the men in her orbit, most of whom perceive her as little more than an opportunistic sex worker.
Ivan’s parents send Toros (Karren Karagulian), a high-strung Armenian priest and trusted associate, and his goofy goons Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yuriy Borisov) to deal with Ani, who proves herself tougher and more astute than any of them bargained for when she starts throwing punches. Their scenes together comprise much of the film’s uproarious third act, in which Ani and the trio of heavies venture across New York in search of Ivan.
To Have and Have Not
We spend most of Anora waiting for the other shoe to drop. When it does, it isn’t the cliché third-act confessional of a teenage dirtbag who unintentionally falls for the woman from the wrong side of the social tracks; a woman who not only makes him want to be a better man, but shows him that becoming a better man is possible. Instead, it’s all much more painfully honest. Perhaps there’s a foolishness to Ani (and audiences) expecting reality to deliver the same fairy tale ending that Pretty Woman promised. However, Baker’s compassionate, uncomplicated gaze never pities or judges Ani, whose greatest error was giving herself permission to hope despite, or possibly in spite of, her better judgment.
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The international marketing for Anora bills Baker’s latest as a “Made in America love story.” That description, which could apply to all of Baker’s films, is far more apt than the American tagline (“Love is a hustle,” so reductive and twee). The great lie of the American Dream is that anyone can make a name and a fortune for themselves if they try hard enough. What Ani pursues in her relationship with Ivan embodies the cynical reality for millions of people, many of whom – like Ani – would choose to embrace this exceptional fantasy if given the opportunity.
Of course, the vast majority of wealthy people inherit their fortunes through proximity and privilege, and nearly all of them have done so on the backs of people like Ani and Igor, who works for Ivan’s family but still drives his own grandmother’s old car. Like most of us, Ani and Igor can’t reasonably hope to work their way into wealth; the best that capitalism can do for them is a winning Lotto ticket or its social equivalent – in Ani’s case, meeting a defiant little princeling who punishes his elitist parents by marrying a sex worker from Brighton Beach.
While the possibility of a Pretty Woman finale is permanently punctured, the film doesn’t end just yet; there’s still a sense that we’re holding our breath, waiting for the signal to exhale. This is when Anora delivers on all that pent-up empathy, with a moment of startling intimacy in which Ani finally removes her brassy armor. Catharsis is inherently hard-earned and rooted in heartbreak, but Baker shows us that there’s something preternaturally hopeful about it too, a feeling that lingers pleasantly as the credits quietly roll.
From FilmNation Entertainment and Cre Film, NEON will release Anora in theaters on Oct. 18, 2024. It was most recently screened at Fantastic Fest.
