'Anora' Review: Mikey Madison Slays as a Sex-Worker Who Pulls Herself up by the Stilettos
Sean Baker is one of those filmmakers who can transport you to any underrepresented part of America and humanize the occupants that live there, trying to survive by whatever means necessary. Even if a lead is messy AF, they’re still people. His latest, the Palme d’Or-winning Anora, transports the viewer to the impoverished slums of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, and depicts a Cinderella tale about young sex worker Ani (Mikey Madison), who wins the marriage lottery with an oligarch heir. Through it, Baker presents a dissertation about the different sectors of Zillennial culture and all its peaks and valleys in a nuanced approach unlike any other.
Image copyright (©) Courtesy of NEON
R: Strong sexual content throughout, graphic nudity, pervasive language, and drug use
Runtime: 2 Hrs and 19 Minutes
Production Companies: FilmNation Entertainment, Cre Film
Distributor: NEON
Director: Sean Baker
Writer: Sean Baker
Cast: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan
Release Date: October 19, 2024
Capital N. New Yawhker, Ani (short for Anora) is a dancer, stripper, and escort working in the heart of a midtown strip club, Headquarters. One night, she was assigned to take care of a Russian client, Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) due to her proficiency in the Russian language. What starts as a meet-cute between a service provider and a client turns into a Cinderella-like romance that leads to a marriage in Las Vegas.
Their honeymoon is cut short when Vanya's oligarch parents receive the news and perceive it as their young son's escape from his responsibilities of running their company. They send their right-hand man Toros (Karren Karagulian) and his lackeys Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov) to force him to get his marriage annulled. When they arrive, Vanya vanishes, leaving Anora to fend for herself. Now it's up to Anora, Toros, Garnick, and Igor to embark on a citywide quest to find Vanya.
Anora continues Sean Baker's practice of humanizing the sex workers of America, as depicted in his films Tangerine (a portrayal of Black transgender sex workers) and Red Rocket (a portrayal of a former porn star) in his signature pop verité style. During the initial few minutes, as we follow Ani during a long night's work, you’re immediately drawn into the nightlife 9 to 5 she leads. Ani employs her charisma to charm sleazy finance male customers, stoke their eccentric personas with a joke, and perform an audacious dance while chewing bubble gum, all before returning to Brighton Beach at the crack of dawn. As a native New Yorker who knows the distance between her job and her Brooklyn neighborhood, I can't help but sympathize with the poor girl's commute.
Baker's familiar, grounded approach is immersive. When Vanya and Ani's worlds collide, the immersion quickly evolves into intoxication, fueled by adrenaline and joy when their romance blossoms. Anora's first half is a cinematic personification of Gen-Z euphoria – one that genuinely defines the word, not that fake Sam Levinson shit. It expresses Gen-Z youthfulness in an infectious manner that puts a smile on your face. The two are in their early 20s (Vanya, 21 and Ani, 23) and they show their age with their boundless energy and rebellious spirit. Baker plays it authentically without ever appearing to be pandering.
DP Drew Daniels' hypnotic cinematography highlights the tranquility within the happiness they share, feeling like something straight out of Cinderella with Russian-styled vulgarity and raunchiness. Daniels captures the beauty within Brighton Beach and Coney Island, which is an accomplishment because those places suck. From a script standpoint, the accuracy of the nature of this specific Brooklyn environment is obscene, since Baker is so attuned to the underrepresented microcosms of the world.
The film pivots into a modern screwball comedy at its midpoint. One would argue that the big departure happens because time is spent accomplishing a 24-hour wild goose chase, yet the connective tissue of the Gen-Z cultural conversation is still omnipresent, if not completely fleshed out. As Toros, Garnick, and Igor arrive, Baker crafts a compelling thesis on the nature of the two pillars of Gen-Z individuals in contemporary times.
After Vanya dips and Ani fights with the powers invested in her New Yorker body, comes a complex study of “cut from a rich cloth” versus the cutthroat nature of our culture, via the adventure she is forced on to find Vanya. Vanya is a kid who inherited his parents’ wealth, but Ani is a self-made woman who, at the end of the day, picks herself up by her bootstraps, whether it be hustling at work or facing an oligarch family. Many individuals of similar ages can identify with Ani, someone who fights to earn her keep, and you can tell that confident independence has been on autopilot as a coping mechanism forever, as those emotional walls are high up. Once we learn more of Ani’s background, there’s a concrete explanation as to why those walls are guarded.
But the Vanyas of the world experience nepo baby prosperity, like a kid of an SNL writer landing a job as a writer or cast member on the show. Sometimes, they act like they're an alien when they have to navigate certain spaces because normalcy isn't in their vocabulary.
There are many important personalities in Gen-Z culture, but Anora and Vanya's characters are the most vital mockups of the ones operating in the country today. Even though I feel like I'm thinking far too deeply into a “Cinderella story turned screwball comedy,” I do feel like this is the most sophisticated examination that Baker has accomplished as a writer and filmmaker to date.
Mikey Madison. Like her characters at the end of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Scream V, she gives a fiery showstopping performance. And this time she doesn't have to be on fire. Only an actress with her killer instinct, attitude, and skill can make an audience member believe she can hold her own against a whole oligarch clan. She nails this specific subset of Brighton Beach-based NY'er through her dialect and attitude. She has a passionate sincerity that makes her seem real, like a Russian Julia Roberts with more glittery streaks in her hair and stilettos.
The supporting Russian cast is also solid. Newcomer Mark Eydelshteyn has a great presence, boasting such a charming personality as Vanya. Despite having been labeled a “Russian Timothée Chalamet” by others, I found Eydelshteyn to be a miniature Ben Schwartz. He radiates Jean-Ralphio Saperstein's energy in a lanky posture, carefree expression, and irresistible charm.
Karren Karagulian as Toros is a great character who completes the Gen-Z conversation. Toros is what Alfred would have become if Bruce Wayne’s parents were still around and Wayne grew up to become a bratty manchild instead of Batman. Toros’ exhaustion is worn on his face, and every argument he shares with the unrelenting Ani about the foundation of their relationship, tells drills into the audience what Vanya's behavior is truly like.
Ever seen a movie humanize a henchman over time? Well, you get this in Anora in the form of charming Yura Borisov as soft-spoken, gentle giant, and observant Igor I think that he’s a great character, one Baker props up in a role that plays as both the audience's avatar and a genuine dude who shares great chemistry with Anora, which is nicely developed throughout the remainder of the film. The conclusion that revolves around them didn’t completely sell me, but upon reflection, it got under my skin, having me think about Ani’s identity at 7 in the morning. Originally this paragraph was going to be in “The Bad” division but after a while, I had to backstep.
In a dizzying romantic turned screwball portrayal, Sean Baker's Anora is a remarkable portrait of the American dreamers and go-getters of the Gen-Z kind, all brought to life by Mikey Madison's dazzling performance.
Rating: 4.5/5
