ANORA Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Sean Baker
Stars: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Yura Borisov, Luna Sofia Miranda.
Sean Baker is an intriguing filmmaker who doesn’t repeat himself, although most of his films follow marginalised characters. His breakthrough film was 2015’s Tangerine, a low budget independent drama about a trans-gender prostitute in Florida looking for her pimp, which was entirely shot on a mobile phone. He followed that film in 2017 with The Florida Project, which featured Willem Dafoe as the manager of a rundown hotel in Orlando, next to Disney World. In 2021 he gave us the raunchy sex comedy Red Rocket about a washed-up porn star who returns home to his small town in Texas. His latest film is Anora, an edgy comedy/gritty erotic drama that can be seen as an adult riff on the Pretty Woman premise, but is also, arguably, his best film yet and is earning plenty of kudos.
The titular character is Anora (played by Mikey Madison, from Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, etc), who works as an exotic dancer in The Headquarters, an upmarket Manhattan strip club. She prefers to go by the name Ani. Because she speaks Russian she is sent to entertain Ivan (Russian actor Mark Eydelshteyn, in his English language debut), the narcissistic and irresponsible but rich 21-year-old son of powerful Russian oligarchs. He is in America to study but he loves to party and spend money. He is intrigued by Ani, who gives him a lap dance. Then Ivan invites her to spend some time with him in his parent’s lavish house in Brooklyn. Then he offers her $10,000 to spend a week with him as his pretend girlfriend, which she deftly negotiates up to $15,000. She accepts and embarks on a week-long odyssey of sex and partying. The pair click and embark on a whirlwind romance.
Then, on a whim, Ivan flies her to Las Vegas and the pair get married in a wedding chapel. All seems going well until Ivan’s family back home in Russia learn of the nuptials. They are less than pleased. They send Toros (Karren Karagulian), their frightening and hot headed American based fixer and Ivan’s godfather to sort out the problem and force Ivan to annul the marriage. When two of his goons (played by Vache Tovmasyan and Yura Borisov) arrive at Ivan’s house he flees, leaving Ani alone to fend for herself and try to resolve the situation.
What follows is both a tense standoff and a bleakly funny chase scenario and Ani reluctantly agrees to help Toros and his hapless goons find Ivan and resolve the situation. The home invasion scene is quite tense as Ani faces down Toros and his two goons, and Baker deftly ramps up the claustrophobic tension. Some of the dialogue here seems improvised, which adds to the emotions of the scene. Baker has stated in interviews that the story was inspired in part by a friend’s experience, a newly wed who was kidnapped for collateral.
Anora runs for over two hours but for the most part justifies the length as the script is peppered with dark humour, action and engaging characters. However, the middle section of the film meanders a bit as they hit the mean streets of Brooklyn and search for the feckless Ivan through various night clubs, strip clubs and familiar haunts. But visually the film looks great thanks to the work of Baker’s regular cinematographer Drew Daniels, who uses handheld cameras to good effect. An opening sequence takes us deep inside the strip club and is quite frank in its depiction of this world and his lensing of the neon lit Vegas vistas is quite stunning. As with his previous films Baker treats sex and sex workers with compassion and understanding.
Baker, who also edited the film, keeps things moving with a restless energy and the action is accompanied by a diverse soundtrack that includes Blondie and Take That.
Karragulian is both frightening and funny as the hot headed Toros. Borisov (from Compartment No 6, etc) is very good as Igor, one of Toros’ henchmen who develops a soft spot for Anora and her situation, and he brings empathy and a touch of compassion to his role. Tovmasyan provides plenty of laughs with his performance as the hapless heavy thug Garnick. In his first English language film Eydelshteyn (from The Land Of Sasha, etc) is perfectly cast as the irresponsible Ivan and he has a lot of fun in the role, bringing a mix of innocence and restless energy to his characterisation. However, Anora is grounded by the tremendous stand out, star making performance from Madison in the title role; she is intelligent, feisty, tough and formidable as she stands up to the intimidating Russian goons, but she also reveals her vulnerability.
However, the dialogue is liberally littered with profanities, and those who are offended by the “f” word may want to think carefully before checking out Anora. For those who like something fresh and off beat though Anora is well worth checking out and is a highlight of the Christmas/Boxing Day releases.
★★★★
