By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Sean Baker
Starring: Emily Weider | Lindsey Normington | Luna Sofía Miranda | Mikey Madison | Paul Weissman
Year: 2024
Running time: 139
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28607951/reference/
Aaron says: “Sean Baker’s latest, is a blast—funny, raucous, heartfelt, and sad—it’s controlled chaos as only Baker can do. Sex worker Anora ‘Ani’ (Mikey Madison) gets swept up in a Cinderella romance with Ivan ‘Vanya’ (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch. After the two impetuously tie the knot in Vegas, Vanya’s parents send henchmen to get the wedding annulled.
“Baker delights in scuffing up the shallow Hollywood image of sex workers we remember from PRETTY WOMAN and RISKEY BUSINESS, wresting the movie’s perspective from rich male heroes past to fully embrace Ani’s point of view from a life in the margins. She’s a hustler, and her unapologetic drive to make money using her skill set (her body), is one of the film’s many ways to keep us cheering Ani’s every move.
“One of the pleasures of ANORAis the way Baker plays with genre: a fairy tale, a rom-com, a screwball comedy, a flirtation with a darker SOMETHING WILD vibe, and then that ending. And what an ending. Sure to divide viewers, the final quiet section introduces a sharp contrast to the earlier rollicking tone. The stillness of the last scene leaves an emotional mark you won’t see coming.
“Madison’s live-wire breakout performance may be what everyone is buzzing about, but it’s the more nuanced work by stealth scene-stealer Yura Borisov as Russian goon Igor that is ANORA’s wild card. You find yourself seeking out his reactions, those sad, curious, and observant eyes, as if he isn’t the only one itching to burst free of a stereotype.
“It isn’t all positive news. At 139 minutes, the frenetic mix of f-bomb confrontations and broad farce can be too much of a good thing. Although Baker’s affection for Ani is contagious, he never complicates our rooting interest in her, which makes her a bit less layered than the flawed misfits of RED ROCKET or THE FLORIDA PROJECT. Still, something short of top-tier Baker is anyone else’s gem. 3.5 cats“
Brett responds: “This is a great review. Thank you for sharing this. The rating is exactly where I’d have it at as well. This is where I may get voted off the island, but piggybacking off of the ‘breakout performance’ buzz observation, I was also not fully drinking the same Kool-Aid as many of the early reviews for this film, almost completely because Mikey Madison has been this great prior to ANORA in Pamela Aldon’s BETTER THINGS in particular. If anything, that role felt a lot more earthy, gritty, and nuanced than this, which is pedal to the metal all the way to the last scene previously described in Aaron’s review. I also don’t like to see such past roles overshadowed when it feels like the right writers or reviewers are just now finally ‘meeting’ Madison and–in turn–dismissing the previous work of the actor that should’ve already been getting notoriety. That may not be accurate at all, but it’s just the feeling I get with the current buzz. That said, it is certainly far from a bad performance in ANORA.
“The last paragraph of Aaron’s review: I could not say it or think it any better. I’ve re-read that particular section three or four times, and I will reflect on it again when I open my email later in the day because it hits the nail on the head. It is a film definitely worth the time, but I feel like the subject material, the positivity that’s assigned to such material as a way of reshaping audiences’ worldviews of such subject material, and the timing with the evolving modern zeitgeist probably vault this film a little higher up the ladder than it may normally be otherwise because it’s such a cultural canon ‘poking of the bear,’ so to speak. But, after all, that’s a really good reason to go to the movies for a lot of people in the first place, so it’s not a bad thing.”