Anora
Sean Baker’s Anora, a screwball romance in which a brassy exotic dancer is swept off her feet by the gawky son of a Russian oligarch, is another of his razor-sharp humanist depictions of life for people on the margins
Early in Anora, exotic dancer Ani (Mikey Madison) is chatting with a colleague outside the New York strip club where they both work, with her friend lamenting the generic dollar-signs tattoo she has on her hand. “No, but you’re manifesting with those,” Ani assures her pal, though it’s she who will soon be whisked off to a world of wealth by an unexpected suitor. If this sounds at all like Pretty Woman, be prepared for something considerably more acerbic and unpredictable. And since this is a Sean Baker film, the depiction of sex work is decidedly stronger.
Simply portraying the lives of sex workers with empathy and honesty, including the validity of sex work as actual work, shouldn’t be some gold standard for a filmmaker to get a pat on the head as a reward – or a Palme d’Or in their hand in this case. But writer-director Baker – known for his hugely collaborative approach in exploring the lives of people on the margins of society, respectability or both – has not unfairly become a torch-bearer for humanising such heavily stigmatised industries with genuinely thoughtful attempts at accuracy, free of patronising.
Through Starlet (2012), Tangerine (2015), The Florida Project (2017) and Red Rocket (2021), Baker’s films have focused on various forms of sex work, from lap dancers to porn stars. His naturalistic touches have always butted heads with flights of fancy, most notably in the unforgettable climax of The Florida Project. The captivating dance between the possibilities of a hopeful fantasist’s imagination and the harsh realities of life is key to the success of these dramedies, both in their darkly comic moments and their emotional gut punches.
Anora initially presents a raunchier spin on a familiar fairytale: a Cinderella ‘rescued’ from her circumstances by a Prince Charming, though he’s perhaps cinema’s gawkiest Prince Charming figure to date. Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn) is the spoiled son of a Russian oligarch, living in a mansion upstate. Taking a shine to Ani at the club, he invites her to his home for a paid hookup, then to a party, and then to be his girlfriend for a week in Vegas – for a five-digit sum.
Cash is involved, but Ani and Ivan develop genuine affection for one another, leading to an impromptu marriage while in Sin City. But what happens in Vegas can never stay there. When news of the wedding reaches Ivan’s parents overseas, three mismatched lackeys (Yura Borisov, Vache Tovmasyan and Baker regular Karren Karagulian) are tasked with ensuring that the marriage gets annulled; Madison shines the brightest but the whole ensemble is uniformly excellent.
Through the manic, surprising odyssey that follows (recalling the great humanist Jonathan Demme’s similarly screwball-influenced Something Wild), a compelling theme that emerges is that of growing class solidarity – between those forced to pick up the pieces when the privileged uncaringly drop their latest fascinations on a whim to preserve the status quo. As Blondie’s Debbie Harry sings in the film’s trailer, 'Dreaming is free', and it's the manifestation of those dreams that always costs those born without a silver spoon in their mouth.
Released 1 Nov by Universal; certificate 18