Mikey Madison in Sean Baker's Anora, which premiered in competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
Anora starts as a kinetic gallivanting-through-New York romp before giving way to a deeply empathetic portrait of a woman on the fringe. With a star-is-born performance by Mikey Madison and an imminently refreshing direction by Sean Baker that toes a tonal line between comedy and drama, Anora is the best of the year.
❖ Best of 2024
Anora premiered in competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Neon will distribute.
After all the roaring debauchery and chaotic slapstick-like comedy in this grittier and meaner sendup of Pretty Woman, the final scenes of Anora are surprisingly quiet. Just two characters occupying the same space saying anything but addressing the tension occupying the room around them—and after the night they had that's understandable. Then, finally, something breaks and we're left stunned not because of the shock but because of the catharsis.
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That's often how auteur Sean Baker's films end. After moments of joy and sadness and laughs and pain he allows us, and his characters, one final exhale. If the first two hours of Anora's surprisingly robust 140-minute runtime—surprising because it goes by in a flash—make it a great movie, then the final ten minutes—the exhale—make it the best movie of the year. Even more, it is a masterpiece.
That's a word that has been thrown around haphazardly, but in the case of Baker it is most apt. After four films that each seemed to build in quality and assuredness, Anora feels like the culmination. It is a perfection of the darkly comedic exploration of human pathos he's been building his entire career.
Baker's fascination has always lied with people on the fringes of society particularly exploring the dignity of sex work—Tangerine and Red Rocket, specifically. Here we follow Anora (Mikey Madison), who insists on being called Ani, an exotic dancer at a high-end strip club in midtown Manhattan—her thick Queens accent made me feel like I was back home even while sitting in the premiere screening at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival where the movie is competing for the Palme d'Or. Her flirtatious attitude mixed with an admirable tenacity reminded me of Maris Tomei's Oscar-winning performance in My Cousin Vinny (if you know you know).
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As she hustles from patron to patron giving a lap dance here and flirty banter there, one thing is certain, she is good at her job. So good that her boss pulls her for a special assignment looking after the young son of a Russian oligarch called Ivan (Mark Eidelstein)—when asked about his father he simply says, “Google him.” It doesn't hurt that Ani can speak Russian, though she prefers to respond in English. Whether it's because she doesn't think her Russian is strong enough or some other reason isn't immediately apparent, like many things about her.
After a particularly salacious private room session, Ivan invites Ani to his Brighton Beach mansion for more time together—off the clock but still paid. In the dark neon lighting of the club, Ivan came off like a man. However, in the bright sunlight of the window-lined mansion, he looks every bit as much as the kid he is. Eidelstein, with a tall and lanky frame and a spate of black curls that evokes a Timothée Chalamet-Troye Sivan hybrid, plays Ivan with a perfectly measured dweebish physicality that tells you exactly who he is: a spoiled rich kid that was never asked to grow up—and doesn't want to. His broken English mixed with Russian is essentially a mix of “fuck yeah” and requests for more alcohol.
That's juxtaposed against Anora's easy self-assuredness cut with a Queens attitude. Even though she's just two years older than him, it's clear that circumstances have helped toughen her to the world. Their interactions have the flow and charm of the best romantic comedies, even if most of it is just posturing. Ivan offers Ani $10k to be his “girlfriend” for a week. She promptly asks for $15k, which he agrees to (though he quickly chides he would've given her $30k). After the raucous week and particularly eye-opening sex scene where Ani teaches Ivan the pleasure of restraint, the pair marry in a kitschy Vegas wedding.
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The movie's first hour is a kinetic gallivanting-through-New York romp. The pair hops from Ivan's mansion to Coney Island to Vegas with an irresistible fast-paced tempo driven by Madison and Eidelstein's charming performances. You could live in the movie's world for hours, but when Bake switches up the tempo it is also a welcome shift.
When Ivan's parents find out about the pair's nuptials, they sick no-nonsense Toros (Karren Karagulian) and his cronies snarky oft-injured Garnick (Vache Tovmaysa) and sensitive Igor (Yura Borisov) on the couple. The momentum never ceases, but the subversive romantic comedy transforms into a quasi-chase thriller mixed with a dark slapstick comedy (think Home Alone) that is as delightful as the first part in its unique way. Like when Ani breaks Garnick's nose and is promptly tied up with a telephone wire by Igor, Toros walks in and questions, “Why did you tie her up?” “She's dangerous,” Garnick quips.
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The madcap energy draws comparisons to The Safdie Brother's Good Time or Uncut Gems. Even if the story has grit and bleakness, the series of unfortunate events is devilishly enjoyable to watch unfold. Part of that is because of Baker's direction that toes a tonal line between comedy and drama that is imminently refreshing. The other is Madison's performance, which feels like a Hollywood star being born before out eyes. Her charisma holds your attention for every frame she is on screen while her voracity converts you into a fanatic.
But let's return to the final scenes of Anora, which elevate the film to a masterpiece. Reflecting on the entire movie in the context of these surprising final moments adds a layer of complexity that makes every element even more impressive, especially the performances of Madison and Borisov. While melancholy is woven into the fabric of all of Baker's films, in Anora, he conceals it until the end, revealing its presence only then. This artistic sleight of hand makes Anora one of the year's best films and guarantees you won't forget Mikey Madison's unforgettable star turn.
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Hey! I'm Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I'm also a Tomatometer-approved critic.
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