Anora (2024)

Acclaimed independent filmmaker Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine) both wrote and directed this dramedy about a Brooklyn sex worker/exotic dancer named Ani (Mikey Madison) who one night meets a wealthy young Russian named Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn) at her club.  She dances for him and apparently they hit it off SO well that within a few days, they decide to get married in Vegas.  They soon return to Ivan's enormous waterfront mansion to begin married life when suddenly, some unexpected guests (Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Yura Borisov) come calling.  Well not exactly guests....they actually work for Ivan's father who is VERY powerful and none too pleased about his son getting impulsively married like this.  At the request of Ivan's father, they also begin to take steps towards ending this short-lived marriage....and needless to say, Ani has some things to say about that.  And from there, things just get crazier and crazier....

Ever since unexpectedly winning the highly prestigious "Palme d'Or" award back in May, this film has received a steady stream of acclaim and additional awards attention to the point where it is now considered one of the front-runners for this year's Oscar race, especially Mikey Madison (Once Upon a Day In Hollywood) who is very likely to win Best Actress at the Oscar's next year for a performance which has many convinced that she is on her way towards becoming a movie star!  Let see if it lives up to the hype...... 

Host & Editor: Geoff Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon
 

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Transcript

ANORA – 2024

Directed by Sean Baker

Starring Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Karren Karagulian, Yura Borisov, Vache Tovasyan, Lindsay Normington, Darya Ekamasova, Aleksey Serebryakov, Anton Bitter, Ivy Wolk, Emily Weider, and Luna Sofia Miranda

Genre: Comedy Drama (Audio clip)

Despite ALL of the awards and acclaim and hype which has been bestowed upon this movie as some sort of grand statement on post-feminism or late stage capitalism or our current class divide - none of this is the movie's fault mind you - my observation of it pretty simple: it's a very entertaining "One Crazy Night!" dramedy, that's it. :) It features a lot of good dialogue, some truly hysterical setpieces, several strong performances, location work (mostly around NY....Coney Island/Brighton Beach) which is stellar, and very adept direction from Sean Baker.

One Crazy Night movies like this have always been a weakness of mine....though technically this more of a "One Crazy Weekend" movie in the vein of Something Wild where the bulk of what makes it interesting feels as if it's occurring real-time within a truncated time frame. But yeah Something Wild, After Hours, Adventures in Babysitting, Dazed and Confused, the first third of Swingers, the middle third of Wonder Boys, most of the first act of Say Anything....The Warriors even, though that's a stretch but they share Coney Island locations. 😆 These are all great movies, we need more like them today as far as I'm concerned....the whole idea of one simple story focusing on a few select characters taking a unique journey featuring several unexpected twists along the way, with at least one major character coming out the other end a somewhat changed person in a generally tangible, believable way. You'll laugh, you'll cry....you might even learn something about yourself. ;) 

And in the case of Anora, that character IS Anora played with profane ferocity by Mikey Madison (Once Upon a Time In Hollywood) in a fantastic performance which I'm fairly certain will be winning her an Oscar next year. Her performance as a sharp-tongued exotic dancer/sex worker DOES live up to the hype for the most part. She goes through an undeniably intense emotional experience: she meets a new client at her club named Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn, also great with a very one note role, by design) who is a wealthy Russian citizen visiting the states.....they hit it off, fall in love (well not really), and get married PRETTY quickly. And then after just settling in at Ivan's absurdly palatial estate in Brooklyn, some extended members of Ivan's Russian family comes calling....and all hell breaks loose! :) (Though not quite as sinister as you would think either) You see Ivan comes from a VERY powerful Russian family and the folks in charge don't approve of this marriage....and they are determined to end it. 😮 And chaos ensues! 

It's a pretty straightforward premise and we meet several entertaining characters and pretty much all of the comedy and melodrama you could expect from such a story is successfully mined from it. In that way, it's very much like those other films I mentioned....HOWEVER, this movie is also easily a half hour longer than those other films. And therein lies the rub. 🙄 This thing tops at around 140 minutes and it simply does NOT need to be that long. The pacing is mostly frenetic for the first two thirds which serves the story well but then almost slows down to a grinding halt over the last twenty minutes....and that extra runtime just doesn't help matters. 

It's certainly not egregious enough to sink the movie IF you view this simple as a small-scale dramedy of manners....and what results is a very entertaining movie, nothing more nothing less. 

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

For a film set amidst so many unique locations – exotic dancing club, Russian oligarch’s waterfront mansion, Vegas casino, Coney Island candy shop, Brighton Beach diner – this movie has a surprisingly spare soundtrack with some dance music and/or hip hop sprinkled throughout.  There is but ONE song which stands out and I don’t think that’s by accident – we hear it at LEAST twice during the movie and most memorably, during a frenetic post-wedding montage of Anora and Ivan living it up as newlyweds.  There’s gambling, drinking, dancing, gaming, and yes….lots of sex.  It’s a fun, high-energy sequence which culminates with them celebrating on the balcony of Ivan’s waterfront home….as the camera pans away from them on the water, it all seems almost TOO good to be true as the song finishes triumphantly.   Oh what’s the song you say?  Why it’s from Manchester, England’s premiere boy band phenomenon of the ‘90’s TAKE THAT….though from a more recent album of theirs released in 2008, “Greatest Day.”  And it’s EXTREMELY catchy, it’s actually a dance-oriented remix of the title track….just the overall vibes it’s going for elicit feelings of….young love, how fitting!  (Audio clip)   

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):

It's clear what Baker was going for from a thematic and character standpoint....he's building up to a powerhouse ending and he has the talent involved (besides Madison, talented Russian actor Yura Borisov delivers a very compelling turn as would-be Russian enforcer Igor who seems to try to bond with Anora) to DELIVER this ending. But by belaboring every point in the lead-up to said ending, he weakens it as a result. :( And....just my observation....but as magnetic as Madison is - she's admittedly sexy, funny, she just DEVOURS the screen - Baker's screenplay undercuts her character's overall intelligence and sense of agency as the story progresses. Is Anora as a person pragmatic OR naive about what she expects from this ad-hoc marriage? The screenplay can't seem to decide and her character is just not given enough under the surface to clue us in.  So unfortunately for as beautifully executed so much of this film is by Sean Baker as director, it falls a bit thanks to Sean Baker the writer. 

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

The HIGHLY entertaining mid-section of this movie mostly consists of Anora herself on a bit of an ambling urban quest mostly through Brooklyn – with the previously mentioned Igor along with two close associates of Ivan’s extended Russian family including Torros played Karren Karagulian and Garnick played Vache Toymasyan. Both of these guys are actors I had not seen before and they are both FANTASTIC….well-dressed, very stressed out, and just playing off of each other AND against Madison beautifully.  It’s basically extended farce with them trying to both control Anora and figure out from her where to find Ivan, while she pushes back on them also trying to do the same….and it’s HYSTERICAL, so much memorable physical comedy especially when they first encounter her at Ivan’s mansion.  There’s an extended sequence involving screaming, profanity, some physical struggle, and LOTS of broken furniture and housewares….you keep fearing it’s going to cross this line of some brutal thug scrape-up from a Scorcese crime drama but it never gets that dark and through 90% of it, Anora seems to be in control.  Honestly describing it doesn’t do it justice but let’s just say it that KIND of compares to a scene from previous episode Ruthless People where Judge Reinhold has kidnapped Bette Midler….he’s got the gun and has brought her to his house, trying to get her in the basement but she’s just NOT having it….and chaos ensues!  This sequence in Anora is along those lines but more raw, though NO less funny. 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

At the end of the day, this movie belongs to its title character and the actress who plays that character.  Many have referred to hers as a “star-making” performance and I can see why.  You can’t take your eyes off of her and even though she’s playing a LOT of conflict here TO THE HILT, y0u still can’t help but root for her…..there are also several quiet scenes where the camera is just mainly focusing on her face where SO much of the heavy lifting is done.  This is someone who more often than not who is playing a part on and off the job….and it’s ALL geared towards her character’s survival.  

And to THAT point after the debacle which was last year's Poor Things, do we need to once again reward Best Actress to yet ANOTHER ingenue under 35 for a role where she's playing a sex worker and constantly taking off her clothes? 😠 Recognizing many of our best actresses mostly when they’re youngest, showing the most skin, and playing sex workers has just become SUCH a tired Hollywood trope at this point.  Well that's probably a different discussion for a different time. It's best to just enjoy her performance for what is: a tour-de-force of someone operating at least two levels of deception INCLUDING self-deception.  For carrying this film with one of the best performances of 2024, Mikey Madison is the MVP

Final Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 

If you're looking for a seminal work about sex, female objectification, class differences, etc....this is not that movie nor does it need to be despite ALL of the awards attention it has received. I haven't even seen that many new films this year though I can recall at least two (Challengers, The Substance) which are more successful at exploring those issues than this movie sorry. 🤔 At the end of the day, this doesn't even really have any more depth than the big '90's blockbuster it has often been playfully compared to...Pretty Woman. Overall it's a better movie but disappointingly, it's only marginally more modern in how it views prostitution...

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And that ends another SOO-MAS-SHED-SHEE review!