Anora
“Anora” is a film that feels very unexpected, and yet, by the end I’m not sure if you can call anything it does unexpected, save for the final scene. It very much keeps us in the perspective of its main character, Ani (played by Mikey Madison), a sex worker whose time with the son of a Russian oligarch leads to a premise very much out of romantic comedies, but played for tragedy and dark humor. We can see early on how this will likely play out for her, but that doesn’t mean how it impacts her is any less surprising. Writer-director Sean Baker isn’t looking to play towards cliches; he’s playing towards honesty of characters, and that is what we leave the film thinking about.
Baker does not sugarcoat sex work as we meet Ani, and see her work at HQ in New York. We see her down a line giving lap dances to men separated by partitions; making small talk in the bar at the club; working the pole; and then- every once in a while- going to a private room. When she’s introduced to Ivan (Mark Eidelshtein), the oligarch’s son, it’s because she has a passing ability to speak Russian. He asks for her at the club a few times, then asks for some off site time, then a week as his girlfriend, culminating in a Vegas trip, and a shotgun wedding. When word gets back to Ivan’s parents in Russia, the honeymoon is very much over.
We can probably figure out that this “Pretty Woman” scenario is not going to have a happy ending when Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov), two local Armenian friends of Ivan’s family, come to confront Ivan and Ani, and confirm the marriage is legit, and it’s not long before it’s just Ani, Garnick and Igor in the house. At this point, Ani is trapped, but she definitely fends for herself. By the time Toros (Karren Karagulian), Ivan’s ultimate caretaker in the States, makes his way to the house, Garnick and Igor both have bruises. They then make their way through the city, trying to find Ivan, in time to get to the courthouse in the morning, and an annulment.
Baker has a lot of ideas juggling in the air with “Anora.” There’s the initial “Pretty Woman” riff he creates in this seeming fairy tale love story, but as the film progresses, the fairy tale fades, and Ani- an unreliable narrator, of sorts, to Toros and Garnick because of her work- is left in survival mode, advocating for hers and Ivan’s love, all the while left wondering if Toros and Garnick are being truthful about what they say about Ivan. Seemingly going along for the ride is Igor, who is basically the muscle in this situation. As we follow the quartet through the city, however, some interesting dynamics come into play that make us feel Baker’s ideas of the true nature of Ani’s love life snap into focus.
Madison is best known for her turns in “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” and “Scream” (2022), but as Ani, she is on a different level entirely. With Ivan, she gradually lets her guard down, allows him more personal time, culminating in the positively dizzy scene on the Vegas strip after they are married; her ecstasy is palpable, even as we see how their life together gradually unfolds, alternating between sex and Ivan playing video games. She has agency, she has toughness, and she also shows vulnerability. It’s a fantastic performance. As Ivan, Eidelshtein is hilarious as a son who’s had no responsibilities his entire life, and doesn’t want that to change anytime soon. He sees Ani as another outlet for his lack of responsibility in life, and when he leaves the house that day, it’s another example of him abdicating any sense of responsibility in life. The performance most people will be shocked by after the film, however, is Borisov as Igor. We initially feel like we have this character pegged down when he and Garnick get to the house- a bit dim, just there trying to do a job and not get in too deep- but as this long day progresses, we start to feel something more about this character, and by the end, it’s just he and Ani. He understands responsibility in a way Ivan may never, and in the moment, that’s what Ani needs. Their final scene hits us like a brick to the face with how these characters let their guard down, and show that caring for someone else, and feeling something in life, is what matters most. “Anora” asks us to strip away our preconceived notions of these characters, and their lives, and see who they truly are. That impacted me profoundly.
