Just a Girl Named ANORA
Anora, Anora, Anora. What. A. Movie. I just got back from the theater and felt that I needed to get this out. So if you didn’t know, Sean Baker’s Anora was released into theaters just a bit ago after winning the Palme d’Or back in May. I have been excited for this one since I first saw the trailer earlier this year. Once I saw the NEON logo, I figured I was probably in. Then I saw Mikey Madison was starring and Sean Baker was directing… and I knew I was definitely in.
After avoiding reading anything about it and seeing any extended trailers, my lady and I went to see it. Sean Baker has a very simple and effective film style. To be clear, I don’t mean simple in any sort of negative way, but more in the sense that he makes the movie feel unlike a movie – his films are more like you are following people around and before you know it, you have seen and felt some very real feeling things and the movie is over. He really does this well in all of his films I’ve seen: The Florida Project, Red Rocket, and Tangerine. I had slept on Tangerine for a long time and recently finally watched it – I found that it is quite an experience, to say the least. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a film that transports you into the realm of sex work with real life people who have worked the streets and whom Sean had recruited to act in his movie. The movie feels completely real. In fact, despite having no experience in any of the sort, I felt like I was there watching everything unfold.
Baker has built on the theme of sex work in each release following Tangerine back in 2015. I relate his transformation a lot to how I feel the Safdie brothers built even from Good Times to the unbelievable Uncut Gems. There’s a gritty, street feeling; like a Mondo, boots on the ground, reporting vibe to what Baker does – a very different vibe to what the Safdies have done with their movies. But, with bigger budgets, Baker’s movies – like the Safdies – grow in size, while still keeping you grounded in the reality of the story.
To shift focus back to Anora, this is a movie about a stripper named Anora from Brooklyn, who goes by Ani, played by the wonderful Mikey Madison (who I love in Scream 2022, especially in the fantastic kitchen scene, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood). The movie follows Baker’s simple formula in that its focus is directly on her, her job, and what goes on behind the scenes. Her life changes very quickly and she is transported into what some might consider a dream and others a perpetual nightmare.
The movie begin as a teenage boy’s fantasy. Strip club, strippers, sex, parties, mansions, money… you get the point. Ani speaks Russian and is introduced to Vanya, the son of a very powerful and wealthy Russian business man. They immediately hit it off. He has money. She is spectacular. But there is a sense of innocence that comes with Vanya in a way that feels like a new spin on True Romance (probably my favorite movie of all time) where we get an atypical relationship spawning from an unsuspecting encounter where love just usually doesn’t form.
From the trailer, we already know that these two are getting married and true to the trailer, they do just that. Leading to that, these two really click fast and have a lot – and I mean A LOT – of sex. There remains an air of blissful innocence from these two that keeps you into what they have going on. He hires her to come to his house (read: MANSION) and eventually offers her 15K to stay with him for a week. The week becomes to be a blur of wild nights and endless partying leading them in Vegas where he suggests that he propose to her so that he can stay in America and not go back to Russia. Obviously, they both think this is a great idea and they get married right there in Vegas.
That’s roughly the first third of the movie, but what follows is just pure insanity… in the most fun way possible.
They do not tell Vanya’s parents about the wedding – which immediately feels like a problem and soon becomes a huge problem. Toros, the assigned assigned handler for Vanya when in the states, and his two henchman are sent to find the merit of the wedding, provide proof, and then forcibly have the wedding annulled. Obviously, this does not go as planned and what ensues is a race through the city to get these two newly weds to a court house in front of a judge and get their marriage annulled. That is where I will leave you with the plot and you enjoy the wild ride yourself.
One highlight is the fresh take on the heavies that come to take care of business. Karen Karagulian (whom you may know from Tangerine) plays Toros, who is terrified of what will happen to him if he fails. In fact, he’s so worried that he leaves in the middle of a baptism to handle the situation. Yura Borisov and Vache Tovmasyan play his men, Igor and Garnick, who are simply hilarious to watch as they botch what would seem to be a very easy job for their normal day-to-day.
Avoiding spoilers, I can’t get fully into the details as to why, but the Igor character really grew on me as the movie unfolded. He may be the most straight shooting, mob heavy with a heart of gold put to film. Borisov is probably, behind Mikey as the lead of course, my favorite performer in the movie.
As he continues to excel in his reality based filmmaking, Baker really drops you into the late night New York night life scene perfectly. He finds a way to mix in Russian-American culture, the day-to-day of a stripper’s life, and endless streams of partying and gambling (all things I have literally no concept of myself) – he makes you feel like you are right there with the characters. As noted before, his movies continue to grow in size with production quality and budget, but he keeps you right there on the front line – seeing what he sees, through his eyes.
Mikey crushes as Ani. Absolutely crushes. She transports you into her world – where she has fast quips, moves hard, and is strictly business. Through it all, you can still see that she has an underlying desire to just be loved. She fully sends her performance, but in such a natural feeling way. It makes you feel like you could know her in real life and she’s just walking you through the most wild story imaginable. I am excited to see what she does next – but for now, she is killing it and I continue to be impressed with her growth as an actor.
All in all, this is a contender for the top movies of the year for me. I mean it won the Palme d’Or, so you shouldn’t even need to read what I have to say to go see it. NEON continues to impress me as well – already having dropped Immaculate, Longlegs, and Cuckoo this year. Now, they add Anora to this impressive list and look to continue their streak with The Monkey coming out early next year. Beyond just NEON, this has been a great year for movies, so it means a lot when I say that this is up there towards the top of my list.
Go see this. And if you haven’t checked out Sean Baker’s other work, go watch Tangerine. Go watch Red Rocket. Go watch The Florida Project. I know I’ll be deep diving his earlier work now and can’t wait to run this one back, perhaps reflecting on it again in a future piece. For now, just stop what you’re doing and go see Anora.
