FILM REVIEW: Anora

It is difficult to make something that is so complex seem really easy. Look at Olympic athletes. Watching them on TV, we scream as if we could replace them on a whim if need be. In reality, it takes years of dedication and mastery of their craft to even qualify for such events. Anora feels the same. A simple night with a stripper turns into something so much more and in so many different genres, all handled with matured direction under Sean Baker.

Anora is the one to beat at next year’s Oscars. Every element comes together with strength and clarity. It is led with the emotional heft and grace of its lead Mikey Madison.

We are first introduced to Ani at her job in an NYC strip club. Baker is particularly interested in physical labor and introduces this atmosphere as if you were walking through a blue-collar factory. It is a place where people go to work. This allows us, the audience, to evoke empathy towards something we can all relate to: the routine “grind” of work. It is one of my favorite traits of a Sean Baker film, and it is used very well here. Ani eventually meets a new client, Ivan. He is charming, she is taken by that charm. We discover he is a part of a prominent Russian family so he uses his time in Brooklyn as a vacation away from home.

Ivan becomes smitten with Ani (to say the least) and they eventually decide to get married in Vegas. This is the American Way, according to Ivan. We become enamored with their relationship and of course want what is best for them. Obviously that that cannot be the case. Ivan’s family has no idea he is married, so to check in on him they have their security man Toros (Karren Karagulian) and two of his own men (including a remarkable Yuri Borisov as Igor) visit the house in Brighton Beach. All goes to hilarious hell, and Ivan runs away. His marriage with Ani comes back into question as she and these other men travel all around NYC to find this (basically) child. It is a roller coaster ride of emotions (S/O to the Cyclone standing mighty in the backdrop of one shot sequence), but what a ride.

When discussing the film with my friend Zack, he told me that this film reminded him of Parasite. Accurate. The difficulty of jumping from one genre (romance) to another (sitcom?) then back cannot be stressed any more. Baker, along with his production team, have honed their storytelling skills from previous films into something that feels like such a positive step for them in their careers. This is a romance, comedy, history, drama and a lot of other genres wrapped into one. Each genre adding a layer that pays off so well in the final moments. We as an audience do not realize we are holding our emotions in with Ani until her final moment of “release” onto Igor. It accents everything this film is trying to do. A strong dismount that sticks the landing to an even stronger film.