Anora (2024)

Directed by Sean Baker

Spine #1259

“ I don’t have Instagram. I’m an adult, man.”

Anora, the 2024 Oscar award winning film from Sean Baker opens unlike any film to have received the statue for Best Picture. The camera, slowly panning on a horizontal plane is under constant attack from the transfixing neon lights of a strip club VIP room, dancers captured in mid-thrust with nearly all bared in front of the lens until we reach our title character whose grinding ecstasy is punctuated by a cherry red title card announcing her name, ANORA. The color work is transfixing, with shades of bright red and blue fluctuating within the shadows of the club. Baker pulls his camera close to only focus on Anora’s face, lingering on expressions that switch between lustful fantasy for her client and bemused worker drone for herself. The rhythmic scene is backed by the blaring pop-synths of Greatest Day, a pulsating electronic track that should enter the hall of fame of opening title needle drops. Mikey Madison, who plays the titular Anora, or as she prefers Ani, imparts an incredible thesis in this opening scene that speaks to the tone of the entire film. She is a sex worker, and as such the film will inevitably titillate with the sexuality captured on-screen, but at the same time through a thread-the-needle balancing act, bare the emotions of everything life takes out of her. A balance Baker excels at throughout the entire film.  

There’s a reading that Anora is both a comedy and a tragedy, it may just depend on your mood or how often you’ve seen the film. On first watch, you are enraptured with the full-throated excitement of the first act, the humorous aspects of the second and the take-down of the characters in the final moments. However, on second viewing, all of that may go out the window with the familiarity of the story and lack of surprise, allowing re-evaluation on how terrifying and sad Ani’s broken fairytale truly is. Like many a great film, it lies somewhere in between, which is a testament to both the script and the performances, granting rewards on multiple screenings and constant observational takeaways. In many ways the film acts as a drug induced night of fun, a bump that takes you to instant highs followed by a drugged out wander through the night and a terrible hangover that comes when the sun rises.

Anora is the heartbreaking tale of Anora Mikheeva, who specifically would like to be referred to as Ani. Ani is a 23-year-old stripper and sometime escort, if the money is right, from Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Her life seems to change overnight when she is called over to play hostess to Ivan Zakharov, the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch because she can speak a bit of Russian. Ani and Ivan hit it off quite well in the VIP room and he wants a bit more personal and private attention at his home. Ani is in awe of her visit to Ivan mansion, as the camera shoots her arrival upward from the ground, giving the mansion a sense of grandeur. Along with the view and splendor inside, the lens rotates around Madison as she takes it all in, it truly is a fairytale come true. “There’s an elevata, a fuckin elevata!” But Ivan is a manchild, who can’t take care of anything himself, coming across initially as nerdy charming but slowly showing his immaturity as he constantly plays video games and throws tantrums. During this prolonged meet-cute, Mikey Madison displays absolute fearlessness in playing Ani. Outside of the club, most of the action takes place during the day, and there are no places to hide in the shadows as she delivers a striptease unlike any other, with the light exposing all while delicately capturing the glittery rainbow threads in her hair. The couples exciting fling culminates with an impromptu trip to Vegas that leads to Ivan asking Ani to marry him.

It’s unclear if Ani truly cares for Ivan, something the viewer will have to interpret on their own. Does she hold on to him to get out of her current life status? She always treats him the same as she does her other “clients” at the beginning, and only after the trouble starts does she express any worry about him. He even asks her post coitus in Vegas, “will you miss me or my money,” she outright says your money. Ani’s practically daring him to ask her to marry her, perhaps seizing the moment that’s in front of her. After she returns she expresses her desire to get married at Disney World, “just like fucking Cinderella,” to her friends at the club as she cheerfully leaves for what she thinks is the last time, perhaps foreshadowing how plastic the façade truly is.

In the end, Ivan ends up treating her no differently than all the others employed to take care of him, a transactional interaction despite the time spent together or any care she provides to him. When it all comes down it happens instantaneously. Word of the happy couple’s nuptials reach Ivan’s parents in Russia, kicking off a black comedy second act shakedown led by Ivan’s godfather Toros and his hench men Garnik and Igor who try everything in their power to get the marriage annulled. Because this team of goofs are missing Ivan, who ran away in his boxer shorts, the crew must depart on an all-night search for Ani’s bender riding husband across Brighton Beach with plenty of comedic sprinkles like the running gag of Garnik having a broken nose and probably a concussion, slowly getting worse as the night goes on. Eventually Ivan is found, ironically in the same club he met Ani, flirting with her nemesis. Unfortunately, the next day, in front of a judge not amused by the situation it comes to everyone’s attention the annulment must take place back in Vegas. Ivan’s parents are brought in to make sure everything is taken care of and take their wayward son home. A final standoff is had at the foot of a private jet between Ivan and Ani, who to this point still believes if they stand firm no one can take away their love, but Ivan crumbles in in front of his demanding mother telling her it was all a joke.

Does Ivan ever think it’s something serious? Maybe, hoping if he marries an American his parents will get off his back for just a little longer before he must grow up. But they call his bluff, and it takes all of 2 seconds for him to get in line. Ani was always a transaction to him. It appears there was never any love between the two other than lust by him, financial security for her. Even the quick montage when they return married from Vegas before everything comes crashing down feels like two kids playing house rather than a loving partnership. Back to his video game, she’s finally opening to him about her life, but he’s more concerned with his Call of Duty mission and deflecting whether he’s told his parents about her.

After all the chaos, Anora ends with true tenderness thanks to the performance of Yura Borisov who plays Igor. Throughout the escapades, Igor, as Ani’s captor is always trying to treat her with compassion and respect, only putting hands on her when commanded to. The way he observes Ani interacting with Ivan’s mother, feeling every barb that is used to demean her. Or how he looks at Ivan as he breaks the news to Ani that all of it was an illusion. Borislov uses mere glances and body language to communicate the caring quality his character displays to Ani.

As Ani and Igor return to New York, the season has changed with snow heavily falling to the ground, reflecting the turning of a new chapter for Ani or perhaps to illustrate the coldness of how she’s been treated throughout the whole situation. After staying one last night at Ivan, or should we now call it his father’s mansion, Igor drives Ani back to her home giving her a small consolation prize of $10k for the trouble. Before departing Baker shoots both Ani and Igor’s faces looking directly at the camera when she is being dropped off. It’s an arresting moment that pulls you to the front of your seat. Having stollen the engagement ring, Igor gives it back to her. In return Ani kisses him and starts to engage in sex but eventually breaks down crying.

Is she having a human reaction to where she is left at the end of the film or is she reciprocating Igor the only way she knows how? Or rather is it because he is so tender with her, not really engaging with Ani other than looking directly into her eyes and wanting to kiss her for which she slapping/hitting him before collapsing Perhaps like the audience, he sympathizes in a way, seeing her directly, looking at her with caring eyes, knowing that so often this is the American dream, a constant brush with hope and a step up that ultimately is crushed by the wealthy and powerful with small consolations for the attempt.