Anora was not what I expected, I thought it was going to be a screwball comedy’ which is what most likely would have appeared if real people to be doing this review. However, after a pleasantly shocking narrative in Pretty Woman meets Anora as envisioned by Sean Baker, the filmmaker directs his movie into quite an extended phase of warped comedy. In the climax, he wraps everything into a narrative structure looking back at the elements mostly based on drama, this is how Anora ends, drama where surprises, big or small, are gone, however, Mikey Madison’s impressive performance will definitely hold it all together.
Madison is impressive as Anora “Ani” Mikheeva, a cold hearted stripper who lives in Brooklyn and works in a high class club located in Manhattan. Madison has really got the accent down and the attitude of someone struggling to make ends meet in Ani’s world. The character is loud and in your face and does not give a damn about anyone including her colleagues, every opportunity is a chance to make money. First and foremost, Madison is an exotic dancer, and she has no issues with filming naked for the first 45 minutes of the film, even stating that she was so comfortable with the intimacy provided by Baker and Mark Eydelshteyn that she didn’t need an intimacy coordinator. How would you explain this to the general public? It is also said that during the middle scenes of the film, Madison bears the ability to pull off some really good comedic action. But it is during the very last scene where even I am left in awe.
In the film Anora, Baker is able to craft a sense of reality through his skillful one-client perspective cinematography. He takes us back stage at Anora’s strip club, where Anora works, and shows us the dancers’ perspective of the work they do. The talk is no different than those uttered by waitresses who serve food in restaurants, or the showgirls who entertain in theaters. It is a job. They are trained to perform it and they have learned how to break the rules tactfully in order to increase their tips. Enora doesn’t like to emphasize her side activities (outside the club business), but she does claim that she does not make any money in this way because she is not a cheap person and doesn’t consider herself a woman that sells her body. In fact, she refuses to be called “a whore” or “a hooker” and there is proof to the latter.
The tension in the narrative climbs a notch when Anora’s flat and fortunes are introduced, as they almost begin to take a turn for the better at that moment. During an introduction made by the club owner, she gets acquainted with Vanya. Vanya, who is the son of a Russian oligarch is a pampered brat who only wishes to have a female companion that speaks Russian and engages him in casual fun. Vanya however is fixated on Anora and gets angry since she was only able to speak Russian once. Vanya requests her to meet at his Palace, cutting to the chase, and shortly after both of them are signing a contract, where Anora agreed to be his live-in and monogamous ‘girlfriend’ for the amount of $15,000 over the duration of a week. Somewhere along the lines of their relationship, Vanya without thinking getting down on one knee proposes Anora when they were taking a trip to Vegas. Seems like all was going according to plan up until they both arrived back in New York as husband and wife. As his family frantically tells him to take care of the situation brought up by his boss, this comes as a shock to Vanya’s onboard Armenian support staff, Toros. Vanya’s henchmen Igor and Garnick weren’t able to help much either as Vanya burst out in anger and embarrassment and was then turned into a coward and started running about. All of these events leave Anora to face the three stooges by herself.
The departure of Vanya signifies the transformation of tone from the light-hearted loveplay of the couple to the amusing situations involving Anora and her three captors. This is reminiscent of O. Henry’s “Ransom of Red Chief,” in which he presents a victim such that the captors lose control over him. Although this episode perhaps goes on for a touch too long (the movie as a whole seems overly lengthy and in need of culling; particularly the third act), there are darkly amusing incidents as well as laughable laughter providing humor. The bystanders are not very intimidating and Anora never seems threatened. In the last 40 minutes of the film, Anora then undergoes a relatively easier analysis focusing on the aftermath of the event to the Baker but still shifts her concerns to the effect on Ani.
In 2017, when Baker was on a roll with The Florida Project on an international level, it surprised me how captivating such a small scale and vice versa simple production could be. I wrote the following: “The Florida Project has a holistic feeling, in terms of its underlying message, it has all the rawness of a complete picture and Baker does not in any way feel inclined to take a detour through the Hollywood avenue, even when there are many chances to indulge.” Some of those same qualities are evident in Anora. Handheld shots were employed but of a far less aggressive sort, and with a preference for long shots, Baker on the other hand uses a rough, close up shot style which is appropriate for the particular tale as a whole which is best referred to as a perverse taking of a fairy tale. He also handles tonal shifts and story elements which would ruin one more project, but are give forward the other here.
Anora has indeed proven to receive praise from critics and even average movie audiences but only if they are given a chance to watch it. (I watched it on its local premiere and about 12 people were in attendance.) The movie earned the Golden Palm prize at the Cannes Film Festival and then won the Audience Award at the Toronto Festival, and now has a 91 score (Universal Acclaim) at Metacritic. But getting the film’s message out to the public has been a challenge for NEON. The essential aspects of the film don’t fit in a two-minute cut and out of order release plans has made available some of the viewers to be confused as to when the film will be released in their local cinemas. Hopefully the film will be successful since it has one of the boldest and most unique approaches for a film this year, which is a welcome breath of fresh air in an otherwise dull slate of movies this year.
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