As far as films gaining momentum this awards season, it’s been hard to ignore the hype surrounding Anora, Sean Baker’s latest, being billed as a “romantic comedy”. Like his previous films Red Rocket and The Florida Project, Anora focuses on a sex worker, this time the street smart New York stripper Anora (Mikey Madison), whose Russian speaking ability lands her in the company of Ivan “Vanya” Zakharov (Mark Eidelstein) a young playboy, who also just happens to be the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch. This fateful encounter has the young, rich, and rather stupid young man hiring Anora to keep him company for the holidays, to the tune of $10,000. It’s during a drug fueled trip to Vegas, where the two elope that’s the inciting incident that fuels the back half of the film, as Ivan flees leaving Anora with his Russian keepers, when he hears his parents are on their way to force an annulment.
There’s a weird dynamic at work in Anora, when it comes to the actual relationship at the core of the film, that kept me at arms length. I mean, besides the fact that piece is really only the first hour of the film. During their time together neither party is ever really vulnerable to the other – there’s never a heart to heart, there’s never a moment of real connection shared between the two. Baker makes it clear both sides are actively manipulating the other, either for financial gain or sex, and this fact colors or outright negates any emotional resonance the piece might gain, as the affair never progresses past a transactionary phase. This definitely hurts the back half, since both individuals are exposed for their motives – Anora desperately looking to find Ivan to preserve the marriage, and Ivan looking to avoid any actual consequence for marrying the sex worker in a clear act of rebellion and his fetishization American culture.
While some younger audience members might feel sympathetic or even identify with either Ivan or Anora, the pair will most certainly frustrate and confound anyone over 30, like myself. While this is the case, one performance is definitely worthy of the accolades as far as I am concerned. Mikey Madison is a revelation here, I previously just knew her as the girl who tended to get killed a lot in films. Here she manages to add some real dimension and illicit some authentic sympathy with her portrayal of the manipulative dancer. The rest of the cast definitely delivers an entertaining rogues gallery to surround her, they just aren’t that likable when all is said and done. No doubt, this is by design, but for those looking to leave after some kind of emotional or social development from either party, you’re going to leave the theater empty handed. This all while offering up a final few minutes that will further reduct its female protagonist to her base most state, in a scene that felt really adds insult to injury as she treats herself like currency one final time.
Pretty Woman, Anora is not.
The film is far too cynical, materialistic and obsessed with how far it can drag its audience along without any kind of growth or stakes for its characters, and that’s what made me wonder about just what about it is resonating with so many people. Awards hype aside, the film is indeed hilarious and easily one of Baker’s best, but like Red Rocket the super explicit vibe is going to alienate a good chunk of viewers, primarily non film bros. While some women may cheer Anora on for ‘getting that bag!’, it’s problematic and a little sad in that we primarily view her through Ivan’s infantilized and hyper-sexualized gaze. Coupled with some painfully awkward, by design sex scenes, the film lacks the kind of heart and emotion that managed to override the director’s fixations, which is what allowed The Florida Project to have the reach it did. So, while Anora is most definitely a good film in the critical sense. I can’t cosign the hype or suggest this as a date movie you’d expect from the trailer.
