Anora Review – Bold, Daring, Strong Courageous Performances
- Details
- Category: Film
- Published on Monday, 30 December 2024 10:23
- Written by Janet Walker
Anora, from NEON, presents a twist on a modern Cinderella story, as a Brooklyn sex worker believes she has found her way out only to be bitch slapped into reality by her prince's wealthy controlling parents.
The film opens with a long introduction of a gentlemen's club, and we see Ani who, like a butterfly, moves from table to table introducing herself. Throughout this intro, we see the various methodologies the girls use to provide services for their male clientele, from table entertainment to the private VIP rooms. By the end of the introduction, we understood, we get it, she is a sex worker.
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Ani, played by Mikey Madison, who is of Russian decent, speaks Russian and is the hostess for a table of young, rich, Russians, living in America on their parent's wealth. Ivan, played by Mark Eydelshteyn, is looking for a good time, and soon, as Ani is the hostess they are ordering bottles of vodka, and takes a trip to the VIP rooms. When they are done, he tips her well, and she puts her number in his phone.
By the end of her shift it is the early morning hours, in Brighten Beach, Brooklyn, and enclave of Russian immigrants, and Ani, whose real name is Anora, is living with her sister. Later in the day, Ivan calls and he wants to see her again. She realizes she hit the jackpot when she sees his home is a waterfront mansion.
Ever the businesswoman each time he wants to see her, Ani increases the price. And Ivan apparently has no problem with paying. He wants a girlfriend for the week, he begins negotiations at 10K, she raises him to 15 and he agrees, the transaction is complete. She explains she would have done it for ten, he said he would have paid thirty.
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This is not business meetings and dinners, this is an escort for sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Whoever is bankrolling him doesn't care about the money, and he spends today like he would die tomorrow. Soon they are on a private jet to Vegas, and again we see when the hotel manager, played by Charles Jang, treats him with special courtesies, and that he is well-known.
After a night of sex, drugs, drinking, Ivan proposes and in a shotgun wedding at a Las Vegas chapel they tie the knot. He seals the deal with a four-carat diamond, and she believes she is set for life, and as there was no prenup she can manage, if it isn't.
This is when the film shifts, and we meet the two men Ivan's parents, Nikolao and Galina Zakharov, played by Aleksey Serebryakov and Darya Ekamasova, have on the ground in Brighten Beach watching him, a Russian Orthodox Priest, Toros, played by Karren Karagulian, and his brother, Garnik, played by Vache Tovmasyan. The pair are ordered to visit Ivan, so they bring along a third person, Igor, played by Yura Borisov to confirm if Ivan really got married as the news traveled back to Russia and was reported that he married a hooker.
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The three men really have no idea what they were walking into when they went to Ivan's mansion. When Ivan finds out his parents are on their way to the U.S. he runs, bolts out of the house, leaving Ani with the two men. They take a picture of the marriage license and send it to the Toros who is the middle of an infant baptism. He is so concerned that he leaves the ceremony.
By this time, Ani, a Brooklyn girl at heart, has already broken Garnik's nose, and destroyed the living room, as she is fighting off the second man, Igor, and he is trying to subdue her, without hurting her, and she is panicking, the situation is escalating quickly. Then the Toros arrives, the living room is destroyed, his brother, Garnik, is mending his broken nose, Ani's hands are tied with the phone cord, and Igor has wrapped his arms around her to stop her from fighting.
Toros explains that tomorrow they will appear in New York State court and have the marriage annulled, and has the priest is making it up as he goes, he explains this is a green card marriage, and she will be paid, ten thousand dollars for her trouble.
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These scenes begin the second and third acts of the film. Anora has garnered much critical acclaim. Both Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov have received Film Independent Spirit Award nominations, and critics on both coasts have remarked on the performances. Sean Baker, the director, has also received a nomination.
I felt I had to sanitize my mind after watching the film. The first act is held together by frequent sex scenes, nearly one every three to four minutes which to me sends a distinct message, and not one that I endorse, and also says the script is weak, and maybe that's the double-speak, there is nothing to hold the relationship, and wimpy prince bolts. The gratuitous nudity is exploitative, and not necessary, and as Sean Baker manages both director and editor roles, his personal tastes are directly reflected, as the story could have survived without all the raunch. Mikey Madison manages these scenes courageously. After the first act of the film Anora turns to the comical effort of the men to find the heir to this Russian Oligarch whom they fear.
Anora is the antithesis of the Cinderella story and spirals out of control, and somehow manages to erase the first act of the film before smacking the audience right back into an ugly truth of modern existence, all relationships are transactional, live, know it, understand it and figure out how to work it to your advantage.
Anora is in wide release. Skip it until streaming.
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Country: U.S.
Language: English, Russian with Subtitles.
Runtime: 139 minutes.
Director: Sean Baker.
Producer: Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan.
Executive Producer: Glen Basner, Alison Cohen, Ken Meyer, Clay Pecorin, Milan Popelka.
Writer: Sean Baker.
Cast: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Yura Borisov, Lindsey Normington, Emily Weider, Paul Weissman, Brittany Rodriguez, Luna Sofia Miranda, Charles Jang, Darya Ekamasova, Aleksey Serebryakov, Artyom Trubnikov, Michael Sergio, Charlton Lamar, Mickey O'Hagan.
Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade. A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays, "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She is completing the non-fiction narrative, "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," which is expected to be released in early 2025. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a former member of the International Federation of Journalists.
