Certificate: TBC

Running Time: 139 mins

UK Distributor: Universal Pictures

UK Release Date: 1 November 2024

REVIEWED AT TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2024

WHO’S IN ANORA?

Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Aleksei Serebryakov, Darya Ekamasova, Lindsey Normington, Ivy Wolk, Luna Sofía Miranda, Alena Gurevich

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Sean Baker (director, writer, producer, editor), Alex Coco and Samantha Quan (producers), Drew Daniels (cinematographer)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A New York sex worker (Madison) becomes involved with a young Russian man (Eydelshteyn)…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON ANORA?

Sean Baker has spent his whole career telling stories about underrepresented people in society, chief among them sex workers. Films like Tangerine, Red Rocket and Starlet have set out to remove some of the stigma surrounding the line of work that prostitutes, strippers, porn stars and the like all face within a society that refuses to take them seriously. Because of that, much of his filmography remains fairly inaccessible to wider audiences, which is a great shame as well as a hypocritical one, since we all tend to indulge in the services of his maligned subjects more often than we’d care to publicly admit.

With Anora, his eighth and most profound feature to date, Baker has finally managed to make something that everyone can enjoy, while still allowing sex workers the time and space they deserve to be as best represented as they can. The result is a funny, heart-pounding, and deeply human portrayal of a chaotic episode in a world that is surely filled with nothing but chaos, and a genuine crowd-pleaser that isn’t afraid to go the full Cinderella in its grounded wish-fulfilment storytelling.

The film’s titular character – portrayed by Mikey Madison – prefers to go by “Ani”, a dancer at a New York strip club who regularly bares all and grinds on the laps of her largely satisfied customers. During one shift, she meets a young and obscenely wealthy Russian man known as Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), and their initial tryst soon evolves into a regular hook-up at his lavish mansion, which soon leads to him offering her $10,000 to be his exclusive girlfriend for the week; the hustler that she is, Ani accepts for an additional $5k. Eventually, whilst on a Las Vegas getaway, Vanya makes a bedside proposal that leads to the two of them getting swiftly hitched at a downtown chapel, an elopement that sends airwaves through Vanya’s influential family, who dispatches the young man’s godfather Toros (Karren Karagulian) and thugs Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov) to force an equally swift annulment.

For its first half, Anora takes considerable steps to neither condemn nor mock the trade in which its titular character works in, and instead depicts it as a formidable power play that she is fully comfortable with using. When we meet her – during an alluring opening credits montage set to a thumping remix of Take That’s “Greatest Day” – Ani radiates confidence and charm, playing up her sweetness to attract potential customers, and once alone with them asserts full control under the careful illusion that they’re the ones with the power. Even when she digs her nails into Vanya, who is by all accounts a spoiled man-child who carelessly splashes his parents’ money on anything and anyone he desires, she knows when to step away and put her own interests before those of her client, retaining her agency while still delivering exactly what he wants. For someone like Ani, sex work isn’t necessarily a means to an end, but a powerful tool to further their own path without someone stepping in to take them away from it all.

Something similar can be said about the protagonists in many of Baker’s other films, which similarly offer a humanist perspective on the world of sex-based professionals, but with Anora the filmmaker has found a way to convey all of that in a narrative that is much easier for general audiences to absorb. Comparisons to Pretty Woman are inevitable, but there is some truth to it because, like that film, the film functions as a pleasing romance between two people from very different backgrounds, who initially come together (ahem) for a purely transactional relationship until it inevitably becomes something more. Up to a point, you are firmly rooting for these two to end up together, for their chemistry is more than apparent, and there is also something boyishly charming about how young Vanya, as reckless and typical rich-kid obnoxious as can be, giddily welcomes his new special friend into his far-from-humble lifestyle, which Mark Eydelshteyn performs with such joy that you often can’t help but smile at this privileged little monster.

Mikey Madison, meanwhile, is the core reason why so much of it works at all. The actor completely commands your attention in a fantastic lead turn that sees her operating on all cylinders to deliver a profane and passionate performance that refuses to dial itself down, especially when things take a tense turn in its second half. It is here, when it becomes a stressful but humorous farce by way of Uncut Gems crossed with Martin Scorsese’s After Hours, that Madison takes her established charisma and fiery delivery to extreme new heights, forming unexpected new bonds and encountering more than a few obstacles with unfiltered ferocity which she never sacrifices, even at her lowest moments. As much as Pretty Woman made Julia Roberts the star she is today, expect history to be repeated with Mikey Madison, for she deserves so much credit for breathing further life into a character that would have been so easy to get wrong under a different performer, or even a filmmaker without as much compassion and generosity as Baker.

At the risk of parroting nearly every other critic out there, Anora is a masterpiece of tension, humour and humanity, particularly for a line of work that deserves more respect than it is currently receiving. Sean Baker has made something truly special here, and you’d be foolish to miss out on it, especially if you’re the least bit apprehensive towards sex in all its glory.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Anora is a crowd-pleasing masterpiece of tension, humour and humanity, with filmmaker Sean Baker presenting his most accessible advocation for sex work to date that is livened by a magnificent lead turn by Mikey Madison.

It’s too early for cinema showtimes, but click here to stay updated!