REVIEW: Anora [2024]

Rating: R | Runtime: 139 minutes
Release Date: October 18th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Neon
Director(s): Sean Baker
Writer(s): Sean Baker

I woulda done it for ten.

When Ani (Mikey Madison) starts gushing to her friend about planning a honeymoon in Disney World post-shotgun wedding, her BFF knows exactly which suite she’d target: Cinderella. It’s an apt guess regardless of it being Ani’s favorite character since Sean Baker’s Anora plays similarly to that Greek folk tale turned Grimm Brothers bedtime story turned Disney classic. The difference here, however, is that her Prince Charming isn’t interested in finding his girl from the pumpkin. He’s not even interested in his kingdom beyond the riches it provides. So, when the clock strikes midnight, it’s Ani who must search for him.

Baker’s films often have an air of fantasy to them, but they always exist firmly in the real world. It won’t therefore just be Ani who’s on the lookout for Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn) and her involvement in that hunt won’t be without duress. Because despite what he’s told her about himself and the fun they’ve had on this one-week adventure of consequence-free hedonism, his ability to pick whomever he wants to love is contingent upon his desire to satisfy his parents. The question then is whether his proposal’s notion of wanting to be with Ani regardless of the money is true. It’s love or power.

The first act showcases Ani in her element. A montage of her work as an exotic dancer fills the opening credits before her boss takes her to meet a big spender that requested someone who spoke Russian. Ani doesn’t like to speak it because she doesn’t think she sounds good, but she can understand the language due to her grandmother never learning English. So, she and Ivan make a cute pair swimming through each other’s native tongues en route to a whirlwind affair that ultimately leads them to a Las Vegas altar. It’s heading towards a happy ending (in both senses of the phrase) when Toros (Karren Karagulian) and his goons enter the frame.

Cue act two: the chase. Because when Toros, Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), and Igor (Yura Borisov) come knocking at the door, Ivan knows to run. What then is Ani to do? Assume he’s left her behind or that he’s off getting help? Either way, she’s stuck with her captors until they can discover the answer. So, we go from the high life of booze and music to the record scratch hangover of boots-on-the-ground pursuit while beat-up, demoralized, and scared. Ani is afraid these guys are going to hurt more than they have. The guys are afraid she’s going to continue doing even worse to them before inevitably facing Ivan’s parents’ wrath. But first thing’s first. Find their fugitive and figure out the rest later.

It’s a wild ride through Brooklyn that entertains and thrills in equal measure once we realize Ani will go further than Toros despite him having the upper hand. Madison imbues the character with an unwavering tenacity that leads to many comical exchanges (verbal and physical) within an otherwise harrowing situation. She doesn’t know how far these guys will go—although their reaction to the escalating tensions definitely puts us at ease to the fact that she won’t be killed (at least not intentionally). But since Ani has proven herself extremely resourceful throughout where self-worth and rights are concerned, it’s no surprise when she starts following their lead anyway. Whatever gets her back to Ivan to fix this mess once and for all.

Writing Ani’s main antagonists as middlemen proves to be a genius creative move. She’s able to beat them up with ease since her stake in this is much higher than theirs. They’re able to show the incompetence inherent to being thrust into circumstances way above their glorified babysitter status. And Ivan, a hired hand of sorts who is almost as in-the-dark to the bigger picture as Ani, is able to laugh once things really go off-the-rails. It’s the perfect dynamic of blind leading blind considering none of them know what’s going to happen when Ivan’s parents arrive. Ani is trying to salvage that happily ever after of riding into the sunset with the man she loves while Toros is trying to salvage his job as the Zakharov family’s American emissary. Neither is looking good.

The danger for a filmmaker less intuitive and sensitive to the drama he’s created than Baker would be getting so caught up in the fun of the chase that they’d forget the emotional backbone. Above all the peacocking and ultimatums is the reality that Ani’s life has been turned upside down overnight … twice. Here she was dancing and taking escort jobs on the side only to end up married to the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch who treated her well. Then, when the dream was solidifying into stone, the bubble is violently burst in a way that has all the makings of forcing her to feel like the whore they think she is. Ani holds onto the dream so tightly because she refuses to be made cheap by a bunch of one-percenters and the real whores in their employ (Toros, etc).

We do too since she doesn’t deserve that pain and her abusers do. But as she gets closer to the finish line and the truth of what’s happened gets clearer, she cannot help but reckon with her reality. It doesn’t mean she’ll take it without a fight, though. Madison is truly a force of nature when it comes to standing her ground—even if her footing simply can’t compete with that of those pushing her around. This is a heavy role that demands a depth of feeling well beyond the steely façade of take-no-prisoners attitude she adopts. It leads to an unforgettable finale steeped in the conflicted emotions of a woman put through the wringer until, finally, her Ani can vulnerably let her compounded anguish loose.