By Alex Gilston - October 14, 2024
In Sean Baker’s latest, he brings his penchant for telling deeply human stories to the world of sex work. It is an often villainised profession on both a social and political level.
Anora shines a nuanced light on an individual’s experience to tell a thousand stories. This is a glorious example of what Sean Baker can achieve with his filmmaking, on an even bigger scale than ever before, but his signature problematic-isms hold it back from being truly great.
Anora (Mikey Madison) is an exotic dancer at a club in New York City. When she’s requested by someone for her ability to speak Russian, she makes acquaintances with the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch, Zakharov. When a business proposition turns into a whirlwind romance the pair tie the knot in Las Vegas. Much to the dismay of Zakharov’s parents, who task a group of their lackeys to annul the marriage before it causes controversy.
Sean Baker’s biggest film yet, Anora feels way more expansive than The Florida Project, and Red Rocket. The story is bigger, the locations are bigger, the acting is bigger, it’s clear that the budget is bigger too. And for the most part this works in the films favour, but in embracing his higher status within the industry the grainy intimate charm of his previous films is lost.
Anora is a multifaceted film, and from the half way mark it leans into comedy. Anora and the three men hired by Zakharov’s father start to search around New York to find him, and a whole series of silly moments occur. Toros, Garnik, and Igor are basically a three stooges style trio, fumbling around the place with reckless abandon. Anora gets in on this too at points and the four of them muster up some side splitting comic moments.
The comedy is on the surface, but Sean Baker’s talent for telling deeply human stories still shines through. Anora (Mikey Madison) is an incredibly headstrong woman, who is just trying to survive life, and Zakharov offers her the opportunity to head upwards. She doesn’t have a cynical bone in her body so she believes that their relationship is true and real. So seeing her slowly realise that the opposite is true is heart-breaking. Her work is very intimate but it’s purely professional, and she longs for that intimacy on a personal level as well as the intimacy her job thrusts her into.
Mikey Madison is inspired in the role of Anora. She plays all angles of the character impeccably, from the drama to the comedy. Madison already slayed in Scream 5, but Anora could be the star making turn of her career. A performance that is great enough to garner awards attention.
Anora only falters in the fact that it’s the most Sean Baker film out of his filmography. He has always had an edge for better, The Florida Project, or for worse, Red Rocket, but here his problematic nature rears its ugly head a lot. Portrayal isn’t necessarily an endorsement of the behaviour, but after the dozenth F Slur it became a bit too much. The overuse of this kind of dialogue in his scripts is ultimately distracting, and takes away from the brilliance of the rest of it.
Overall, Anora is a great film, continuing Sean Baker’s personal canon in an ambitious way that mostly lands. It’s clear to see why it’s dominating award conversations right now, especially after winning the Palme d’Or earlier this year. Bakers edgy nature ultimately gets the best of him here though, stopping Anora from realising true greatness.
Anora releases in cinemas November 1
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