Review: ‘Anora’ is thrillingly alive with wicked mischief and strafing wit

Now that Sean Baker’s “Anora” has won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, sold out at film festivals from Toronto to New York, made a blazing breakout star out of Mikey Madison and catapulted Baker from the indie fringes of “Tangerine,” “The Florida Project” and “Red Rocket” into a full-tilt Oscar contender, it’s time to see for yourself what all the fuss is about.
Prepare to ride a comic whirlwind. No list of 2024’s best films would be complete without the explosive blast of fun and provocation that ignites “Anora.” Still, it’s the emotions running under the breakneck action that cement Baker’s reputation as a world-class filmmaker.
Baker’s plot involves the collision of two irresistible forces: a stripper/sex worker and a skinny rich boy who hires her for a girlfriend experience. There’s also a clown car of Russian gangsters out to stop these crazy kids before they do something stupid like get married in Vegas. Oh wait, they already did that.
If “Pretty Woman” mixed its DNA with “Uncut Gems” and the screwball farce of the Marx Brothers, you might get some idea of what’s cooking in “Anora.” But even that description won’t cut it. Like they say in the circus, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Every second in this movie pops, starting with Anora doing lap dances at a club in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach where the strippers have each other’s backs. Ani, as Anora prefers to be called since she wrongly feels that this Hebrew word for light and grace doesn’t suit her, thinks she’s hit the side-hustle jackpot when gangly Vanya (string bean sensation Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch, offers her 15 grand to be his sure thing for a week.
You’ve probably guessed that “Anora” is not a traditional love story. Marrying Ani gets Vanya a green card and an escape from his controlling parents. Ani also knows that Vanya’s jackhammer lovemaking is hardly a sign of maturity. But the dream of a Cinderella story dies hard. Madison and Eydelshteyn, the Russian Timothée Chalamet, create hedonistic lovers to die for.
Let Madison, 25, be your guide as she delivers a star-making tour de force that fully deserves awards glory. You’ve seen her on the periphery, as a Manson groupie getting torched by Leonardo DiCaprio in “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” or as one of the Ghostface killers in 2022’s “Scream.” But nothing prepares you for the lightning she unleashes as Anora.
Firing off F-bombs like weapons, Anora gets in the faces of the Russian Armenian hoods hired by Vanya’s parents to bribe, threaten and kidnap her to sign an annulment agreement. Played to comic perfection by Karren Karagulian as Vanya’s priest godfather Toros, Vache Tovmasyan as Garnick and Yura Borisov as Igor, this trio deserves an ensemble acting award for scene-stealing.
The hard-edged, soft-voiced Borisov is dynamite, especially in a climactic scene with Madison that caps the film with a touching twist that hits you like a shot in the heart.
Cinematographer Drew Daniels and Baker, who did his own editing, show dazzling craft, but detractors say that “Anora” is too gritty and graphic for a best picture Oscar. Really? The equally incendiary “Poor Things” recently came whisper close and won the gold for Emma Stone.
Awards or not, “Anora” is essential Baker, showing our shared humanity with the sex workers, porn stars and assorted outcasts who instill his films with such ferocity and feeling. Disposable? More like indispensable. “Anora” is thrillingly alive with wicked mischief and strafing wit, minus a trace of caution or complacency to inhibit its 138 delicious minutes. I’d call that a must-see.