MA 15+, 139 minutes
5 Stars
Review by © Jane Freebury
The spoilt son of a Russian oligarch meets an exotic dancer in Brooklyn and buys her time away from lap-dancing at a busy club to be alone with him. For a fee, she agrees to be his playmate over a week, hanging out at the family mansion while his parents are away. In the journey that follows in this year’s Palme d’Or winner, writer-director Sean Baker has returned again to a subject that he has explored in recent films, but cinema has marginalised or worked-around. The life of the sex worker.
Of course, sex workers do make appearances in movies, even on rare occasions in mainstream Hollywood fantasy. Of course, Pretty Woman was a fairytale and there’s been the occasional serious doco, but it’s rare for them to occupy centre-frame as Ani, the lead character, does here in Mikey Madison’s remarkable performance.
When Ivan/Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) pops the question to Ani while on a jaunt to Las Vegas, throwing in a wedding ring and a Russian sable coat for good measure, he knows that his parents, most especially his formidable mother, will be expecting him to return to Russia. Getting an academic qualification in the US hasn’t worked out, so he will have to take a role in the family business. It will be a big change from the regime he has built for himself, in which he splits his time between gaming and sex, both activities for which he keeps his socks on, intriguingly.
Disarmingly entertaining comic drama, through to an impressively unpredictable, devastating conclusion
Opposites attract in this East-West marriage that will secure the young Russian a Green Card. It could have been the opening chapter to a quite different narrative than the disarmingly entertaining comic drama that unspools here, through to an impressively unpredictable conclusion.
In the opening scenes at Headquarters club and bar, the camera tracks along a row of grinding female hips and bottoms, as young women lap-dance for their male customers. It’s both solidly voyeuristic and, at the same time, an establishing sequence that illustrates where Ani works and what she does. While the male gaze is sewn into the fabric of the narrative, Ani is shown to be an assertive young woman who demands respect from customers, and experiences friendship and friction with co-workers.
From this arresting start, the focus moves to Ivan and Ani alone together. They are sweet and daft, and a bit irritating, while Ivan’s immaturity had me wondering how much longer we would spend in his company, stoned or sober.
Then Baker’s film begins to reveal why it won the top prize at Cannes this year. Ivan’s family hear that he has married a hooker and send a pair of goons to secure him, arrange an annulment and send Ani packing. It puts an abrupt end to the adolescent male sex fantasy.
The family henchmen hired for this unpleasant task, Garnik (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov), arrive on scene. One hirsute and the other shaven-headed, both thick-set, they look suitably thuggish but prove to be less competent and more decent than imagined. It is the third enforcer who arrives later, Toros (Karren Karagulian), a priest in the orthodox church with special duties as Ivan’s guardian and godfather, who proves to be the toughest.
Arrival of family henchmen introduces a surprisingly comic dimension, and puts an abrupt end to the adolescent male sex fantasy
Ani puts up a fierce defence, but Ivan pulls his hoodie over his head and does a runner. Garnik and Igor have little idea how to handle the tough, assertive and physically strong young woman left behind. It’s funny.
As the comedic aspect of the film begins to take over in a surprisingly smooth segue, the humour and gentle insights grow as Ani is forced to join Garnik, Igor and Toros touring gaming arcades, pool parlours, and fast-food diners in the hunt for fugitive Ivan.
From the start it seems Igor has empathy for Ani, as the camera captures him observing her, appearing to decline the instructions he has to act tough. He says little, much less than the others, and it is tempting to think that he may at some point intervene, even spirit her away, until it is apparent that Ani’s sex work has repressed her natural responsiveness to loving physical intimacy. It’s a surprising and devasting insight that arrives in the final moments as something of a shock.
Like The Florida Project that introduced me to Sean Baker’s work in 2017, Anora takes its time. It’s a slow reveal as it explores our humanity, and a penetrating one.
First published in the Canberra Times on 27 December 2024. Jane’s reviews are also published on Rotten Tomatoes