Anora: LFF Film Review
Sean Baker‘s Anora won the Palme d’Or for best film at Cannes earlier this year and has been basking in glowing review after glowing review. I can understand the hype for the first half but I didn’t love the second.
Mikey Madison plays Anora, or Ani, an erotic dancer in Brooklyn. Because she can understand and vaguely speak Russian, she is assigned to rich patron Ivan (Mark Eidelstein), the son of a Russian oligarch, and they hit it off immediately. He subsequently pays her to be his girlfriend for the week and they get so caught up in the whirlwind that they get impulsively hitched in Las Vegas. The news doesn’t go down well with Ivan’s parents, who demand the marriage be annulled.
I loved Anora wholeheartedly up until Ivan’s parents became involved. That first half was so much fun – I laughed out loud constantly, loved the music and adored Anora’s relationship with Ivan. You get caught up in the Cinderella story and it’s an utter delight to watch.
But once the parents find out, it loses that fun and devolves into a lot of screaming, yelling, fighting etc and the conversation goes around in circles and becomes frustratingly repetitive. I found it very stressful and the chaotic energy made me think of Uncut Gems a little bit. My favourite character, Ivan, disappears for a large chunk of this section and I missed his presence. There is a sequence where Anora and Ivan’s handler Toros (Karren Karagulian) and his heavies Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov) try to find Ivan and it is long, drawn out and made me more aware of the runtime.
Thankfully, the film drew me back in once Ivan’s parents arrived in America. Ani is a fighter who takes no s**t and it’s a joy to watch her put these rich entitled people in their place. This is where Igor becomes more than a generic enforcer. He is given a lovely storyline, although I’m not too thrilled about the lack of resolution.
Baker’s work always spotlights marginalised outsiders who are rarely depicted as real people on screen and he has focused his stories on sex workers before. Together with Madison, they make Ani a rounded 3D person who has a hard exterior that occasionally slips and reveals her true feelings. Madison stood out with 2022’s Scream and I hope this makes her a star.
But my personal favourite was Eidelstein, who is hilarious. He’s been dubbed the Russian Timothee Chalamet and I can see it! He’s nerdy, goofy and adorable. Almost every line cracked me up (in the first half) and I missed his energy and personality in the second half.
I can see why Anora has won over the hearts of so many but The Florida Project still remains my favourite Sean Baker film.
Seen at the London Film Festival. In cinemas on Friday 1st November