Some of the most successful works of fiction of all time have succeeded by presenting a pure fantasy while convincing the audience it's unflinchingly realistic. That's why 2024's Anora is so loved. It's the fantasy of a prostitute with a heart of gold and her quest to find love. Some have even claimed the film is Russian propaganda and, as far as I can see, that may very well be true. But so was Battleship Potemkin and that doesn't make that film any less great, even as I disagree with the political motives behind it.
Mikey Madison has earned a lot of acclaim for her performance as the title character, Anora, who prefers to go by "Ani". Director Sean Baker opens the film with understated slice of life bits of the strip club (as understated as a strip club can be) in which we become acquainted with Anora's normal life. She strips, she dances, she coos into the ears of patrons. Sliding into this sequence is a Russian boy named Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn). Ani's manager sends her out to him because she learned a bit of Russian from her grandmother.
They say a good story needs tension and I'd agree with them. Some would argue this next section of the film is entirely without tension as we watch Ani and Ivan embark on a whirlwind romance that ends with their quickie marriage in Las Vegas. But despite the constant upbeat music and the smiling happy pretty people, the tension is constantly present. We're waiting for the other shoe to drop and the tension is heightened because we like Ani more and more. There's Mikey Madison's natural charisma, her beauty, and her vulnerability. She's leaving her job, possibly even her family, and her whole life is changing. We like her because of her heart, which is made of gold. She's gracious with a former rival at the strip club, she's cautious and truthful with Ivan. Her heart yearns for financial stability and a handsome prince but she's not ruthless.
She started this relationship as one of transaction, over which a veneer of love had been consciously layered. Both parties entered knowing that but at some point, both characters attest, their relationship changed. Or did it? The other shoe that drops could be moralism on the part of the storytelling, but would that necessarily be honest? It could be idealism on the part of the director, in the vein of Pretty Woman or Cinderella, the latter directly referenced by the film. Would that be honest? If the answer to both questions is "no", then many directors would find themselves at a stalemate with nothing to say. Not Sean Baker who navigates these treacherous narrative waters with admirable instinct.
I'm going to go light on spoilers here because I encourage you to let the film unfold its tale for you itself. But I will say the most satisfying, and the most likely propagandistic, element of the film is the romance that takes hold in the second half. It starts subtly and builds delicately through scenes of comedy and violence.
As Oscar Wilde said, "No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an un-pardonable mannerism of style," but "The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an im-perfect medium." Whether knowingly or not, Baker follows Wilde's advice to the letter. After the setup of the first half, the characters are compelled to have a moral perspective in the second half. It's through this, and the lack of its expression in grand terms, that we're gradually led to a fascinating and satisfying pay-off. One could very easily also see it as an allegory for Putin and his invasion of Ukraine and his philosophy of government more generally. One character's slight resemblance to Putin may have been intentional. But you don't have to read the movie that way. Even knowing that it could be read that way won't diminish your ability to appreciate it (at least, I hope not).
A lot of people have compared the film to classic cinema, particularly screwball comedies. Greta Gerwig, who was a judge on the Cannes panel that gave it the Palme d'Or, compared it to the works of Howard Hawks and Ernst Lubitsch. There is something of that screwball rapidity in it but I was also reminded of The Sopranos and My Cousin Vinny. Mikey Madison, a California native, adopted a Brooklyn accent for the film and critics love the kind of brassy New York dame she plays. Like Marissa Tomei or Margot Robbie before her, I think she'll go through a period of critical love that will wane over the next two or three years. But she and we will always have Anora.
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