Anora

By Joanna Langfield

This is the movie I’ve been waiting for Sean Baker to make. Mixing the zest of Tangerine, the compassion of The Florida Project and the savvy of Red Rocket, this trip through the world of sex and the oligarchy is an irresistible treat.

There will be a lot of talk about Mikey Madison’s game performance as a New York City sex worker who finds her inner Cinderella when she is wooed by a seemingly carefree Russian high liver. Young Ivan is happy to thrust money into Ani’s g strings until he decides, on a whirlwind trip to Vegas, to go for it. Let’s get married, he suggests. Why not?

We all know why not. Including Ani, who is suspicious of her luck, but decides the diamonds and furs are worth the gamble. She quits the gentlemen’s club where she’s been working and moves into Ivan’s sequestered Brooklyn mansion. And everything is fine until his parents, and the men they’ve hired to keep their eye on their wayward son, find out.

Although Baker’s stamp is very much his own, the energy he brings to much of this beautifully shot comic drama feels almost Tarentino-esque. As he’s delivered in his previous films, it’s wild, goes for broke and yet, grounded in real emotion. I can’t wait to see what Mark Eydelshteyn does next, his Ivan is really terrific. But it’s Karren Karagulian who’ll make you laugh and the almost wordless Yura Borisov who’ll make you cry.

Is Anora a movie for everyone? Maybe not, but what a ride it is for those of us looking for a deftly made stick of dynamite, a sharp and vividly entertaining look at the haves and the have-nots who’re doing their thing right amongst us.