5 Oscar Awards winner including Best Picture, Anora, presents Pretty Woman for grown-ups. Mikey Madison dazzles in a glorious performance.
Anora, the winner of the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. is an experience rarely had from movies. It succeeds to make you feel the weight of the boulder that’s reality, which comes crashing down on the central character, Anora, played by Mikey Madison. This is powerful cinema, made by one of the newest, most individualistic and talented auteurs of American film.
We see Anora for the first time, a stripper, hard at work. She walks the floor interacting with potential clients, offering private dances, being the kind of friendly that’s unique to the business of prostitution. Among her peers, the camera presents Anora as a diamond in a coal mine. She has dreams that exist in a world far from the Headquarters strip club where she works the nights and dreams of better days. One of her colleagues calls Anora ‘classy’ while describing herself as ‘a real ho’.
Her life takes a turn when a client requests a stripper that can speak Russian. Ivan, Mark Eydelshteyn gives a remarkably convincing performance, is the client; and he seems to have a dubiously unlimited supply of money given how young he is. We find out that he is the only heir of a Russian business tycoon, vacationing in the States. Like Richard Gere from Pretty Woman, Ivan offers Anora to be with him for a week. She is savvy enough to demand cash upfront.
Anora’s following days are filled with drugs, parties and sex. On a trip to Vegas, Ivan suddenly proposes Anora for marriage. The wedding sequence is filmed like a headrush, the audience experiencing what Anora might be. On a quiet afternoon back at Ivan’s villa in Brookyn, Anora’s marital bliss is interrupted by intruders who insist Ivan return to Russia to his parents.
The slow yet chaotic pace of the movie hits a unique rhythm from this point onwards. The difference in tone is reminiscent of waking up from a dream that was so real, it transported you to an alternate time and place. As Anora assesses her options, while the ground under her feet shakes, she goes from an attacking wildcat to a dignified member of the family Ivan belongs to. Followed by the relentlessness of the home invasion sequence, there is a rising tension like something bad is about to happen. The movie has funny moments but you don’t know if you can laugh because someone may just die in the altercation, putting the audience on edge.
Sean Baker continues to achieve with Anora the palpable quality his movies have thanks to the naturalistic photography and the use of non-actors. The film moves with purpose to build a strong affinity between Anora and the audience. Not to take away anything from Madison’s performance, which is raw, true and heartbreaking. Anora goes through so many different experiences that Madison had to embody an entire lifetime worth of personality.
Lending support are gifted performances by Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian and Vache Tomasyan who all look like henchman from the John Wick movies but with further dimensions to their characters. Borisov’s character, Igor, is an outsider looking in, and can’t help but relate more with Anora than the rich Russians.
In a world where money always wins, we all look to escape the hustle, outwit the other rats in the rat race. Some work for it, but most pray and hope and dream. Sean Baker’s Anora tells the story of one such character, who believes in what movies have been selling us for years – ‘Dreams come true’. Anora deserves all the Oscar glory it received.
Toros – ‘I need Ivan’s photo.’
Anora – ‘Okay?’
Toros – ‘You got to have your husband’s photo on your phone. Give me your phone for one second.’
Anora – ‘No, I am not giving you my phone.’
Toros – ‘I just need your phone for one second’
Anora – ‘No, and you know what? If you touch me again, I will fucking scream.’
Igor – ‘Use Instagram’
Toros – ‘I don’t have Instagram! I’m an adult, man. What are you talking about?’