Anora – A Review

Years ago, I sat in a small theatre on Sunset to watch Starlet, a film about an adult film star who becomes friends with an old lady. This was Sean Baker’s sophomore film as a director (first solo) and co-writer (with Chris Bergoch, who he also wrote Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket with), and it firmly established his visual style and his focus on people often overlooked by society, those who live on the fringes, especially sex workers, which was reaffirmed in his latest feature as writer/director (he also always edits his films films), Anora.

Anora (played by Mikey Madison) goes by “Ani,” and the beginning of the film shows the ins and outs of the strip club where she works. What is great about these early scenes and harken back to a lot of Baker’s previous work, especially of Starlet and its handling of the porn shoots, is that it portrayed as a job, something that can be boring and repetitive but also something you have to put effort into to get the results you want. Sean Baker may have filmed a lot of sex scenes in his body of work, but he doesn’t film “sexy scenes.”

After those initial establishing scenes of the workplace, Ani’s brief dinner break is interrupted because a high roller is at the club, and he wants someone who can speak Russian. This is Ivan (played by Mark Eidelshtein), though he tells her to call him Vanya. Even if Ani is someone who gives off younger sister vibes (she forgot the milk her sister asked her to get) when next to Vanya, she stands like an adult and him a child despite her only being two years older. It’s no surprise he assumes her to be older than she is. And yet, he offers something she wants. The fairy tale. He essentially Pretty Woman’s her into marriage.

But anyone familiar with Sean Baker’s work knows he’s not interested in telling a fantasy. So, it all comes crumbling down when word gets back to Russia about their marriage. Kicking off the bulk of the movie as characters race to try and put an end to their marriage.

I previously mentioned that Baker has edited all his films. Directors should understand the process of editing, but it is a risky process to write, direct, and edit your own film because it cuts out different voices/eyes looking at the material and seeing places that could be trimmed or where a beat is being repeated. I understand that Baker typically has a six-month break between shooting and editing to try and trick his editing mind into forgetting everything he did on set, and with films like Tangerine and The Florida Project being incredibly well-paced, this process seems to have worked for Baker in the past. The run time for Anora is not that long compared to many of the features that we will likely see it compete against come award season, at 2 hours and 11 minutes, but approaching the mid-point, some scenes felt like they could have been lost without losing anything for the character or the plot.

Baker is known for casting many first-time actors in his films in lead roles, but this time, his cast is filled with people who have more experience, and while I have always loved the rawness of the newcomer performances, that helped give the documentary style that Baker tends to go for, these actors added a nice polish that otherwise helped the film clip along when scenes were going a little long. Karren Karagulian, who has appeared in all of Baker’s films, does a stand-out performance as Toros, the put-upon henchmen of the Russian oligarch family who had to walk out of a baptism to clean up the mess of Ani and Vanya’s marriage.

There will be lots of discussion about the final scene in the film and what it means, without spoiling it too much, I think it’s a culmination of a lot of emotions, feelings, and exhaustion and, at the end of the day, a cry is the only thing left to do. After that, you figure out what’s next.

Anora is currently playing in theatres.

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