Anora
I had to wait until December, but I have now seen my top film of 2024. This film won the Palm d’Or at Cannes, has been described as a more modern, grittier take on Pretty Woman and features a performance from relative unknown, Mikey Madison, that is generating best actor Oscar buzz.
Ignore all that, though, because Madison gives an utterly remarkable performance in this film miles away from the type of crowd pleasing turns that usually bag on Oscar. Nor is the Palm d’Or the sort of award that guarantees much except cult status – Titane and Triangle of Sadness provide examples of this in the last five years. It is, however, most important to ignore the comparison with Pretty Woman. That was fluff, good fun, but fluff. Anora is a more complex, emotionally resonant film, with laugh out loud moments and a truly moving end that has hope but also recognises the reality of life for people like Madison’s eponymous heroine.
So, who exactly is Anora? At the start of the film we find her at work – she is confident and in control. She has a positive relationship with her customers and colleagues and she combines a typical American mix of sass and energy as we see her grifting. The only thing is, she is a sex worker at a fairly high-end nightclub. Whilst the exact nature of what she is expected to do is left a little opaque, she is often topless in these early scenes dancing and rubbing herself against the customers. Now I know we are in dangerous territory here because what can appear a choice is often nothing of the kind. However, Sean Baker’s direction and Madison’s performance make it clear that Anora does not see herself as a victim.
After this initial set up, Anora is asked to speak with a Russian customer as he has little English and she has some knowledge, as the child of immigrants. Ivan, the customer, turns out to be the young son of a Russian oligarch. He is funny, spoilt, entitled but with an immature charm and he likes Anora. In short order, he pays for her to spend a week with him at his parents’ luxurious American home where they constantly party, have fun and copious amounts of sex.
At this stage, the relationship is understood by both to be transactional. He is attracted to Anora and finds her congenial company and she realises this is an easy job, enjoyable even, and certainly a break from her real life. In this part of the film, there is an uneasy balance. Both are young but her street wise nature is in contrast to his gauche, privileged view of the world. He loves having sex with her, spending time in her company as he breaks up the drink and drugs with endless computer gaming, and she relaxes into the novelty of an excessively luxurious lifestyle. There is a hint that she also likes her client when she gives him tips about how to improve his love making – the transaction seems to be morphing into something more. Yet this is never properly explored until an impulsive moment during a trip to Vegas when he proposes and, after some bartering, she agrees.
From this point on, the movie lurches in a different direction. Nothing is spelled out by Baker and so it is not exactly clear what exactly each feels for the other. Is Ivan a golden ticket for Anora? Is she just another of the throwaway pleasures he indulges in when away from his parents? Or is this something more for both of them?
What quickly becomes clear, though, is that the oligarch and is iron hearted wife won’t allow this marriage to continue. They dispatch a local fixer from the expat Russian community who, ostensibly, has been responsible for monitoring and curbing Andrey’s worst excesses, to sort things out. When he turns up with two henchmen at the newlyweds’ house, however, it becomes clear that Anora is not going to allow herself to be cast aside. She is on her own, though, as Ivan flees the scene leaving her alone with the heavies.
Except that nothing is as it seems. They aren’t quite as heavy as they appear and they aren’t able to properly cope with Anora’s anger and outrage at the attempts to quash her marriage and pay her off. The film becomes something very different at this point and I’m not really sure how you’d classify it. I’m certainly not going to say much more about the plot except that after some very uncomfortable scenes as the fixer tries to work out what to do and how to handle Anora, the four of them set off on a search for Ivan. There is a race against time element because Ivan’s parents are on their way from Russia. However, this section of the film alternates between genuinely laugh out loud moments with gritty social realism as they visit many of the less salubrious parts of Brooklyn.
There are also the first emerging shoots of kindness and empathy. In this section of the story, Baker is happy to keep the camera rolling for longer than normal to catch those usually un-filmed moments when the desperation of desperate characters emerges.
The acting is first class throughout and Baker wants us to see the all-round humanity of the men sent to deal with Anora.
This middle part of the film has a certain beguiling effect as we see the interactions of the group as they seem to occupy their own alternative reality driving from clubs to diners to bars in search of Ivan.
Then Baker produces another gear shift in the final section of the film when the oligarch and his wife arrive, with all the flash import of visiting royalty – the modern equivalent, in effect.
This may sound all rather disjointed but the messiness of the narrative is the essence of this story. Anora and her travelling companions are often at the margins of society, doing any type of dirty work required from them and then easily dismissed or shrugged off when they disrupt things. Baker is making a similar point as Parasite, another Palm d’Or winner, about the have nots of society. He wants to tell their story, give them back a voice and fullness of humanity. What ultimately lifts this film, though, is the way Anora refuses to be shrugged off as if she doesn’t count.
Madison’s magnificent performance is matched by a powerful ending. If you are a serious cinemagoer, you must watch this film.