In recent years the director Sean Baker has come close to what one might call the mainstream. His films, which are generally not driven by big movie stars or genre travesties, have retained their eccentric digression, their interest in lives on the margins of American society. But in RedRocket of 2021 and in his new film Anora, Baker works with a more accessible comedic tone and pace. This suits him, even if he has lost some of his previous unscrupulousness.
What fortunately has not been lost is Baker’s sensitivity to humanity behind the antics. Anora, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, it is in line with works such as Uncut Gems, a kinetic ride through a New York rarely seen in cinema. AND a wild and profane explosion. But the slow zoom that Baker uses in the film’s surprising and disarming final scene forces us to reconsider what we’ve just seen. Was this a wild chase movie or a quiet tragedy?
The protagonist, who prefers to be called Ani, is one sex workers (played by Mikey Madison) who strips at a Manhattan club and occasionally makes house calls. Originally from the Russian enclave of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, she can speak a little of that language. So when a Russian customer, Ani is in charge of entertaining him. The client is not a menacing gangster, nor a depraved old oligarch, but a skinny boy, Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn). He is friendly and generous and a mutual affection is immediately born between the two. After a few paid evenings in his villa near the sea (in reality it is the home of his family), Ivan makes a decent proposal (and accepted) this beautiful woman. She will give her 15 thousand dollars to be her girlfriend for a week.
Thus begins one whirlwind love story, or something like that, while Ivan showers Ami with gifts, takes her clubbing, and takes her to Las Vegas on a private jet with a group of friends. It is there that he, excited and in love like a teenager, proposes marriage to her. The marriage it is celebrated in a chapel and Ani thinks she has hit the mark. But those rich parents in distant Russia they make us worry. When they arrive, the probable ones badto ruin the fairy tale?
Thankfully, Baker isn’t obsessed with the representation of violence. When some of the family’s henchmen intervene, intent on having the wedding annulled, Ani is certainly mistreated, but you never get the feeling that she is at risk. Instead, Baker takes this ragtag gang on a stroll around Brighton Beach and Coney Island, taking the opportunity to carry out another of his investigations into an interesting corner of the country. Ani is furious, a taciturn stooge named Igor (Yura Borisov) glances at her and Ivan is gone.
Throughout the film, Ani is repeatedly defined, with derisive intentions, “prostitute” or worse, epithets for which she rightly feels offended. Anora it is above all the story of a woman who plays a role little regarded profession and who must continually assert her personality among people who treat her as if she doesn’t exist or is a prop. Madison, sporting a mostly believable Brooklyn accent, conveys the sense of her struggle very well. Her performance is lively and high-class, cheeky but charming. Even when Baker’s narration and dialogue become repetitive (this is a 139-minute film that could certainly use some pruning), she Madison manages to keep your attention.
In the part of the film dedicated to courtshipshe and Eydelshteyn – a tall man who exudes an unpredictable and captivating energy – create a propulsive alchemy. Baker has once again given star roles to two deserving actors who have never had this kind of opportunity. One is also appreciated palpable tension between Ani and Igor, played very convincingly by Borisov. Baker is careful to remind the audience that Igor is not exactly the gentleman type, that the two first met in a particular situation. But this does not necessarily preclude the blossoming of an affection, just as it did not preclude it for Jack Foley and Karen Sisco in Out of Sight.
