When Fantastic Fest announced that Anora would get screened at this year’s festival, I knew I had to attend. Not only did the film’s trailer hook me, but I also had to be there because this is Sean Baker’s latest work (Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket). This fantastic film lives up to my anticipation. The writing, direction, editing, cinematography, and the acting are stellar. I was particularly taken aback by the phenomenal performance of Mikey Madison, who delivers an awards-worthy turn as the titular protagonist.
Anora “Ani” Mikheeva is a stripper who makes a solid living at an upscale gentleman’s club. At the film’s beginning, there is little to Ani’s life besides work and rest. This living situation makes it easier for her to get swept off her feet, when a wealthy Russian, very young man turns her world upside down. The son of a Russian oligarch, Ivan “Vanya” Zakharov (Mark Eidelstein), becomes enamored with Anora and desires to spend more time with her outside of the club. The two eventually come to a financial agreement where she basically gives him “the girlfriend experience,” and agrees to spend an extended amount of time with him.
With alcohol and drugs consumed often, Ani and Vanya eventually travel to Las Vegas, where the two marry under the influence. Regardless of these circumstances, they both seem quite content. That is until Vanya’s family discovers what has happened. Once this occurs, Vanya’s chaperones attempt to annul the marriage.
While this might sound like a fancy episode of the Jerry Springer Show, Sean Baker does an incredible job of leading his audiences down this rabbit hole of sex, alcohol, drugs, partying, and the consequences of these actions. At the same time, we get to experience the life of Anora and how easy it could be to get caught up in what might initially seem like a fairy tale. This fairy tale eventually gives her a wake-up call and devolves into a nightmare. Now, I don’t mean that in a horror story kind of way, but let’s say that Anora must deal with a lot, and I mean a lot of stress afterward.
What Baker does so well is that he totally fishes the audience into the fantasy aspect and then slaps us in the face with the reality. At the same time, the reality check gives us a mix of stress, comedy, thrills, more stress, and eventually exhaustion. His filmmaking and the incredible performance by Mikey Madison draw the audience into her world and take us on this journey through her eyes. And in doing so, we instantly connect with the character and totally relate to her bizarre and tension-filled journey.
While Anora doesn’t make the best decisions, it becomes easy to see why she makes her mistakes. At the end of the day, she acknowledges that she has made her bed but will still come out fighting. That is what makes her character so lovable and admirable. She acknowledges what is her own fault, but she also calls out others for their dishonesty. And that is one thing that Anora is not. She is not dishonest.
I absolutely adored Mikey Madison in this film, and I hope she gets all the film award nominations for her performance. I also want to see Sean Baker’s name in film award nominations in the writing and direction categories. Anora is an amazing movie and deserves both financial and critical payoff. It is my favorite film from this year’s Fantastic Fest and one of my favorites of this year so far.