Anora: A feisty and enlightening Oscar contender that left director Sean Baker ‘surprised’ by reactions
Anora is feisty, gritty and heart-achingly beautiful, raising important awareness for the adult industry while remaining relatable to all.
Described online as essentially a Cinderella story gone wrong, I admit I was hesitant. Having previously written a series interviewing members of the adult film industry in a bid to forefront the voices who really matter, I was wary of the industry being used in any darkened fairytale-esque story or presenting a sex worker needing to be swept off her feet and granted some sort of 'better life'.
But oh how wrong I was, because with director Sean Baker at the helm and actor Mikey Madison in the titular role, Anora is one of the best films to grace the big screens in 2024. And it's a film we desperately need more of - for many reasons.
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Written and directed by Baker, Anora was produced by Alex Coco and Samantha Quan.
The story centers around stripper Anora 'Ani' Mikheeva (Madison) who lives in Brooklyn. When the immature son of a Russian oligarch named Ivan 'Vanya' Zakharov (Mark Eidelstein) comes to visit the club she works at he's sent to Anora who can speak Russian too.
The pair embark on a whirlwind romance of blurred lines - the question is, what's real and what's not and who'll realize before it's too late?
The film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and obtained the highest per-screen-average of 2024, raking in $90k on six screens.
"I thought just the subject matter alone would cause the film to be a little more divisive"
However, Baker admits to UNILAD that the widespread positivity across the globe took him by 'surprise'.
Centring the movie around the adult entertainment industry with viewers' lens focused through the eyes of a sex worker, Baker reflects to UNILAD he was slightly taken aback by the 'universal love and support of it'.
"I thought just the subject matter alone would cause the film to be a little more divisive [...] so that's encouraging," he continues. "This is my fifth film that covers the subject matter so each time I do it, it's another individual story that shows a different aspect of sex work but hopefully done in a way that allows audiences to connect with the main character - have empathy for the main character. And remove, or hopefully help remove, the unfair stigma [surrounding the adult industry]."
And it's this connection the audience feels to Anora, despite the starkly different job title she holds to so many of us, which helps make it such a success - you'd think she'd be anything but relatable to most of us Bob, Dick and Sally's, but the film strikes many a chord.
Why Anora is so relatable
The writing, direction and actors' pure talent result in it being impossible not to fall in love with the characters from the get-go.
The script is humorously succinct and accurately presents not just the youthful characters but all involved; wryly poking fun at generational and wealth gaps on top of the stigmatization of the adult entertainment industry with genius simplicity.
In turn, it works in perfect harmony with the stripped back, pure and powerful unspoken moments between characters along with their moments of introspection too.
Mix in the fast-paced nature of the film which encapsulates so much action and heart into a period of time which only spans around several weeks, and the viewer is taken on a whirlwind of a journey.
While you may not be able to relate to Anora's job or Vanya's billionaire status, instead, viewers are offered the invitation to relate, in part, through the lens of lost childhoods and what's it's like to get caught up in being a kid again.
Given how multi-layered the role of Anora is, the character is certainly no easy feat, but Madison finesses a charming, manipulative, smart and savvy yet innocent, kind, caring and hopeful 23-year-old woman navigating her way in the world.
She's the perfect presentation of a flawed heroine - strong-willed and determined to make a life for herself but also unable to help romanticizing her own Cinderella story. Anora ultimately falls blind to what viewers slowly see unraveling, making for an even more heart-tugging and tantalizing watch and Madison is a force to be reckoned with.
Eidelstein plays Vanya as an endearing, albeit stuck-up and infuriately self-absorbed unknowing Peter Pan. The pair are both trying to grow up so fast, each very much in their own way, playing at being adults when really they're both only still stumbling out of childhood - it's impossible not to feel a pang of nostalgia for your own youth.
It would also be out of the question not to mention actor Yura Borisov whose understated yet intricate portrayal of Igor is hard to draw your eyes from.
The rest of the cast are stellar too, the actors working in beautiful harmony to present a fresh, frank revamp of a love story which reflects the reality of endings not always ending up happy, but with several important lessons learned instead.
And viewers certainly walk away with a lesson or two given the film's softer look into the adult industry which most of us don't see, some of us refuse to see and others continue to demonise instead.
Raising awareness for the adult industry
Baker is quick to note the themes 'tackled in the film are really presented to the audience in a way that is left up for interpretation'.
"I think people can apply their own histories to these things, their own politics," he says. "I think that's part of why I wanted to make this film - to spark discussion."
For me, the messages were clear to see. Anora's highlighting of health insurance and worker's comp brings to light various issues which remain within the industry, but the film also doesn't shy away from confronting viewers about their attitudes towards sex workers too.
Words such as 'hooker' and 'prostitute' are thrown around, the idea of it being 'shameful' to be in the industry and those within it presumed to have criminal records act as a stark reminder of many attitudes held by people to this day and how far there is to go to reduce snobbery and stigma.
It's clear from the presentation of various characters and moments of dialogue between dancers - which many of us would never be privy to should we not see it presented accurately and non-judgementally in cinema - that it's not dancers or sex workers who are the problem, it's the people who come to visit them.
The juxtaposition between Anora and rich kid Vanya also cleverly aligns the audience more so with Anora too.
The historical Easter Egg of Lindsey Normington in the film - playing Diamond - who was part of the first labor movement for strippers in North Hollywood in the United States is poignant too, emphasizing the goings on in the film are part of a wider reality that needs confronting.
And not only does Anora distill many damaging stereotypes held against the adult industry, but it also dissects more widely what it means to be a women in today's society.
Tackling the definition of assault alongside being branded 'crazy,' it was difficult to not let out a small cheer which ultimately gave way to tears filling my ducts - the film made me feel seen.
The last scene - don't worry, there aren't any spoilers here - is particularly hard hitting and Baker emphasizes the whole team 'really did discuss it' given what a 'very serious' and 'complex' moment it entails.
Baker and Madison 'got to a place' where they both knew their 'interpretations' of the scene but wanted to keep that to themselves or the director notes they'd risk 'psychoanalyzing Annie' which is 'not [their] job'. "Our job is objectively [...] showing the scene and having the audience interpret."
And despite the subject matter of Anora making this room interpretation a potentially risky move, it more than pays off, so much so I couldn't help but ask about the possibility of a sequel - even though Baker quite simply doesn't make sequels to his movies.
Baker confirms: "That's funny. I don't make sequels to my films, but we joked about it."
However, the director reveals they did 'originally' actually write an epilog to Anora which 'allowed' the team to 'at least know where these characters were going' - something Baker deems 'important' for the actors to know.
He continues: "People have asked me if it's a happy ending... I don't really see it as a happy ending, because unfortunately Annie was very wronged by what happened, by everybody around her and the situation she was put in. But I do see it as hopeful. [...] And that's what I think is important."
And while there isn't a sequel currently in sight, that doesn't mean Baker will stop creating content centered around the adult industry anytime soon.
"It's a subject matter that I think is always important to be discussed. [...] Every generation we're going through different ways of thinking about this stuff now, as compared to even 10 years ago, before the #MeToo movement. So it's interesting to bring this to audiences of different generations and see how [it's] interpreted."
And my final interpretation? Beaming one minute to feeling utter panic, heart-wrenching sadness the next, the twisted Romeo and Juliet rom-com made me feel truly alive.
Anora made my heart soar and then shattered it into smithereens.
Brilliantly chaotic, fleeting, stripped back, pure and beautiful, Anora is devastatingly gorgeous and it deserves all the Oscars it can get.
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Anora is out in UK cinemas tomorrow (November 1).
Topics: Film and TV, Entertainment, Sex and Relationships, Mental Health, Review, Reviews
Poppy Bilderbeck