Anora
Judging by the number of awards Mikey Madison has already hoovered up for her lead role in Anora, hers is the very definition of a “breakthrough” performance. Previously known for a TV series called Better Things, and a few minor parts in films such as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), it’s a huge leap to play a young sex worker in a Manhattan nightclub who becomes deeply involved with the son of a Russian oligarch and has to be painfully extracted from this brief, riotous relationship.
Anora is Madison’s film from start to finish, with all the other characters relegated to supporting roles. For director, Sean Baker, it’s the first time I’ve been able to watch one of his films without being distracted by the preponderance of hand-held camera shots, real-life sets, and characters who don’t seem to be actors at all simply wandering around. This ‘reality TV’ ambience is a trademark, but it can also feel like a mannerism.
What’s different this time is the speed and intensity of the story, and the strength of the performances it elicits. There’s a large element of slapstick, even as the lead character’s predicament gets progressively bleaker. Although it’s a long film, the action and the undercurrent of black humour never flags. Some will find Anora too confronting or exploitative, but Baker is a director who has the closest connections with his actors. One can see why the film won the Palme d’or at Cannes this year.
Anora, who prefers to be called Ani, works in a strip club where she is paid to lure customers to a set of comfy chairs, and rub her near-naked body all over them. When things get too intimate there are private rooms where, for a price, the girls will go a little further. Because she comes from a Russian-speaking background, Ani is summoned to look after a new customer – young, rich, exuberant, and off-his-face. This is Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), who takes an instant liking to her.
Vanya asks Ani if she works outside club hours and urges her to visit him at home. She agrees, assuming from the way he splashes the cash that it will be a worthwhile exercise. She is prepared for the sex, but not for the size and splendour of Vanya’s house, located in the cashed-up part of Brooklyn, complete with security fence and a guard at the gate. It turns out that Vanya’s father is a Russian oligarch, who is allowing his son the run of this house and seemingly unlimited funds, until he is recalled home to start work in the family company.
Vanya finds Ani so companionable and sexually desirable he raises the stakes, asking to buy her exclusive services for a week. They agree on a price, and a whirlwind of activity begins, culminating in a charter flight to Las Vegas, with a group of Vanya’s friends. His new plan is to marry Ani in Vegas, thereby ensuring he can stay in America and continue the party forever.
She buys into his fantasy, getting hitched and receiving an expensive ring. It’s her Cinderella moment, but we have a strong feeling that it’s too good to last. When news reaches the men Vanya’s father employs as minders, they rush to the house to see if it’s true. When Garnik (Vache Tovmasyan) and his phlegmatic partner, Igor (Yura Borisov) arrive, Vanya flees, leaving Ani with the two heavies. They are determined to act peacefully, but Ani is not. Both are on the receiving end of her verbal and physical violence. The boss, Toros (Karren Karagulian) turns up to be greeted with a scene of devastation. At the same time, visions of his own devastation are running through his head, as he imagines how he will explain this situation to Vanya’s parents.
A long, agonising search for Vanya begins, as the hapless minders, with Ani in tow, scour all his usual haunts. Day turns into night, and the story subsides into a comedy of embarrassment, with mishaps and frustrations piling up. Meanwhile, Vanya’s parents are already on their plane, speeding to New York.
No description could capture the vividness of the shifting scenarios Baker stages: the sleazy nightclub, the luxury mansion, the wild parties, the hotel suite in Las Vegas, the misery and terror of the minders, as they search for the prodigal son. It’s sex and violence, comedy and tragedy all the way, while Ani clings to the last threads of her dream of a brilliant future.
The minders may be hard men, but they are also clowns, given the runaround by the reckless Vanya. The youngest, Igor, is sympathetic to Ani, but is also the main butt of her insults and anger. It soon gets to the stage where we don’t know whom we should feel sorry for.
Baker has made a film about what happens when the ordinary meets the extraordinary, but by the end we’re wondering which is which.
It’s not easy to create such a roller-coaster and not have it collapse into a shambles, but as the movie progresses we only grow closer to all the characters, with the glaring exception of Vanya. Mikey Madison’s achievement is combine so many conflicting emotions into one package, being fearless but powerless, caught up in a tale she can’t control while raging against her fate. She is not conventionally beautiful but has unusually expressive features which she uses to good effect, imbuing her character with an appeal that is more than skin deep. Already, Madison is being talked about as a candidate for Best Actress at the academy Awards. On the strength of this performance, she may even be the favourite.
Anora
Written & directed by Sean Baker
Starring: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Karren Karagulian, Yura Borisov, Vache Tovmasyan, Darya Ekamasova, Aleksey Serebryakov, Lindsey Normington, Emily Weider, Luna Sofía Miranda, Vincent Radwinsky, Brittney Rodriguez, Ivy Wolk
USA, MA 15+, 139 mins