Anora (EUA, 2024)
Original title: Anora
Director: Sean Baker
Writer/Screenplay: Sean Baker
Main cast: Mikey Madison, Paul Weissman, Mark Eidelshtein, Lindsey Normington, Emily Weider, Vincent Radwinsky, Sophia Carnabuci, Brittney Rodrigues
Runtime: 139 minutes (2°19’)
Anora is certainly one of the most talked-about films of 2024, and that’s no surprise. From winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival to winning over audiences at every screening, it seems like Sean Baker is firmly on his way to mainstream awards season – even though he’s been a favorite among fans of American independent cinema for quite some time now.
Anora (Mikey Madison), or Annie, as she prefers to be called, is the title character of the film, a stripper who works in Brooklyn, New York, and lives the life of a girl in her early twenties, sharing a house with her sister, having friends and enemies at her workplace, and being very comfortable with being a sex worker. This confidence is already a refreshing element in current cinematography, which seemed to suffer a conservative wave in relation to sex and sexuality, and the film has the confidence to not treat either of them as taboo. Since the director is already used to working with marginalized characters without looking at them with prejudice, the same treatment is given here.
The young woman’’s life changes when she meets Ivan (Mark Eidelshtein), a client at the club where she works who wants to be served in Russian. Since she had a grandmother who only communicated in that language, she serves him and feels like she’s won the lottery when she discovers that he is the son of a very rich couple, living temporarily in the US and spending all their money on prostitutes (on her, in this case), drugs and parties. In the best style of Pretty Woman (1990), he asks for a kind of exclusivity contract to spend all her time with him, and from then on the relationship takes a new direction that has repercussions in Russia.
Something that is already notable in the director’s previous works and that here achieves formal excellence is his ability to bring the audience closer to his protagonists, who are generally on a grayer spectrum of a stereotypical situation in American culture: transsexuals, poor people, prostitutes. With relatively simple editing and cameras that try to capture the beauty in even the most trivial situations in life, we really get to know Anora: we understand the complexity of her life, the mix of feelings she has towards Ivan, how the moments of fun they spend together are truly enjoyed by her. The film uses colored artificial lighting, photogenic sunlight, clothes that play with the viewer’s desire, all so that we have the same fun that is shown to us through the magic of cinema. Even when the situation in the work intensifies, this plasticity helps to convey the violent moments in an even lighter way. And again, this is not exclusive to this film, but rather a characteristic of the director that is present here in a work that seems to reach a larger audience.
Mikey Madison’s performance is truly charming, an actress who has already appeared in some prominent roles but had never had such a leading role. Annie manages to be funny, ironic, romantic, angry – and we believe in every expression the actress makes in the role. It’s the combination of a great actress and a great role, creating a memorable performance that will certainly open up new possibilities for the actress’s career.
At the end of the film, which is genuinely entertaining, we begin to reflect on the real values of relationships today, as well as the reasons why certain relationships happen. We think about the commodification of affection and the consequences of the capitalist system for the simplest things, which also dialogues with the director’s filmography, always focused on those who the system excludes.
It’s easy to understand how it became one of the favorite films of the year: it entertains in an almost uncompromising way, but has a deep and complex reflection in the background.
