Weird shifts in style, genre, and tone within one movie are typically a delicious treat. They’re like a scoop across all the flavors of Neapolitan ice cream or a cup filled with every option from a soda fountain. The problem – for me and me alone apparently – is that Anora scooped across vanilla, chocolate, and hummus or filled a cup up with Dr. Pepper, A&W Root Beer, and ranch dressing. That is to say, the film contains many good things that don’t work in one bite or gulp.
Anora plays with expectations, which is good, but is often unpleasant, which is un-good. Ani (Mikey Madison) is a stripper/escort who gets paired with Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn) by her boss because she understands Russian. Ivan is, and this is a science fact, the worst. He is the son of an oligarch who has limitless funds and limited use as a human being. Ani sees him for what he is: a piggybank with a hole in it.
After agreeing to accept $15,000 to be his “exclusive girlfriend” for a week, things jump up a notch when Ivan convinces her to marry him in Vegas. This fact doesn’t play well with Ma and Da back in the homeland. They dispatch Toros (Karren Karagulian), Garnik (Vache Tovmasyan), and Igor (Yura Borisov) to force the newlyweds to get an annulment. What follows is something a blend of screwball comedy and wildly upsetting stress.
“Upsetting” and “funny” do not mix well. You can have horror/terror that is so scary you laugh to survive. You can have tension so thick that humor is a steam pressure release valve. But distress does not lead to ha-ha-ing, at least where I’m from. It is funny at times. It is also genuinely disturbing at others. The dissonance between the two doesn’t feel meaningful so much as grating.
And speaking of grating… It feels like people are confusing Madison being incredibly talented and likeable with her giving a good performance. There is a ceiling on how high you can rise when given “sex worker with a thick New York accent” as a character. Really? We’re still doing that? Madison is mostly confined to yelling obscenities in Brooklynese. She does it as well as anyone could. It’s still as harmonious as a wrench in a blender. Add to this writer/director Sean Baker’s apparent mandate that every cast member be forced to use gay slurs, and you get a wildly unpleasant time.
All of this is before it gets to an ending that isn’t so much “unearned” or “movingly ambiguous” as it is emotionally exploitative and woefully unclear. Considering the film is overlong, maybe some of the time spent chucking F-bombs could have gone to a single line of dialogue that hints at Ani’s life prior to when we met her. Ivan’s backstory is laid bare, but the titular character rollercoasters from rage to sorrow to flippant dismissiveness without revealing much of what’s inside. And that’s because, at the end of the day, Anora plays like a movie with little compassion for its central character. She is given less room to be likeable than throwaway Russian gangsters.
Every once and a while, a movie comes out that seemingly everyone loves, and I find myself feeling like I’m in some Truman Show world where everyone is in some secret conspiratorial agreement. But that’s narcissism! The reality is that Anora has worked incredibly well for the vast majority of people who saw it, but I think it kinda sucks. Womp womp!
Grade = C-
Other Critical Voices to Consider
Kathia Woods at A Cup of Soul says “Baker’s films often explore working-class characters and sex workers, but Anora falls short. The characters and plot are unoriginal and fail to offer a fresh perspective on these familiar themes.”
Jeffrey Lyles at Lyles Movie Files says “By the end, Anora emerges as one of 2024’s best films that should connect with general audiences as well as the critic groups that are showering it with praise and awards.”
Dolores Quintana at the Santa Monica Mirror says “Anora is the fragile human soul wrapped in a Russian sable, suffused with hope that can roar into blinding rage. It is the story of those who are shot into the sky to be beautiful and self-destruct for rich men’s amusement or evolve into something new.”
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