If Sean Baker wasn’t such an exceptional filmmaker, his interest in sex work as the narrative catalyst of his films would feel like an uncomfortable fetish. Since 2012’s Starlet, all of his films have dealt with sex work in some capacity; prostitutes, strippers, porn stars. The irony that sex workers are consistently demonized by mainstream media while still having a consistent clientele isn’t lost on Baker, though societal hypocrisy isn’t always his main interest. His movies are interested in parts of American culture most people would prefer not to see, and while the respect for sex work is there, he’s not trying to kid us, either. His latest film, Anora, is about a dancer who gets a glimpse of what life could be outside of her profession. It’s a powerfully seductive idea that causes her to miss some glaring red flags.

Anora is also the name of our main character, but she prefers to go by Ani. Ani is played by Mikey Madison, known to most as the moody teenager in the FX show Better Things or as the villain in the fifth Scream movie. I really only know her from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, where she experiences one of the most anguished movie deaths I’ve ever seen (Leo DiCaprio torches her to death with a flamethrower). Anora is her first major leading role, and working with Baker – whose indie bonafides are undeniable – certainly places her in a tier higher than she’s ever been before. Her Ani is an exotic dancer who commutes from Brighton Beach into Manhattan where she works in a high-priced strip club. The money is the easy part, but the hustle is relentless. In the film’s opening montage, Ani cycles through various men, giving them each individual attention, drawing them into a lap dance, a private room. The goal is cash but the sweat equity is high.

Then she meets Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), a twenty-one year-old party boy with endless energy and unlimited funds. Vanya – or Ivan – hears that Ani speaks Russian so he asks her to spend the entire night with him. They go to the VIP room and he asks in his crude, accented English if she’s interested in meeting outside of the club. He obviously has the money, so she agrees. She sees his massive, opulent (and empty) Brooklyn mansion, and his eager hangdog grin. She gives him the price and he agrees. Afterward she simply has to ask: where does all this money come from? Vanya explains that his father is a massively successful businessman and political oligarch in Russia. He’s meant to be studying in America, but his main interests lie in drugs, alcohol, and partying. Despite his immaturity, Ani takes a liking to Vanya, and takes him up on his offer to a week of exclusivity – at a very high price.

Throughout Anora, Ani is very adamant that she is not a prostitute, and her financial transactions with Vanya are very deftly handled, very careful to use certain words compared to others. As Ani grows closer and closer to Vanya, she’s sure to always ask for the money (in cash), but she begins to believe that this could be the real thing. They throw a swanky New Year’s Eve party, they go to packed night clubs and take expensive drugs, eventually they take a private jet to Vegas. At the end of their week, Vanya makes an outrageous proposal: they get married, which will allow him to get his green card and they can live happily ever after, far from the career obligations to his parents. The suggestion is startling and impulsive, but after a week where he’s made everything possible, she takes the plunge. They head to a Vegas chapel where the marriage is set and he buys her a four-carat ring. Ani quits her job and they retire to his mansion in Brooklyn, where their new life will begin.

Things turn sour the minute news returns to Russia of the marriage, and his irate parents contact Toros (Karren Karagulian), Vanya’s Armenian godfather who also lives in New York. The message to Toros is clear: find the bride and groom, and get the marriage annulled immediately. Toros gets his dimwitted younger brother, Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), and a fierce but sensitive Russian strong man named Igor (Yura Borisov) to find Vanya and set things right. The pair knock on Vanya’s door and eventually force their way inside. This is the first moment that Ani sees that her juvenile husband may not have as much control over his life as she thought, and that there are some in his family who may not accept their relationship. Ani’s refusal to give up her new marriage – and the new life that was promised with it – is the fuel of Anora‘s plot, as she continues to keep hope alive against rising opposition.

Anora‘s first forty-five minutes is a persistent torrent of music, drugs, and sex. The minute Toros and his men enter the picture, the tone shifts from Spring Breakers to Uncut Gems. When Vanya bolts, the four go on a manhunt all over the city to find him. Toros is panicked adrenaline, desperate to do anything to shirk responsibility for his godson. Igor is intense but befuddled, hired muscle with no familial connection; his distance from the family means he’s the only one who happens to show Ani any actual concern. All the while, Madison’s Ani stays a ferocious captive, making quick work of the men who try and quickly fail to intimidate her. As they search into the night, Baker ups the farcical elements and keeps the stress level high. If Anora doesn’t feel as tightly wound as Gems, it’s because it’s so brilliantly and consistently funny. And if the three henchmen are the foils of this screwball comedy, then Ani is the film’s indestructible heroine.

Of course, Ani is not really indestructible. The brilliance of Madison’s performance is the way she sneaks vulnerability beneath the untamed veneer. The twenty-five year-old actress shows shocking control across this wildly feral movie. If Ani is in denial about Vanya’s prospects as a husband, then so are we. The fierceness with which she holds onto her newfound existence speaks more to her need to escape than any real feelings of love. The stripping, and the occasional escorting (there’s no reference to how often she does that), is a living, and Madison and Baker present it with the nobility it deserves; but there’s no punches pulled about the reality of her life. Living with your body as your currency can quickly feel like a trap, and Ani pounces on the first opportunity to break free, even if said opportunity might turn quickly and predictably into fool’s gold.

Giving you a feature’s length of insane events before hitting you with the sobering finale has become something of a Sean Baker specialty. His films are so unbound by narrative and lead by improvisation (and non-professional actors) that they don’t always lend themselves to a natural ending. Sometimes he’s had to rely on doses of surreality to get his scripts to the finish line. Anora‘s ending is a brilliant thing. If this is Baker’s most mainstream film yet, the final shot – nearly free of dialogue – is a reminder of the punishing truths that he’s so fond of uncovering. The film does start to feel a bit long in the tooth in it’s final act, the high-octane energy is sapped, and we get a prolonged sequence of our characters facing the cold light of day. Everything culminates in that final shot, which captures all of the passion and tragedy of our main character in one motion. It’s a daring sequence, shocking the degree to which Baker earns it, but he makes it one of the most powerful moments in any movie this year.

 

Written and Directed by Sean Baker