Anora
A stripper and prostitute meets her Prince Charming, but very soon he becomes a frog.
Venue: Cines Babel, Valencia
Date watched: 9-Nov-2024
My rating: 8 out of 10
6 of 168 films to watch.
Review aided by AI on the basis of my personal notes taken during the film.
Strengths
Great performances, specially by Mikey Madison as the title character.
Very fluid management of genres within the same film: tragedy, comedy and even documentary.
Camera movement is devilish.
Weaknesses
Some of the characters are in the verge of being a caricature.
The main character suffers the kind of treatment that shouldn’t be glossed over, unfortunately it is.
Summary
Anora is a wild tale about a stripper who meets Ivan, a wealthy Russian oligarch heir, there is an immediate connection between them although mediated by a prostitute-client relationship, in any case this leads to more than just fleeting hedonism, but the fantasy shatters when Ivan’s powerful family intervenes.
Musings with plot spoilers
Anora, now widely famous and feted thanks to its many successes, is a film of our times, we have a Russian oligarchic family going through the US with the confidence of the power they can yield there (although not everything goes their way this is unintentionally prescient), we have the rich buying whatever they want, it could be an election, but in this case is something more modest, the social status of a wayward son, we have the gangsters with a heart, and all this swirls around Anora, a young woman with which this powerful people toy with without any regards for her as a human being. I told you, a film of our times.
Anora is a stripper in a seedy nightclub, she seems confident and in control of the situation, but that facade starts to slip away as soon as we realise she is readily available to prostitute herself. Ivan, a Russian almost boy she has just met as a client (and whom she serves with a very explicit performance) asks her phone number, and although no further business is discussed it is implied that they (perhaps more him) have unfinished business for another time.
The scenes in the night club are frenetic, Mikey Madison, Anora in the film, did her homework and met strippers and prostitutes to understand how they do their job, she moves with confidence from client to client as is followed closely by the camera which gives us a pretty intimate view of what is going on, if one wanted to know how it is to be right there, next to Ivan and Anora while she performs for him, one couldn’t get any closer, we are voyeurs and some may recoil at the situation.
Anora and Ivan meet in his place, we have seen Ani’s shabby little flat and the contrast couldn’t be bigger, Ivan the quasi boy lives in a palatial very well guarded place, clearly his personal endeavours (that up to this point have been a non stopping hedonism) aren’t the source of this wealth.
Ivan takes Ani to his room and they have sex (very explicit scenes), Ivan is cute and Ani takes a like of him, so they start to meet, the situation is profitable for Ani and there is mutual attraction, although at times Ivan seems more interested in playing video games rather than in the pretty woman in front of him. During these dalliances Ani tries to find out what Ivan does for a living but the only thing she gathers is that his dad is rich and powerful with lots of talk about him in social media.
Ivan and Ani are hitting it on so well that he invites her to his lavish New Year party, Ani attends with a friend from the strip nightclub, by now it is well known she is a prostitute amongst Ivan acquaintances, they don’t seem to mind at a all, they are rather amused by it, after one more sex session during the party Ivan has an idea, to hire Ani for a whole week for $10000, Ani accepts without hesitation and leave everything behind (not that she has much to leave) to take this oportunity.
So immediately they are of to Las Vegas with some of Ivan’s friends and they have the time of their lives: gambling, drinking, drugs and sex without restraint. During all this surreal exhilaration it transpires that Ivan needs to go back to Russia in order to fulfill the future his parents have in mind for him, but amidst all the exhilaration he decides to propose marriage to Anora, she accepts after not much convincing, thinking that her blue prince has appeared in th sorry form of Ivan, being already in Vegas getting married quickly poses no problem.
On returning to New York Anora leaves her whole life behind in order to start married life, but this bliss doesn’t last, news have reached Ivan’s parents about the situation and they aren’t pleased, they reach for help in NY in the form of Toros, who is actually a Christian Orthodox priest and two threatening minions of his, Garnik and Igor, the latter two are sent to Ivan’s home to check what the situation, Garnik confirms that the young couple is now married and this causes a fit of anger, Igor, much calmer simply introduces himself, the gangsters realise that this calls for their boss and they call Toros who has to leave a baptism uncompleted in order to attend to this unexpected emergency.
Ivan finally realises the seriousness of the situation and leaves the place to the anger of Toros on arrival to Ivan’s house, he realises the situation is getting out of control when Ani gets very anxious and starts to scream, the gangsters start to restrain her trying to quiet her down but this is not possible until Ani is tied down and gagged and left vulnerable and in total indefension, although she manged to inflict damage to the gangsters, specially to Garnik, Igor tries to calm Ani down but with very little success.
Now that Toros feels in control of the situation he ungags Ani and offers her $10000 to help them find Ivan and walk away from the marriage, she accepts perhaps because she really has no choice, the odd group start to drive around NY with Ani leading the way on the basis of what she knows about the possible places where Ivan could be, after several failed attempts to track Ivan down, and Garnik getting very sick due to a concussion caused by Ani earlier on, they finally get news that Ivan is in the nightclub where Ani used to work as a stripper, they arrive there and after a fracass they manage to get Ivan who is totally wasted (drunk and probably stunned as well).
Toros is mad but tries to take control of the situation, he organises an annulment with the help of a lawyer friend but the judge realises Ani is being forced into this situation and throws the group out of court.
While all this is happening Ivan’s parents, Galina and Nicolai, took a private jet to NY and arrive into town, under parental pressure Ivan accedes to get divorced and dismisses Anora as just a escort, this makes Anora furious and she agrees to the divorce for a fee, the annulment is thus completed, Anora is accompanied by Igor back to NY and she is allowed to stay one night in Ivan’s place so she can gather here stuff, they talk at great length about what has happened and develop some mutual rapport, Igor has been the most sympathetic character towards Anora all along in any case.
Ivan shows up, Ani calls him a rapist and all kind of names.
Next morning there is a blizzard, Ani and Igor leave Ivan’s palatial surroundings, Igor somehow rescued Ani’s wedding ring and gives it to her, he drives her back to her flat, they are parked in front of it now knowing what to do, suddenly Anora jumps on top of Igor, she starts to caress him and he, shocked, starts to reciprocate, finally Igor gathers the courage to try to kiss Ani but she rejects him and breaks down in tears.
Anora is not the kind of film one would expects to win an Oscar to best film: explicit nudity, characters whose moral and ethical compass is erratic to say the least, partially spoken in Russian, gritty, sometimes difficult to watch. Hollywood is growing up, although I was still surprised when this film took such major accolades there.
Amazon UK sponsorship links:
A book about Russian Oligarchs wouldn’t go amiss: https://amzn.to/431LIEz
Get the film: https://amzn.to/433e5lF
And if you want to see where Sean Baker, the director is coming from, you can check Red Rocket (also in a previous #LFF, my review in Tumblr here: https://www.tumblr.com/allyear-lff/681006080686424064/red-rocket-355-venue-curzon-soho-date), then you could not say Anora was out of form or a surprise: https://amzn.to/3Sr3ImQ