Sean Baker’s “Anora” premiered with a bang, winning the prestigious Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Surprisingly it’s the first American film to do so since Terrence Malick’s sublime 2011 masterpiece “The Tree of Life”. Unfortunately “Anora” falls well short of that lofty masterpiece status. Instead it’s a draining exercise in indulgent filmmaking that puts its focus on most of the wrong things.
“Anora” sees Baker gravitating towards the same problems that plagued his previous feature, 2021’s “Red Rocket”. His films set out to be raw, gloss-free windows into overlooked American subcultures and that’s a good thing. But too often his tawdry obsessions come at the expense of much-needed attention to his characters and/or their relationships. Never has that been more true than in “Anora” – one of the loudest and longest 140 minutes you’ll endure.
“Anora” is a blaring example of what a lack of restraint can do to a movie. Baker’s inability to know when to ease off the gas and let his characters breathe becomes one of the film’s biggest problems. We’re left with surface-level treatments rather than any meaningful development. And good luck finding an emotional core amid the endless yelling, constant arguing, and (at times) brain-melting dialogue.
The film’s star Mikey Madison is the biggest victim playing Anora, a 23-year-old lap dancer at a high-end New York City strip club. Much like Emma Stone for Yorgos Lanthimos, Madison lays bare and fully commits to her male director’s vision. But despite routinely stripping down and screaming on demand, Baker never gives her the material she needs to stretch her role beyond rank exhibitionism. Yet in a weird way it fits with the aggressive amorality of Baker’s crass and cranked-up world.
Madison’s Anora, who goes by Ani, works at Club HQ making her money fulfilling the 15-minute fantasies of her diverse clientele. One evening she dances for a rich and pampered young Russian named Vanya (Mark Eidelshtein) – an easy frontrunner for the most obnoxious movie character of the year. He’s immediately attracted to Ani, showering her with C-notes and inviting her to his family’s modernistic mansion for some sex work on the side. It’s a proposition Ani happily accepts.
Ani is framed as a savvy young woman who understands the ins-and-outs of the game she plays. She uses manipulation like a scalpel, shrewdly seducing customers by catering to their desires for her own self-interests. But her supposed agency and acumen are unintentionally undermined by her relationship with Vanya. Her tough and confident persona takes a “Pretty Woman” turn after she accepts $15,000 to be his girlfriend for a week.
Following six days of rampant sex, drugs, and partying (which Baker numbingly depicts for what seems like an eternity), Ani and Vanya fly to Vegas on a whim and get married. Nothing about their sudden nuptials makes sense mostly because the pair spend too much time in a haze of debauchery to develop any believable emotional attachment.
Or maybe Ani is just in it for the money. But that makes us question everything we thought we knew about her. How could she not see through the patently flighty and profligate Vanya? We certainly can. The problem is we don’t really know because so much screentime is wasted on superfluous things that we never get a good sense of Ani’s true feelings, sensibilities, or even her motivations.
In reality the marriage is little more than a device used to turn the second act of “Anora” into a half-baked screwball romp across New York City. After word of Vanya’s exploits reaches his wealthy parents back in Russia, they send their son’s Brooklyn-based handler, Toros (Karren Karagulian) and his two bumbling goons, Igor (Yuriy Borisov) and Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) to get the marriage annulled. But once they arrive at the family estate Vanya splits, leaving the angry Ani to join the three inept tough guys in their citywide search for him.
As “Anora” takes its dramatic turn it only gets more narratively and tonally chaotic. The one consistent throughline is the incessant yelling, ranting and raving which is so prevalent that it feels like a running joke I must not get. Meanwhile the world Baker recreates has a striking air of accuracy due to his choice to shoot on location. It’s too bad his characters don’t possess the same authenticity. Instead they find themselves trapped within a proudly profane yet frustratingly hollow construct that gives the appearance of something raw and dazzling but is actually a repetitive and exhausting grind.
VERDICT – 1.5 STARS
Keith & the Movies 
Eew. Sounds tawdry.
It’s tawdry but it’s much more of an exhausting and overindulgent slog.
Tawdry? KMA! It’s a total POS! Mickey Dolenz is a better actress!
Tawdry??? KMA! It’s a total POS! Mickey Dolenz is a better actress!
I hated Red Rocket, or at least the obnoxious lead character. This sounds even worse. Baker’s best film, The Florida Project, at least had the poor kids to weigh emotion against the car-crash underclasses the filmmaker focusses on. Did the film really win the Palm D’Or? Wow!
I also really disliked Red Rocket. Anora has many of the same problems and then a few new ones of its own.
I was going to see this film this weekend but my sister is out of town for the weekend as I’m spending a bit of my time watching my niece and nephew with my mom. I hope it is still around at my local multiplex next weekend but I need to watch Red Rocket first as I’ve seen 3 films by Baker plus some shorts as I like what he does.
I bet it will be around next weekend. Most seem to love it. Once was enough viewing for me. LOL
It’s “Anora” piece of crap and one of the year’s WORST!!!!
At last someone I agree with about this awful film. Every other review I’ve read thinks it’s wonderful. It’s not. I was just dying for the film to end. The only reason I stayed was because I had to discuss it with a film group I belong to the following week.
It absolutely exhausted me. Like you, I was happy when it was finally over.
Certain film makers just not on the same wavelength I am, I was getting the feeling this is one of them, and you pretty much confirmed this isn’t a movie for me. Sure is popular with a good bit of the movie intelligentsia.
I’m right there with you. Other critics are just loving this thing. And they tend to really love Sean Baker. But for me, the flaws are pretty jarring with this one.
I had a completely different take. I liked Florida Project more, but this film continued in the vein of critiquing economic disparities, and exploring the extremes people will go to just to survive. Yes it’s tonally chaotic, but I also felt that humor leavened the depressing subject matter. I can see where you are coming from in parts of your review, and I do think Florida Project handles similar subject matter better, but Anora is not the disaster you depict it as, in my view. Thanks for the food for thought, nonetheless.
Thanks for reading and the thoughtful comments. I think for me his critique of economic disparities is smothered out by his deafening and proudly rowdy style. And the humor couldn’t quite save it for me because so much it is tied to the constant chaos of the characters and their interactions. Still I am definitely in the minority. People love Baker and especially love Anora. 🙂
It’s totally fine to be in the minority, of course! I often/sometimes am when it comes to movies. I hated Tree of Life, for example. What’s important is to be able to back up your critiques, which you do well. Isn’t it interesting how wildly disparate tastes can be? I don’t begrudge you hating the movie, obviously, but I love to read reviews that differ from my own takes. I always read the bad reviews first of movies that I like, to see if they will further inform my own thoughts. I do think you are on to something about his critique being smothered by the proudly rowdy style. Well said. Of course, I was already programmed to search out his economic disparity critique since I had seen Florida Project, so it may be that a lesser educated viewer might miss the critique. Who knows. I will continue to think about this movie. I still liked it quite a bit but at first I wasn’t so sure until it got going. ANYWAY.
I too enjoy reading opposite opinions. It’s part of what makes movies so fascinating to me. It also opens me up to looking at movies from different points of view. I really like that.
The characters are interesting and the potential for a great movie was there but the movie failed to adequately explore the Ani by focusing instead on the wild goose chase and relentless chaos. Reviewer is spot on: why would this presumably street smart and world weary Noo Yawk woman not see through Vanya’s childishness and impulsivity to realize from the outset that the marriage would be a farce? Is she so desperate to rise above her class circumstances that she deluded herself? If that was Baker’s intent when he wrote the character then he failed. The brief glimpses we get into her home life weren’t enough to convince me that she was so desperate to delude herself and get swept into the chaos of this obviously spoiled boy’s whims.
You are so right. I think the intent is to make her a smart and street savvy young woman but the writing undercuts her all along the way. Honestly, I never bought into any of the characters, especially in the second half where things turned borderline cartoonish.
really good review. I walked out of the last twenty minutes of this thing because it was so mind numbing stupid. It felt like the hangover meets the “catch me outside” chicks social media account. For half an hour they walked around New York showing pictures of the guy to people. KILL ME.
Reading all the positive reviews for this movie on rotten tomatoes was far more funny that anything that happened in the movie
I remain stunned that this thing is getting so much awards hype. It’s such a flawed (and frankly draining) movie.
just saw Anora on Prime, how the hell this film won the prize d’or in Cannes?
It’s baffling to me. But it’s on par with what Awards Season has become. Small but vocal groups get behind a very few select movies and push them through. Anora is nothing close to being a Cannes quality winner. And now it’s frontrunner for Best Picture at the Oscars.
it was awful.
I thought it was terrible as well. Not sure why it was christened as one of this year’s awards season darlings.
walked out of this x rated movie
the. Stupidest. Movie.