Anora Movie Review

Anora (2024)

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Written by: Sean Baker
Directed by: Sean Baker
Starring: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan
Rated: R
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Plot
A young escort from Brooklyn meets and impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairy tale is threatened as his parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

Verdict
This takes aspects from a number of films and combines them into something new. A whirlwind romance turns into a manhunt to annul a marriage. The underlying themes that provide depth is how transactional various relationships end up being and the masks people wear. Initially it seems that she wants him for his money, but then he appears to want marriage for a Green Card. When the marriage is challenged, she's upset and he is likely wanting to return to his parent funded lifestyle. Even a lack of freedom can look unencumbered for a moment.
It depends.

Review
Baker's movies typically focus on marginalized people. His breakthrough was Tangerine, shot on iPhone 5S phones. His next two films were The Florida Project and Red Rocket. This film won five Oscars; best picture, director, actress, screenplay, and editing.

Ani (Mikey Madison) works at a strip club where she meet a rich, Russian young man Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn). They have a good time and she meets him the next day at his ostentatious house. He's awkward, part of that is being a Russian transplant but he's also young and inexperienced. Vanya pays her to be his girlfriend for a wild week of casinos, parties, and planes. He has a sense of entitlement you only have when you're rich. Ani seems to have a nice enough apartment, but this has to be a level of wealth to which she's unaccustomed. We're not sure if Ani finds him charming or if she's enjoying an all expenses paid trip.

Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn play Ani, Vanya

Vanya is someone that's never had responsibility or had to work where it's a safe assumption that Ani has had to hustle to make ends meet. He has to go back to Russia but proposes marriage so he can stay in America. They seem like infatuated children, but there's the obvious imbalance. Does Ani like Vanya for his money? He asked and she gave the right answer, but we can't help but wonder.

Vanya's parents find out, and they don't like the marriage. He freaks out and runs out of the house when confronted by his parents' henchmen. The scene becomes a comedy of errors as Vanya flees, Igor (Yura Borisov) tries to subdue Ani, and Garnik (Vache Tovmasyan) tries to handle the situation, all the while Toros (Karren Karaguilian) is on speaker phone wondering what's going on. This is the point where the movie takes a distinct tonal shift. This felt like a more realistic take on Pretty Woman before it becomes something more like Uncut Gems or Good Time.

Igor, Garnik, Toros with Ani as their captive search the town for Vanya. They're afraid of their bosses, his parents, and that makes them desperate. They travel to different clubs and intimidate various people before finally finding him.

Vache Tovmasyan, Mikey Madison, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian play Garnik, Ani, Igor, Toros

Ani seems to really care about him, but at this point he's drunk and indifferent. She doesn't understand why he's going along with his parents wishes and not fighting for their marriage. It might be that he was using her for the Green Card, but it's clear his parents funded his lifestyle and he doesn't want to sacrifice that. This group makes it into court due to Vanya's parents' wealth. The court room is ridiculous. Vanya is drunk, Ani is yelling at the judge, and Toros is talking over the family lawyer, objecting. When the lawyer finds out they married in Vegas, he laments they can't annul it in New York. The judge isn't even mad, he has no clue what's going on, amazed by the circus unfolding before him.

Vanya acts like a whipped puppy. He dismisses the importance of the marriage to his parents, angering Ani. It comes back to Vanya not having any responsibility, never having to work for anything. As this unfolds, we see that Igor feels bad for her. He even steps out of line and states Vanya should apologize to Ani, and Vanya's mom states her son apologizes to no one. That's his exact problem.

The tag at the end is a bit slow, prolonging the movie when the story has concluded, but my opinion was soon changed. We get a moment with someone that actually cares about Ani and likes her. Whenever someone has provided her with anything or seemed to care, she reciprocates with sex; essentially faking it before and during the movie. This sequence is the only moment where she's emotionally vulnerable. Throughout the movie she quickly becomes defensive. It underscores the transactional nature of all the relationships we've seen up to this point.