Award-winning Anora is a dark romantic comedy, about a spontaneous and unfortunate marriage between escort girl Anora (Mikey Madison) and the son of Russian oligarch Ivan Zakharov (Mike Eidelstein). The film has been written and directed for the screen by Sean Baker, known for his earlier films The Florida Project and Tangerine. Anora has been awarded Palme d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and nominated for People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Anora works as escort girl in Headquarters Bar in Brooklyn, New York. During one of her shifts her boss introduces her to Ivan Zakharov, as she is the only escort that understands and speaks Russian. As Ivan, or Vanya as his friend refer to him, books her for more and more private sessions in his mansion, they fall in love and marry each other in Vegas. However, Ivan’s powerful parents want to force an annulment of the union as quickly and as quietly as possible to save their family name. The plot of the film develops from fast-paced lighthearted comedy with a rags-to-riches story similar to Pretty Woman to a tense dark comedy where the most powerful in the society get their way.
The main roles in Anora were given to Mikey Madison and Mike Eidelshtein. Madison plays the film’s protagonist Anora, and she shines in her role. Her performance as the girls’ girl when her character is still working at the Headquarters is very seamless and engaging, clearly bringing the character to life. The actress has also delivered when it comes to the pole and lap dancing sequences. She also gave brilliant performance in the explicit sex scenes her character engages in. Even though her character was just being an escort girl, a type of character usually only included in the films for the sake of an eye candy. She took the script and created a complex character, with all the personality flaws the plot needed to be enhanced. The only thing that is dragging Mikey Madison’s performance is the male lead, Mike Eidelshtein, who’s performance had a lot to wish for. His acting style was quite surface-level, and the audience doesn’t get to see the similar amount of effort into building and breathing air into the character as Madison put into hers. Even though Eidelshtein’s character is supposed to be a caricature of the rich, spoiled brats of the upper class, it is not a well-executed one. There are a lot of moments in the film when instead of seeing Ivan Zakharov, we see Mike Eidelshtein trying to act as Ivan Zakharov. He didn’t manage to create the same illusion of an authentic character, and it is something that is difficult to look past, especially as he is one of the lead characters. The rest of the cast sadly didn’t play their roles well. They became the stereotypical goofy portrayals of the Russian oligarchs and their cronies. Which takes the viewer out of the experience and makes them completely disengaged with the plot.
What doesn’t help is the inconsistent or weirdly slowed down pacing of the film after the Vegas wedding. The film dramatically changes from the fast-paced scenes where the characters constantly chase after more booze, more drugs, more sex, more parties, to painfully slow resolution of the conflict between Ivan’s parents and the newlywed couple. This change in pace, because it changes so rapidly, doesn’t even do its task in creating the suspense or making the audience ask questions about what will happen next – instead it creates boredom and a desire to walk out.
If there is one part of Anora that deserves the praise, it’s the photography and lighting design. Director of photography Drew Daniels, who also worked with Baker on Red Rocket, has really shown his talent when it comes to use of colourful lighting in the Headquarters scenes, Vegas sequences and the party scenes. The colours wash over the character beautifully embracing their dancing bodies and sexual exploits at the bar. This is especially visible in the opening dolly shot, where the camera presents to the viewer the row of sex workers giving their patrons lap dances. Here the lighting and the use of slight slow motion that that makes all the movement in the scene graceful. Even as the film abandons those colourfully lit spaces as it moves to the daytime sequences in the film the photography is still just as good. For these scenes, Daniels opts for motivated and natural lighting. This allows the audience to get immersed into the characters’ day-to-day reality. It is that range between the elaborate lighting design in the bar and the minimalistic lighting design of the outside scenes that shows Daniels’ cinematographic talent.
In general, it is a film that is inconsistent, with many great elements that never got properly married to each other. For every well-shot sequence, there is a badly executed comedic performance that ultimately strips the plot from its gravity.
Anora’s story is that of a failed Cinderella arc, Anora never gets to spend her life in lavish luxuries of the rich life and Ivan never gets to spend more time with her. It is a story of naivety, false impressions and class divide. It is perfect for enjoyers of romance and erotica novels, as well as fans of the hit TV series Euphoria. It is releasing in cinema 25th October.
Film Title: Anora
Director: Sean Baker
Cast: Mikey Madison, Mike Eidelshtein, Karren Karagulian, Yura Borisov
Genre: Dark romantic comedy
Release Year: 2024 Rating: 6/10
