Anora (2024)

	Directed by: Sean Baker	COUNTRY USA GENRE Romantic comedy/ Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Anora RUNNING TIME 139 minutes
	Produced by: Alex Coco Samantha Quan Sean Baker
	Written by: Sean Baker

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Anora "Ani" Mikheeva	Mikey Madison
Ivan "Vanya" Zakharov	Mark Eydelshteyn
Igor	Yura Borisov
Toros	Karren Karagulian
Garnik	Vache Tovmasyan	½
Nikolai Zakharov	Aleksei Serebryakov	½
Galina Zakharova	Darya Ekamasova	½
Lulu	Luna Sofía Mirando	-
Diamond	Lindsey Normington	-
Jimmy	Vincent Radwinsky	-
Tom	Anton Bitter	-
Crystal	Ivy Wolk	-
Aleks	Vlad Mamai	-
Dasha	Maria Tichinskaya	-

Review

Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project) wrote, directed, and edited this modern take on the Pretty Woman story: An erotic dancer / sex worker (Mikey Madison) slowly finds herself falling for a buoyant, affectionate man-child (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a filthy rich Russian oligarch, and all is fun and games until the parents and their goons discover that the two lovers have married on a trip to Las Vegas.

Baker essentially divides his film into three acts and manages to infuse each with a very different temperament. The first part is in many ways the best. Though its vibrant optimism may seem to make it airy, there's a delightful authenticity to the way Anora and Nikolai are portrayed. Even if they are both more or less prisoners of their respective existences, they refuse to acknowledge and confront that fact. Eydelshteyn is a force of bubbly nature as Nikolai, and Baker's editing in this part gives it real immediacy.

Anora then moves into its second part – an explosion of screamed profanities, slapstick misunderstandings, and violent chases that feels like something out of an Anders Thomas Jensen picture and is equal parts funny and exhausting. Over the course of this part, Ani's sense of reality is gradually altered, and Baker steers the film into the more sombre, level-headed finale where reality sets in for the characters – though perhaps not for us viewers. Nikolai's parents arguably feel more like plot devices than real people, and you can't help but feel slightly disappointed by the simplicity of the reality check that grounds the story and brings the film to a close... with the exception of the very last scene with Anora and Igor in the car.

Anora won the Palme d'Or as well as the Academy Award for Best Picture, Director, Actress, Original Screenplay, and Editing, making Baker the first filmmaker to win four Oscars for a single film.