Anora-Film Review

Review by Rob Hinkal

Anora may not be Sean Baker’s most technically flawless film, but it is certainly his most emotional one yet. 

It is hard to think of another cinematic experience this year that has hit me as hard as this. It is one of the few films that is, within itself, as much a comedy as a tragedy. Leaving the theatre, I found myself feeling completely rattled in a way that few filmgoing experiences have managed to do. Every single lead character feels like an actual person. Characters regularly reduced to caricatures in standard Hollywood fare are here treated as complex, and often hilarious human beings. Going into the theatre, I was not expecting to laugh this much but man I sure did. 

Mikey Madison delivers a star-making turn as the titular Anora. A sex worker whose chance at a life of luxury arrives in the form of the eager customer, Ivan, played by Mark Eidelshtein. From there, things take several turns and their perfect love story turns into a nightmare scenario as the two are forced to grapple with the disapproval of Ivan’s uber-rich parents. 

While the emotional resonance of the film is striking and certainly powerful, the execution of the story is without a doubt the most challenging aspect of the film. It paints in broad strokes and it is hard to pinpoint a traditional structure to the storytelling, especially within its second half. During the first half, I found myself laughing often and enjoying the “hangout” sensibility on display. But I did start to wonder where this was going. It began to feel like watching an extended montage of highlights from an “awesome” vacation. When the second half arrives, it is much more cohesive and straightforward, taking place over one extended night. It is equally comedic in tone and features a great deal of humor, but watching the same four people argue and talk over each other for what feels like an hour inevitably becomes grating in spots. You wish that things would move along a bit more quickly and that the story would progress.

When you reach the film’s ending, it packs an unexpected emotional wallop. It makes you question what you were laughing at and why and adds realism to the story and characters that make the audience reconsider the humor in the circumstances presented to them throughout the film. The last scene, without spoiling anything, resists giving the audience the emotional catharsis you expect, but instead presents a logically gut-wrenching moment, adding a sense of realism to the story and an edge that I did not see coming. 

A wildly hilarious, unwieldy, and ultimately powerful ride of a film, Anora continues Sean Baker’s streak of being one of the most interesting and unpredictable voices in American cinema today.