The rise and fall of a Brooklyn princess

Reel Impressions is The NewsHouse’s weekly film review. Contributors Francesco Desiderio and Travis Newbery cover everything from new releases to trending classics. 

Anora is Sean Baker’s latest immersive delve into the larger-than-life characters in the hidden corners of modern America. The film follows sex worker Anora (Mikey Madison) — who prefers Ani — as she stumbles into her dream life faster than you can say Brighton Beach.

Initially working as a stripper, Ani meets Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a wealthy Russian businessman. The spacy but generous Vanya is easy to please, and Ani quickly upends her somewhat dreary day-to-day life to see just how far her new benefactor will take her. 

Pretty far, it would seem, as an off-handed Vegas-induced musing about getting married gets spun into Ani’s personal fairy tale of blissfully lavish domestic living in the blink of an eye. However, when the news of Vanya’s youthful decision-making skills reaches his parents, Ani must do her best to cling on to the miracle before it gets ripped away from her.

First and foremost, what makes Anora as compelling as it is is writer/director/editor Baker’s loose but intimate filmmaking. Where others might try a more traditional or streamlined narrative, Baker drops viewers into the middle of his rich (no pun intended) characters’ lives and lets their zaniness speak for itself. His focus on the pacing also works wonders, using brilliantly cut montages to emphasize euphoric scenes, while extending slower, more slice-of-life moments to rouse authentic emotion and let the hard feelings sink in. 

Writing choices like these work to highlight a key dichotomy found in Anora: naive fantasy versus cold reality. Ani’s oftentimes unintelligible headspace matches this dynamic; if you had to argue that either she was hustling Vanya the whole time, or simply under the spell of YOLO and her new father-in-law’s money, I think you could win either angle. Complexity like this is what makes Anora so infectiously captivating. 

To put it shortly, Anora is a fun movie. Its cocktail of comedy and blissful young fun is unforgettable, and it’s precisely the jolt of life one might want out of a movie right now. The rapturous highs and lows of this 21st-century Cinderella story have no problem leaving viewers with a strong impression.

Another thing that Anora handles well is its ending. Instead of being wrapped up with a nice bow, instead of fully giving in to the bleakness of cold reality, it lingers on a mess of unresolved emotion. Both Ani and the viewers are left to deal with the intense waves of varying feelings from the whirlwind that just played out, and while that may be unsatisfying to some, it’s a dramatically human finish for a story that’s nothing if not human through and through. 

Despite these successes and despite the film’s widespread acclaim, one thing I find lacking about Anora is the development of its title character. About the most backstory Ani gets is that she can speak Russian because her grandmother spoke it, and that’s rather inexcusable for a character drama of this magnitude. No matter how lively and memorable Ani is written and played, I’m just never able to be as invested as I could’ve been had she been given a well-rounded and impactful personal history.

With all this in mind, what’s easily most impressive about Anora is the performance behind her. Words can hardly describe how remarkable Madison is in this role, and she brings the already storied character of Ani so much soul and spark. After her first big part being lit on fire in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood just 5 years ago, Mikey Madison is now on fire as a serious — and deserved — contender for industry awards this year.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Anora’s hidden gem: its goons. A hilarious trio made up of a quiet but sympathetic enforcer, a persistent pushover and their harsh, out-of-touch boss spend more time with Ani than Vanya, and we’re all much better off for it. It’s touches like this that make Baker such a lovable filmmaker on the up-and-up.

You and many others might disagree with me, but this character-driven Palme d’Or winner unfortunately can’t live up to my hype with its main character’s surprisingly missing backstory. However, Madison’s stellar performance and Baker’s refined filmmaking shine through and are enough to give anyone a good time. Anora stands tall as a true “little movie that could,” and its successes will speak for themselves come awards season. 

Watch the official trailer for Anora here: