Anora: An In Depth Review
Written by Jamilla Philson
All images courtesy of IMDB / NEON
Contains spoilers:
Anora R for: nudity, sex, violence, drug use.
Anora, directed by critically acclaimed filmmaker Sean Baker, tells the story of a young erotic dancer and sex worker living in South Brooklyn. The film revolves around our protagonist Anora“ Ani” Mikheeva, played by Mikey Madison. One day while working at the club, she receives an offer to be the girlfriend to the son of a Russian millionaire named Ivan“ Vayna” Zakharov, played by Mark Eydelshteyn. Ani accepts, thrusting her into a world so unknown and foreign from hers that it sends her down the craziest rabbit hole imaginable. Since May 2024, it has received significant praise all around, winning the Palme D’Or, the highest honor at the Cannes Film Festival. Madison’s performance as Ani has garnered respect and earned her the title of the next“ it-girl” or“ indie darling.” Despite this, the film didn’t seem to shock me in terms of innovation or in its performance, which I had been led to expect.
I am no stranger to Sean Baker’s work. Having first watched The Florida Project in 2020, I grew to appreciate Baker’s strange realist perspective on life. He is described by the film community as a neorealist; he casts real people, films in real locations, and most importantly, represents real stories. He is a talented filmmaker, writer, and editor. I recently watched his film Tangerine (2015), which follows two Black transgender sex workers embarking on a journey to find their pimp who has wronged them on Christmas Eve. While I do have some qualms with Tangerine, the storytelling and representation far outweigh the nitpicky criticisms I have. Baker’s work is raw and in your face, but he is representing groups that are not often shown in film or media in general, which is why I had such a difficult time processing Anora after hearing such fantastic reviews of the film.
The opening shot of the film is blunt. It shows Ani at work in the complete nude, representing the sort of blatant objectification that sex workers experience. He is showing viewers Ani through the lens of how the world perceives her. Yet, for a film with a goal to humanize sex workers, I felt like it did the opposite. A majority of the shots of Ani felt very exploitative, and yes, that is probably what Baker is trying to demonstrate to us: that the world is vile and views women in this way, but it comes off as male gaze-y and unrelated to the plot. Some have described this film as a realistic version of Pretty Woman (1990), while it actually felt like lost footage from season 3 of Euphoria. I adore Ani’s character and love what she represents, but the plot fell flat for me. Normally, a main character is supposed to push the plot, not the other way around. Ani felt like a secondary character in a movie that shares her name. The plot is, rather, pushed through the perspective of the men around her, as she is dragged along with them throughout the movie. The film’s genre is described as a“ screwball comedy,” when in reality this felt like such a tragedy. We watch a young girl go through a dreadful journey meant to humanize her, yet this relief didn’t come until the last scene. Ani was barely given any sort of backstory, and I understand there might have been a point that Baker was making with that choice, but it made Ani’s character feel flat and static.
I love the conceptual attempts this film makes. The thematic elements and goals for the film are something I’d want to see in mainstream media. I will give Baker credit for that, but the film for me teeters a line of exploitation. I shouldn’t have listened to all of the FilmTokers praising the film so they could get clout. Being used to Sean Baker’s work, you would expect shaky handheld camera movements, low production quality (sometimes on an iPhone), and hyper-realistic acting. That is Baker’s allure. However, in Anora, all elements of what he is known for felt washed away immediately. It felt Hollywood-ized. Anora represents a plethora of things symbolic of“ The American Dream.” The elements are there but the execution is not. It shows that the American Dream is actually a nightmare, a tragedy even. Ani is a lower class young girl trying to survive in South Brooklyn by dancing at a club. Ani thinks she is on top and has everything she needs because Ivan has given her this new life, she is actually put through the wringer and loses everything. The film also touches on the objectification that women and sex workers suffer through in general. The thing that broke Ani was being seen and being wanted for who she was, not what she had, represented, or did for work. Ani had never felt compassion from someone who did not want her for her body; something that is foreign to her. Her buried emotions were protected by her tough, no-shit-taking exterior. But when someone, Vanya’s henchman Igor, challenges that, it humanizes her and makes her break down. I love what this film stands for, but the execution of it all is what made me have such difficult feelings.
Watching this made me wonder what this film would have looked like through the lens of a woman director or someone in the same line of work as Ani. Baker was not only the director, but also the writer and editor of the film, two distinct roles that could have benefited the story with some diversity from another perspective. The authenticity did not quite feel there yet. Tangerine, in my opinion, felt like a better thematic representation of Anora, yet it didn’t get enough praise or attention due to it being one of his earlier films, and in my opinion, because it represents an even more marginalized group: Black trans women. Regardless, this film’s message represents something beyond my critiques. The humanization of sex workers is an absolute must in this society and their stories belong in the mainstream. As an appreciator of film, I can understand why this did so well with audiences and at Cannes, but personally, I found it lacking in everything I was hoping for.
