Anora
Anora/Ani is a high priced adult dancer in Brooklyn NY,. one night she is asked to dance for Vanya a very wealthy Russian heir. He takes a shining to her – and begins to see and pay for her privately.
When he asks her to marry him in Vegas, she accepts, and they quickly tie the knot.
Upon their return, they discover his mother is extremely angry about the news. She orders his Armenian Godfather, Toros – along with his henchmen to have the wedding annulled. Vanya runs off and Ani, Toros and the henchmen must all must try to track him down before his parents arrive from Russia.
Direction
The directing by Sean Baker is sound, and having seen some of his earlier work – is the most adventurous of his so far.
His usual shots in the dark, and sun glare, as well as use of colours are present, but if anything I found it a little underwhelming. He has done far better use of framing in the past, and this was… just okay. Considering the rave reviews, and multiple Oscars it scored – I was a little disappointed and underwhelmed.
Cast/Characters
Mikey Madison as Ani, does well, and delivers a solid performance. Her Brooklyn accent is flawless, but once again, is this an Oscar winning worthy performance? No.
Mark Eydelshteyn as Vanya is sound, and delivers what is needed, but other than what was put to paper, his performance was a little forgettable. I would have loved a little more, and it would have added to the screenplay if other arcs were included.
Yura Borisov as Igor, one of Toros’ henchmen also received an Oscar nomination. He has some nice moments with Ani, which I will go into soon.
Karren Kargulian, a Sean Baker regular performer plays Toros, and gets the most to do in any of the films than what I have seen in previous films.
Screenplay/Setting/Themes
The narrative is relatively easy to follow, but having seen Baker’s previous films, I was somewhat let down by what I witnessed. The arcs are a little muddled, with it trying to be a ‘love story’ at first, and then progresses into an almost ‘Tangerine’ like story where Ani and co go searching for Vanya.
I would have preferred more to the Vanya/Ani conflict than there was. At times characters refer to him as a ‘child’ and this would have made much more sense if he was revealed to be a juvenile – rather than be an actual adult under his parent’s control. It took away from what he wanted to do earlier in the film.
As per usual Baker, screenplay it has a multi lingual finish to it, with this film focusing on the Russian speaking natives of Brighton Beach, NYC, which is known for its large Russian population. Toros’ Armenian is also prominent.
Baker excels in showing how certain minorities live, and he does again here. This time in showing how the world of sex work can be. I thought that this was done okay, but should have been the front and center of the themes of the film. Here it is almost sidelined to the ‘love story’ of Ani and Vanya.
Score/Soundtrack
This was the first time in one of Baker’s films that it appears that he had the budget for a soundtrack and it was done a little poorly. The wedding/honeymoon montage was bombarded with Greatest Day by Robin Schulz Rework and it took away from the point. It was just loud and obnoxious.
Overall
While I did like this film, it was flawed, it was confused in the narrative, and didn’t know exactly what it wanted to be.
Despite it being a fine film – it neither deserved the hype, or the multiple Oscars it received. I like Baker as a director, but I think some of his previous work is much better.
I’ve decided to change my review from my Podcast review, and drop it to a…
3.5/5