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It is no exaggeration to say that Anora is
one of the most honored
films in cinematic
history. It is
only the fourth movie
(after The Lost
Weekend, Marty, and Parasite) to
win both the Best
Picture Academy Award
and the Palme d'Or at
Cannes. Sean
Baker, Anora's director,
producer, writer, and
editor, is only the
second person (after
Walt Disney) to win
four Oscars in one
night, and the only one
to win four for the
same film. Mikey
Madison, Anora's star,
came out of relative
obscurity to win the
Best Actress Oscar, in
the tradition of Judy
Holliday for Born
Yesterday and Audrey Hepburn for Roman Holiday.
Reviewing Anora after
awards season, the
inevitable question
arises: did Anora deserve all those honors?
Post-Oscar reaction has
been mixed. Some
commentators were
enthusiastic, crediting
the film with an
engrossing story,
surprising tonal
shifts, and masterful
performances.
Others accused Baker of
diluting the raw power
of his earlier films,
such as Tangerine and The Florida Project, in
a quest for Oscars.
Some just thought Anora overrated. "(H)ollow,
flippant, muddled,
slightly dull" was the
verdict of The Guardian's Catherine Shoard.
The question is further complicated in that Anora, like
Baker's earlier
films,would repel some
audiences simply
because of its theme
and its very high level
of raunch. Midnight Cowboy, the
last movie about a sex
worker to win the Best
Picture Oscar, is
positively sedate
compared with Anora. This
is typical for Baker, a
longtime specialist in
revealing the humanity
of characters on the
margins of
society. The
characters in Anora may
be depicted in all
sorts of bawdy
situations, but Baker
ensures that what the
audience cares about is
their hearts and souls.
Anora "Ani" Mikheeva (Madison) lives in Brighton Beach and
works as an exotic dancer and escort at a Brooklyn strip club. In
between pole and lap dances, she trades stories about her johns
with her friend Lulu (Luna Sofia Miranda) and insults with her
rival Diamond (Lindsey Normington). One night a customer asks
for a girl who speaks Russian, and the boss sends Ani over. The
customer, Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), takes a shine to Ani and
asks her if she could service him outside the club.
The next day Ani arrives at the address Vanya gave her—an
enormous mansion in a gated community with an expansive view
of the East River. After lots (and lots) of sex, Vanya reveals his
identity: he is Ivan Zakharov, son of the billionaire oligarch
Nikolai Zakharov (Aleksei Serebyakov).
Vanya hires Ani several more times and invites her to a lavish
New Year's Eve party at the mansion. On New Year's Day, with
the two still jangling the bedsprings, they negotiate a deal for a
week of her exclusive services in exchange for $15,000 cash.
During that week, Vanya fires up the private jet and takes Ani and
several of his pals to Las Vegas. (It is evident that the hotel
manager knows Vanya well, is obsequious to him, but secretly
despises him.)
By now Ani and Vanya are attracted to each other, over and above
any professional transactions. In Vegas, Vanya tells Ani that he is
expected to leave America soon to work for his father in
Russia—but he might not have to do that if he has an American
wife. Next stop: wedding chapel.
Up to now, Anora has been a Cinderella story, albeit a ribald one.
But then Vanya's parents in Russia get wind of the marriage. (We
never find out how, and don't need to. They're incredibly rich
and powerful, after all.) They order their New York goons—Toros
(Karren Karagulian), Garnik (Vache Tovmasyan), and Igor (Yura
Borisov)—to get the marriage annulled.
Here the story veers into slapstick comedy. The goons have
handled Vanya since childhood, and know he's never grown up.
But they have no idea how to handle Ani, who has fists, feet, and
teeth of fury. With great difficulty they manage to subdue her and
force her to join them in the search for Vanya, who has fled.
Meanwhile, Vanya's parents are on their way to New York from
Moscow, and the final reckoning is under the control of Galina
(Darya Ekamasova), Vanya's ice-hearted mother.
I said earlier that Anora begins as a Cinderella movie; it ends, so
to speak, with the coach turning into a pumpkin, the prince
turning into a frog and the Wicked Queen triumphant. Ani is not
ashamed of what she does for a living and isn't particularly
seeking to be rescued; nevertheless, who wouldn't be swept off
their feet by the promise of a life of true love and boundless
luxury? For Anora truly loves Vanya, or believes she does, and
she has such a little-girl fantasy life that she says she wants to
have her honeymoon at Disney World. (This stirs memories of The Florida Project, another tale of a likable heroine whose hopes
are dashed at the end.)
The only saving grace at the end is Igor, who proves to be much
less of a clown than his compatriots Toros and Garnik. He is the
only one to show concern and tenderness toward Ani, even as she
insults and assaults him any way she can. Anora's final scene,
played between Ani and Igor in Igor's car, is a poignant coda to a
film that hits every conceivable emotional note. Like Charlie
Chaplin and Virginia Cherrill at the end of City Lights, Ani and
Igor are at a crossroads. How do they move forward? All the
audience can do is hope for the best.
Baker is helped enormously by cinematographer Drew Daniels
and production designer Stephen Phelps, who make Anora's visuals simultaneously thrilling and tawdry. They help Baker
demonstrate that there is not much difference between the low
life at Ani's club and the high life in Vegas and the Zakharov
mansion. The last might be luxurious, but it is in no way elegant
or comfortable. It is a fortress, meant to keep people like Ani out-
-except when a bored Vanya invites her in, like a cat discovering a
new squeaker toy.
Yet Anora would fall apart without a great actress in the lead, and
Mikey Madison is a great actress. In the scenes with the
Zakharovs' goons, she proves herself an excellent physical
comedienne. But even more, she shows us Ani's fighting spirit,
her deep core of sorrow and her even deeper core of integrity.
She surprises the other characters and often even the audience.
Ani is in some ways an update of Born Yesterday's Billie Dawn;
like Billie, she lives in a world where she is a toy for men, but she
is much smarter and more spirited than she is given credit for.
But unlike Billie, Ani has no William Holden to rescue her from
the scheming Broderick Crawford. She has only Igor, and both
are squarely under the thumbs of the Zakharovs. If there is a
clearer demonstration of the difference between the American Zeitgeist of 1950 and that of 2025, I don't know of it.
Did Anora merit the Oscar? On balance, I'd say yes. Was it the
most deserving film this year? There were three or four
nominees which I would have chosen above Anora if I were a
member of the Motion Picture Academy, but most years there are
Best Picture nominees I would choose over the eventual winner.
In the general run of Best Picture winners, Anora in my
estimation is above average. Baker once again shows himself an
eloquent advocate for people who live in society's margins, and he
is powerfully decisive in showing whom he believes are truly
society's dregs.
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