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Fans of filmmaker Sean Baker will note his intense commitment to realistic narratives, which often highlight the lives of sex workers and other disenfranchised groups. “Anora,” Baker’s new feature and winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Festival, is no different. While “Anora” isn’t for the prudish and doesn’t shy away from jarring realism, it’s a tour de force in Baker’s craft.

“Anora” subverts all audience expectations. The first act reads like a modern Cinderella story, with Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), a spoiled prince of Russian oligarch wealth, courting Ani (Mikey Madison), a poor stripper and sex worker from Brighton Beach. They quickly marry so Vanya can get a green card and avoid going back to Russia to work for his father.

After their marriage, Ani quits her job at the club and lives with Vanya. As a husband, he is a dopamine fiend, whose daily routine is self-serving sex with Ani, followed by hitting his vape and hopping on video games.

This childish relationship is at times humorous and endearing, but unsettling in the wider narrative. Though Vanya repeatedly insists his love for Ani is pure and genuine, it’s clear he’s using her for his own pleasure. Vanya is an idiot, plain and simple. His hedonistic lifestyle – which is much to the chagrin of his family and their hired thugs – starkly contrasts the desperation of Ani’s life.

The thugs subvert all expectations, too. Initially, they seem dangerous, but emerge as excellent foils to Vanya’s childish behavior. Particularly, Igor (Yura Borisov), a quiet and initially threatening character who binds and gags Ani, is eventually shown as a tender and caring person. He engages in dialogue with Ani in ways that Vanya never does.

But the marriage eventually breeds conflict. Toros (Karren Karagulian), Vanya’s Armenian godfather, is at a baptism when he receives a call from Vanya’s domineering mother, Galina (Darya Ekamasova), as soon as she finds out about the wedding. She orders Toros to fix it, so he sends his goons, Igor and Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), to collect Vanya and Ani and force them to divorce.

In an unexpected twist, Ani proves to be more dangerous than the goons sent to collect her. She gives Garnick a concussion and Igor expends all his energy trying to reign her in. Vanya goes missing before Toros arrives at the apartment, making him completely livid.

The second act incorporates Safdie-esque elements, with a wild goose chase through New York’s club scene while Toros, his thugs and Ani hunt for Vanya. Some of the most hilarious moments of the movie are here: Garnick pukes all over the front seat of Toros’ SUV; Ani fights with one of her old strip club coworkers; Garnick passes out on a chair during an uproarious argument at the divorce lawyer’s office.

Underlying each of these scenes are subtle commentaries about class and wealth, with Vanya’s avoidance of real responsibility juxtaposed by Ani’s reliance on his wealth.

Tender moments undercut the disorganized intensity of the second act. Igor offers Ani a scarf, which she rejects initially, then after five seconds of walking in the cold air, changes her mind. These moments, entirely character-driven, add to the movie’s realistic tone.

The characters are flawed, but their actions are consistently pure and driven by feelings of greater responsibility. Ani’s motives are to ascend the social ladder; Igor’s are to look out for Ani and serve his bosses simultaneously; Toros’ are to protect his godson and help Vanya’s family. There’s a strong sense of honor and respect among Ani and the thugs, while Vanya and his wealthy family look down on the poor as nothing more than a means to an end.

When Vanya’s parents arrive in the United States, they chide their brat for his behavior, but look contemptuously upon Ani. Igor demands Vanya apologize for his behavior, but Galina insists Vanya doesn’t have to apologize. Igor decides that standing up for Ani is more important than service to a master he lacks respect for, which Ani grows to appreciate by the end of the film.

Even though “Anora” runs the full gamut of emotions, it stays true to its core. When it brings in new characters, they initially seem like stock characters: the Russian thug, the Brooklyn stripper and the spoiled brat. But the film revels in rounding out these flat characters, making Igor one of the sweetest and most caring characters of the year, while Ani is one of the most defiant and resilient.

What “Anora” does best is toe the line between emulating a Safdie brothers’ thriller, another realist Baker-led heartbreaker and a laugh-out-loud comedy. Madison shines in her role as Ani, with her Brooklyn accent and explicit language bringing plenty of spunk to a character that could have been grossly stereotypical. The film relies on Ani, and she steals every scene in a performance that should sweep next awards season.

The final scene is one of the most jarring moments in film this year. With nothing but diegetic sound in a car’s front seat, Baker crafts one of the most tragic yet uplifting scenes ever put on screen. To put it without spoilers, the ending perfectly encapsulates the tension between sex and intimacy, and how the two aren’t always connected, especially for a sex worker. “Anora” wraps up with tears and the creak of windshield wipers against fallen snow.

A film like this, with emotional range, screwball comedy and a vast cast of curiously complex stock characters, comes around once in a lifetime. “The Florida Project” and “Tangerine” established Baker as a key player in contemporary film, but “Anora” may define Baker as one of the most realistic and humanistic directors of all time.

Published on November 18, 2024 at 11:05 pm