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Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, impulsively meets and marries an oligarch’s son
Once the news reaches Russia, her fairy tale is threatened when his parents leave for New York to annul the marriage. IMDb editor Arno Kazarian provides brief reviews of 12 films he screened at the 2024 New York Film Festival, including Anora and the dangerous and curiously erotic Mercy.
She is referenced in Close-Up: Anora (2024)
At the Cannes Film Festival press conference, Mikey Madison said that director Sean Baker would act out different sexual positions with his wife, producer Samantha Quan, to show the actors what he wanted them to do. Sean Baker is right up there with Chloe Zhao as one of the most humanistic and empathetic directors of our generation.
That said, his latest film ANORA proves that he is much more a filmmaker of character and atmosphere than plot
His eye for the marginalized and his keen ability to show the limits of the American dream cement his place as an important and much-needed artistic voice. What starts out as a promising screwball comedy with trademark touches of pathos turns into a slapstick farce in dire need of an editor, with some scenes just going around in circles to the point where I wanted Paul Simon to come out and sing, “I’m on my way/I don’t know where I’m going/But I’m on my way…” Blake Edwards’ work seems to be a subconscious influence here, making such excesses a little more understandable; a film like VICTOR could be a masterpiece if not for one bar fight too many.
But after loving Baker’s last two films, which were less plot-driven and more atmospheric, empathetic studies of forgotten American communities, this film proved to be a huge disappointment
Still, the comedy often feels more contrived than a natural product of the characters’ idiosyncrasies, and a touching but sudden final scene would have been better if some of the slapstick had been traded for more moments that fleshed out the protagonist beyond, well, her flesh. Mikey Madison certainly maximizes what he can maximize with an underdeveloped character (the additional nuance perhaps provided by Baker’s regular co-writer Chris Bergoch seems to be missing), and the supporting cast does the same, especially Baker’s regular collaborator Karren Karagulian.
I think a film about her story ultimately would have been far more interesting
There are a couple of scenes in the film that feature a seemingly lonely, brooding maid forced to clean up the excessive mess left behind by the spoiled rich person she works for. Check out our list of exciting new films from this year’s film festivals, including Venice, TIFF, the New York Film Festival and more.