Anora

♣♣♣♣/♣♣♣♣♣

Third generation immigrant Anora Mikheeva (Mikey Madison) resides in Brighton Bridge and relies on sex work to get by. She is popular at the club where she works, with a steady stream of clients that guarantee a stable income. Being the only girl who can speak Russian, she is assigned one night to Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the spoiled brat son of a Russian oligarch who is in America to study, even though he spends most of his time and daddy’s money on drugs and sex. The two form a professional relationship where she is invited to his mansion to be a fixture at his parties, reserving late nights for a few rounds of sex. And then he proposes something that strikes her as life-changing: Marriage. Drunk and high, the couple flies to Vegas with friends and gets married there. And they lived happily ever after… NOT. When the parents find out, they fly in from Russia for damage control, and this is where the fun begins.

Anora barged into my consciousness when I started tracking very early Oscar predictions for next year. The film, the director Sean Baker, and its lead actress Mikey Madison are currently the frontrunners for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actress on Gold Derby, respectively. Not to mention that the film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the first American film to do so in over a decade. I’m sorry but, Anora, what? Sean Baker and Mikey Madison, who? I got curious, okay. And so one boring afternoon in Manhattan when I was supposed to watch yet another Broadway matinee, I decided to just run to AMC 25 and see this movie instead.

The first half of Anora feels more like soft porn: lots of sex, gratuitous titty shots; full frontal avoided via clever camera angles. Suffice it to say that this is a rowdy Cinderella-inspired rags-to-riches tale but Cinderella is a stripper and the wicked stepsisters are her jealous co-workers, while the prince is a Russian twink who doesn’t know what to do with daddy’s money. The second half is where the film devolves into a Russian mafia mob comedy, and it’s freaking hilarious. Calling this movie a romantic comedy is debatable because the romance subplot is not comedic and the comedic part is not romantic. Tragic, but maybe that’s just me.

If there is something here that we can actually consider a romantic comedy, perhaps it’d be that romance subplot between Anora and Igor. The cat and dog dynamics they have from the very beginning is already a clear indication as to where the storyline wants to go, but this is never fully explored until the last five minutes of the movie. Again, that scene can be considered as romantic by some, but definitely not comedy. As Anora fully breaks down on his lap mid-coitus as he tries to kiss her, there really is no place for laughter. If anything, it serves as a brief social commentary on the transactional nature of sex and its effect on romance.

This aspect is well debated in online forums. Sex, when viewed through a purely evolutionary angle, is merely a means to make sure that a species won’t go extinct. Go forth and multiply, right? In a more evolved society where we currently are at the moment, this act gets upgraded to a manifestation of romantic feelings, a consummation of sexual tension between two individuals. “Making love” they call it. However, sex can also be used as a means of livelihood. Prostitution is, in fact, the world’s oldest profession. When you engage in the act regularly to earn money, how does that affect your mentality when you aren’t doing it for cash anymore?

If you are looking for a cotton candy flavored romantic comedy, I’m afraid Anora is probably not the best choice to satisfy your sweet tooth. If you want a chaotic comedy with a dash of social commentary, though, then you came to the right place. It’s too early to tell whether the film, Sean Baker or Mikey Madison will be taking home an Oscar statuette next year. If they do, this film is proof that they deserve it. If it were up to me, though, I’d rather they also win Best Ensemble at SAG, because that second half of the movie wouldn’t have been possible without Yura Borisov as Igor, Karren Karagulian as Toros, and Vache Tovmasyan as Garnick.