After sweeping 5 Oscars at this year's academy awards and around 107 awards and counting, worldwide, Anora comes to the screens as part of the Red Lorry festival package
Still from the movie
Cast: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan
Director: Sean Baker
Rating: 3.5/5
Runtime: 138 min
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After sweeping 5 Oscars at this year's academy awards and around 107 awards and counting, worldwide, Anora comes to the screens as part of the Red Lorry festival package and is also playing on OTT. The film is basically a rowdier version of the ‘Pretty Woman’ construct and doesn’t cater to the fairy tale ending. It is basically about how great sex and drugs can color the way you think and after you’ve woken up to reality, harsh perspective changes take its place instead. Two cultures, two languages (English & Russian) and money, drugs and sex fuel this ‘Cinderella’ gone sour story that makes love a commodity, romance a bitter unreality and sex and marriage a game.
This film, like countless Hollywood fantasies, tells the story of how young people from different cultures fall in love while in drug induced fervor and then deal with the consequences once they run into obstacles. It’s a reality check on the fairy tale romance concept.
A New York stripper and the reckless son of a Russian oligarch are the two principal characters here. Ani (Mikey Madison), works at a Manhattan strip club giving lap dances to businessmen and, a rich Russian kid called Ivan/Vanya Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn), becomes her client because she knows a little Russian and he doesn’t speak or understand English. Improbable as it seems, the two manage to somehow hit it off communicating via a clumsy mix of the two languages.
A couple of years younger, guileless, unconditionally generous, Ivan falls for Ani and Ani, thinking that She has won the lottery grabs him for all he is worth. Ani thinks she is in charge and has found a way out from the drudgery of her profession but Ivan wakes up from his drug fuelled stupor prompted by his father’s henchmen. With her dreams shattered Anora tries to regain control but to no avail.
Baker says it like it is. It’s a transactional relationship and a transient one at best. There’s no romantic glow or chemistry to color whats happening here. Ani and Ivan’s sessions are rather humorous though. Once Ivan’s godfather, Toros (Karren Karagulian), gets involved, dispatching a pair of thugs — a fellow Armenian named Garnick (Vache Tovmaysan) and the Russian-speaking Igor (Yura Borisov), the gloves are off so to speak. The violence is minimal and Ani is no shrinking violet. Even the so-called bad guys are not painted black. They are just concerned individuals who are tackling the problem in a way they know best.
Baker infuses energy and spontaneity into the proceedings. He is able to capture the impulsivity and unpredictability beautifully. His film is a compassionate vocal, unapologetic effort to destigmatize sex work and sex workers.
Eydelshteyn is no Prince Charming to look at but his fake bravado ends up becoming pathetic once his parents get involved. His is a performance that is an effective foil for Madison to shine. 2022 “Scream” actor Madison is the big surprise here. She brings a hint of waif-like youthful vulnerability to the stereotypical tough, hard as nails prostitute construct. Beneath the exterior trappings is a smart and resourceful, girl who is willing to fight for what she holds dear.
It’s not love but security couched in vacillating emotion. Anora is bold, brash, and a force of nature and Mikey Madison embodies those traits beautifully. Madison and the madcap turns Baker’s subversive sex farce takes, are the captivating factors here.
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