Movie Review: Anora

Exotic dancer Anora “Ani” Mikheeva (Mikey Madison) works in an upscale New York strip club where she is very popular with the clientele. Having learned to speak Russian from her non-English-speaking grandmother, when the 21-year-old son of a wealthy oligarch arrives requesting to talk in his native tongue, she is sent to entertain him.

Ivan “Vanya” Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn) is more than happy to throw his parents’ money around and he takes a shine to Ani, asking her to be his “girlfriend” for a week. She agrees and the pair spend the following seven days partying with his friends before flying out to Las Vegas on a whim and ultimately getting married. When word reaches his parents back in Russia however, they are furious, and task his godfather Toros (Karren Karagulian) with handling the matter. He gathers henchmen Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov) and heads to the Zakharov’s mansion to pick up the pair to take them to a courthouse and get the wedding annulled, but the effort quickly spirals out of control.

The part of the film described above is entertaining and well-made, fleshing out our two leads and getting us invested in their fates while presenting an escapist fantasy made up of pieces of Pretty Woman and Kids. Madison is a revelation as the title character, full of Brooklyn bravado but lonely and vulnerable underneath, while Eydelshteyn perfectly encapsulates the sort of carefree charm mixed with self-absorption that only the children of the very rich seem to possess.

But it’s after Toros and company arrive on the scene that Anora truly comes alive, with the trio of amusingly inept fixers almost completely shifting the tone of the film. What follows is a highly entertaining and often laugh-out-loud funny trek across the city that sometimes feels like a modern take on the classic Hollywood farce.

It isn’t all fun and games however, as it is repeatedly made clear that Ani is hurting as a result of the indignity of the situation she has had thrust upon her. In quiet moments, the pain is clear in her eyes, with only Igor expressing any concern for her well-being. After a life in which nearly all of her relationships have been transactional in nature, when she finally experiences an act of genuine kindness it proves too much for her and she breaks down.

Anora is fresh, exciting, and funny, anchored by a pair of star-making performances and expertly assembled by writer / director Sean Baker, but the quietly devastating finale cements it as one of the best and most humanistic films of the year. ★★★★★