Anora Review: A Freewheeling Fairy Tale Crashing to Earth

“Anora” begins in much the same way as so many fairy tales over the years: a downtrodden young woman, neglected in her daily life but worthy of so much more, meets a handsome benefactor and is swept away into the realm of happiness . Forever.

“You’re like Cinderella!” a friend gushes at the start of the film. “Yes, Cinderella,” says our heroine.

In the case of the freewheeling film “Anora,” written and directed by Sean Baker, who with films like “The Florida Project” And “Tangerine” showed a keen understanding of what it means to be depressed, our Cinderella happens to be a stripper living in Brooklyn and her Prince Charming is the privileged son of a Russian oligarch, a young man possessing wealth and expert knowledge about places to go. get the best ketamine in Las Vegas.

With this story, the glass slipper is over, it’s the glass bong.

And, as you might infer, ending this story with a promise of perpetual happiness can be a bit complicated, and it is in these entanglements that the delights of this lively and generous zany adventure are found. If you’re of a certain generation, you might even call the movie “crazy.” But its strength lies in the careful control Baker maintains over the story. “Anora”, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes earlier this year, is considered the best film of his career.

Ani (Mikey Madison), as she prefers to be called, avoiding the more formal name of the film’s title, meets Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn) at his strip club, his boss introducing them because the client requested a private dancer who speaks Russian. . Ani is an Uzbek American and knows her grandmother’s language, but she barely masters it. Friendly and affectionate, her talents lie in other areas, and Ivan is soon eager to know if she “works outside the club.” She does so, and shortly after they meet, she pays a visit to his Brighton Beach mansion.

“You paid for an hour, and there are still 45 minutes left,” Ani told him after their first brief meeting.

I said Ivan couldn’t wait. Carefree too, but also, under a certain lighting (neon), with a childish charm. He says he’s 21, but given his impulsive energy and short attention span, that could be dog years. After taking Ani to Vegas on his private jet, Ivan pops the question (maybe J. Lo’s documentary inspired him), prompting Ani to raise her ring finger and ask, “Three carats?” “And four? » Ivan answers.

Who said romance was dead?

“Anora” gets off on the hormonal rush of their adventure, and for much of the film’s 139 minutes, Baker revels in the exhilaration of their disjointed melody. But there must be a tomorrow, and one day reality knocks at the door at the behest of Ivan’s parents. An annulment is ordered, with the details to be worked out by Toros (Karren Karagulian), an Armenian priest who doubles as Ivan’s weary fixer; burly sidekick Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan); and a sullen Russian, Igor (Yura Borisov), brought in to flex his muscles in case things get out of hand – which they quickly do, of course.

“He shamed his family by marrying someone like you,” Toros tells Ani, a judgment she doesn’t take well. Baker presents his reaction in a long action sequence that gets funnier with each flying punch. This is the first of many times the film shifts tone during its second half, becoming harsher and more ambitious as it rushes towards a final scene that will break your heart as the reality of everything ‘Ani lived crashed on her.

This latest punch is a tribute to Madison, who played a member of the Manson Family in Quentin Tarantino’s film. “Once upon a time… in Hollywood” a film that continues to cement its place in the Casting Hall of Fame. Baker wrote this role for her, and Madison returned the favor with a star-making performance, building on Ani’s boldness while revealing the fragile facade, vulnerabilities, and self-deception that lurk within. below.

Baker’s films are sensitive to class and privilege, existing on the borders of a rarely filmed America. In “Anora,” he wraps his protagonist in Russian sable and boasts of his upward mobility to the tune of Take That’s. “The most beautiful day” (“The Future Belongs to Us”) and then sends him onto the wintry streets of Brighton Beach and the cold boardwalk of Coney Island, feuding with a gang of thugs for power and status. Baker pushes the comedy, but, just as with Ani, the unfairness of it all is plain as day. You won’t root harder for any other character this year.