Anora

2024's ANORA may well be writer/director Sean Baker's wildest ride yet.  For many reasons.  It is his biggest film, yet still feels as intimate as his previous, which include TANGERINE, THE FLORIDA PROJECT, and RED ROCKET.  Humor has also at least bubbled through his work but this time much of the film surprisingly goes full throttle.  As if Baker was heavily influenced by certain '70s  Alan Arkin pictures.  Also a bit of Billy Wilder.  There is a long section that plays as comedy and horror simultaneously, just like say, LITTLE MURDERS or something.  But the humor is never without cost, never existing just to be funny.  You can call this a "dramedy" but the confluence serves a purpose: honesty.  Something you will always find in Baker's stories.

Anora (Mikey Madison) works as a stripper in a Manhattan club.   She's part Russian and speaks the language, making her the perfect employee to entertain Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the young, highly immature son of a wealthy Russian oligarch who's hanging at his folks' Brooklyn mansion.  He's supposed to be in America to study, but likes to party and play video games.  He and Anora (who prefers to be called "Ani") ignite sparks and soon he hires her to be his girlfriend for a week.  During that time the lovers decide to elope in Vegas.  Is Vanya simply looking to get a green card? Or does he really love her?

News of the wedding will get back home to Russia and soon Vanya's parents Galina (Darya Ekamasova) and Nikolai (Aleksei Serebryakov) are heading to Brighton Beach.  Their minions - Torros (Karren Karagulian), his brother Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), and Igor (Yura Borisov) are dispatched to the mansion to warn the happy couple of what is to come.  That the marriage is to be annulled and that Vanya must return home. From this point the film ventures into rather dark slapstick.  Loud, too.

Some viewers will be repelled.  Possibly reminded of the stressful UNCUT GEMS.   I saw some Coen Brothers in there, mainly parts of FARGO.  Also, Cassavetes films.  There are many influences that are obvious, but in the end Baker's film is an original.  Despite the presence of Russian heavies (admittedly quite clumsy) this is not a violent gangster pic.  There is in fact no gun violence, most unexpected.  While there is some skillful physical (and certainly verbal) comedy on display, many of the laughs come from the recognizance of things shared by many cultures.  Familial discord.  Gender roles.  Generation gaps.  Played for laughs, but also dead serious and sad, especially as the film marinates in your brain long after the credits flash.

Mikey's been in some things but ANORA makes her a star.  I kept waiting for caricature but she played it right, never false.  She and Baker subvert what could've been another PRETTY WOMAN-type rom-com with plenty of local color, and heart.  Underneath the graphic sex scenes (mostly early on) and the plethora of street language is a bold portrait of self worth.

Bravo to everyone in the cast, with special mention to Borisov, who expertly plays a sad sack and will figure more prominently as the film progresses.  Bravo also for that final scene, so simple yet powerful.  A perfect coda.