Anora (2024)
Directed by Sean Baker
A young sex worker from Brooklyn gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as his parents set out to get the marriage annulled.
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21 films that influenced Anora
What critics say influenced Anora
What starts out as a modern, realistic version of Pretty Woman (1990), especially compared to something like Ken Russell’s ‘response’ to this narrative, 1991’s Whore, cascades into a manic take on the myth of Psyche and Eros.
Baker's drama is a modern take on Gary Marshall's Pretty Woman, except with more madness, sex appeal, and hilarity than you could ever imagine.
Through a lot of these early scenes, Anora plays like a more honest, more explicit version of Garry Marshall’s iconic ’90s rom-com Pretty Woman. They share most of the same main characters and plot beats: The wealthy out-of-town john, the broke sex worker, the chance encounter, the initial date, the offer of thousands of dollars for one week of companionship — potentially life-changing money for women like Ani or Julia Roberts’ Vivian in Pretty Woman.
What happens in 'Anora'?On the surface, “Anora” is a modern day take on 1990's “Pretty Woman.”
Comparisons to Pretty Woman are inevitable, but there is some truth to it because, like that film, the film functions as a pleasing romance between two people from very different backgrounds, who initially come together (ahem) for a purely transactional relationship until it inevitably becomes something more.
This mismatched crew embarks on a long car ride through the streets of New York City, giving Baker an opportunity to reference other cinematic tours through the gritty, '70s-era NYC of The French Connection (1971) and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), with the nod to '70s cinema further underscored by his choice of 35mm film and use of vintage camera filters.
In this sense, Ani recalls the protagonist of Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (played by the historically criticized Ryan O'Neal), who has often been seen as a conduit for the audience's projections. Madison embodies Ani with a certain neutrality in some of the later scenes, reacting to the bizarre events around her with a combination of bemusement and resigned acceptance. However, this is also juxtaposed with some moments of anger and outrage at the situations she finds herself in.
What starts out as a modern, realistic version of Pretty Woman (1990), especially compared to something like Ken Russell’s ‘response’ to this narrative, 1991’s Whore, cascades into a manic take on the myth of Psyche and Eros.
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Ivan, whose adorable way of speaking English is hilariously reminiscent of Anton Yelchin‘s Chekov in Star Trek (2009), is clear as to what exactly he wants from Ani.
The film taps into a style reminiscent of the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems (2019), in which relatively unknown actors and average Joes take on comedic bit parts. Anora’s gangster trio have considerably more acting experience than Wayne Diamond or the real-life jewelers in Gems. But they still excel in lapping up laugh after laugh because they feel like real guys.
Anora, Sean Baker’s latest film following 2021's Cannes-premiering Red Rocket, is a raucous blast - a kinetic New York City screwball comedy that shares the chaotic energy of the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems and disguises a darker heart.
It is here, when it becomes a stressful but humorous farce by way of Uncut Gems crossed with Martin Scorsese's After Hours, that Madison takes her established charisma and fiery delivery to extreme new heights, forming unexpected new bonds and encountering more than a few obstacles with unfiltered ferocity which she never sacrifices, even at her lowest moments.
It is here, when it becomes a stressful but humorous farce by way of Uncut Gems crossed with Martin Scorsese's After Hours, that Madison takes her established charisma and fiery delivery to extreme new heights, forming unexpected new bonds and encountering more than a few obstacles with unfiltered ferocity which she never sacrifices, even at her lowest moments.
Scorsese’s After Hours immediately comes to mind, as Baker treats us to short vignettes highlighting the boroughs of New York and all of their seedy culture. It’s the best kind of road movie, and during the course of the evening, Igor emerges from his quiet soldier persona and turns into something of a protector of Anora, once he realizes she really did love Ivan and wanted to stay married to him. She goes through the entire evening thinking Ivan feels the same way and will stand up to his parents once they arrive, but we suspect he’s a spineless jellyfish from the minute he bolts.
…the award would determine that Anora would enter the history books as not only one of the relatively few films to win the prestigious award of Film of the Year, but that it would be the first by an American filmmaker since Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life in 2011.
The last American film to win the Palme d’Or was Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, and it’s tough to think of a film less like Sean Baker’s Anora than that. That said, if The Tree of Life opened with a club remix of Take That’s Greatest Day, maybe it would still be winning the Palme d’Or today.
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Instead, there's a kinship with Hollywood's screwball comedies of the 1930s, where an unlikely romance blossoms in the flurries of a rough and tumble escapade, like the beautiful zaniness of Bringing Up Baby (1938) or classic divorce scenario in The Awful Truth (1937), except equipped with the foul-mouthed glory and sexual fervor inherent to reality.
Instead, there's a kinship with Hollywood's screwball comedies of the 1930s, where an unlikely romance blossoms in the flurries of a rough and tumble escapade, like the beautiful zaniness of Bringing Up Baby (1938) or classic divorce scenario in The Awful Truth (1937), except equipped with the foul-mouthed glory and sexual fervor inherent to reality.