Vague Visages’ Anora review contains minor spoilers. Sean Baker’s 2024 movie features Mikey Madison, Paul Weissman and Lindsey Normington. Check out the VV home page for more film reviews.

The first 10 minutes of Anora spotlight fluorescent smiles, smoke breaks and dressing room gossip. However, Sean Baker’s electric, overwhelming introduction unceremoniously grinds to a halt with his lead Ani (Mikey Madison) — a Brooklyn-based sex worker — reclined on the subway, fast asleep as a train rocks through the early morning. Overall, Anora excels by digging beneath the protagonist’s sparkling demeanor while unearthing the grit beneath each sequin. Early on, Ani meets Ivan (Mark Eidelshtein) aka Vanya, a wealthy Russian heir who offers the titular sex worker a way to ditch her sequins for diamonds as his week-long, all-expenses-paid girlfriend.

As a filmmaker, part of Baker’s appeal is his non-judgmental embrace of characters. Anora’s Vanya may be demanding and lewd, but he isn’t without charm. The character slides and strides across the world, and despite this unusually showy approach, he can keep pace with Ani as she determinedly bounces from room to room. When the two agree to marry, the camera spins around their hotel bed — a playful way of teasing their future.

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The result is a kind of magic trick, as Baker urges audiences to invest in his ill-fated protagonists. Such an audacious achievement is largely made possible by Eidelshtein and especially Madison, with Baker and his two leads crafting characters who are wacky and broad enough to please fans of Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. Anora unleashes its screwball comedy onto a modern canvas, leaving the audience with a bloody, glittering mess instead of a traditional conclusion.

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Anora’s unravelling occurs midway through when Vanya’s bumbling henchmen pursue the princeling, backing a disjointed Ani into a corner. Without much forewarning, the film transforms into something quite different as Baker captures a series of unfortunate downfalls through a series of increasingly ridiculous wide shots. Suddenly, the Take That needle-drops which had previously scored Ani’s life are replaced by screaming, swearing and the lightning crack of expensive ceramics.

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Anora, a Palme d’Or-winning picture, is being praised for its inventiveness, but it’s the beneficiary of a long history of mismatched couples stretching back to the inception of cinema — all of whom share a love that drives them towards goofy hijinks. Instead of relishing in his leads’ chemistry, Baker embraces moments that will appeal to fans of American filmmakers like Preston Sturges and Howard Hawks.

Anna McKibbin (@annarosemary) is a freelance film critic. She received a journalism MA from City University and specializes in pop culture. Anna has written for London Film School, Film Cred and We Love Cinema.

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