The chaos of Sean Baker's Cinderella story Anora coheres into quiet beauty

There’s something deliciously, sadistically satisfying to films about the suffering of people in middle-management positions. These are characters that most of us slightly later into our adulthood are all the more prone to empathize with, that sense of being enough in charge to feel the burdens of responsibility, and far enough down the pecking order for the shit to run downhill. A go-to exemplar is Saving Private Ryan, focusing on Tom Sizemore’s second-in-command character who brings a level of competence and an air of bleak resignation to just about every frame. Think of Macon Blair’s brilliant turn in Green Room, and the emotional travails of most of The Wire’s ensemble—be they cop, criminal, or political operative. In Sean Baker’s Anora, we get another talismanic representation for these kinds of excellent, anxiety-inducing secondary characters, here introduced to a trio of hapless Russian-speaking goons desperately attempting to corral the sociopathic scion of an oligarch along with his new sex worker wife.

Anora justifiably focuses on the latter, Ani, as its protagonist, and this star-making turn by Mikey Madison is deserving of the praise she has already generated in this Palme d’Or-winning gem. Ani’s journey is a brilliant inversion of the Cinderella tale that she diegetically admits to being drawn towards. And let all be wowed by the comic perfection of her spoiled sociopath beau Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn, channeling his inner Chalamet), and his pre-coital, backwards flip onto a bed while still wearing baggy sports socks.

But these hired henchmen—these three stooges, the bodyguards and babysitters tasked with coddling Ivan by his bazillionaire parents—it’s their proximity to competence that makes their boundless capacity for failure that much more engaging. Toros (Karren Karagulian), Ivan’s ostensive godfather, and his brother-in-arms Garnick (Vache Tovmaysan), are joined by Igor (Yura Borisov), dubbed a “gopnik” for his thuggish working-class vibe and accused of having “rape eyes” by a furious Ani. Yet with time, Igor’s taciturn turn and reluctance to engage with violence reveals him as the most quietly competent of them all, an eye of calm in the storm of just about every other character on screen.

Anora rides the highs and lows of Ani’s life, from hustling for patrons at the strip club she works at, through to her sudden thrust into Ivan’s world. A Russian speaker herself, the two form a quick bond. She enters his riverside lair with its immense luxury, working elevator, and silk-sheeted bed for casual bouts of prostitution. Eventually they head to Vegas, get married, and that’s when things start to go bad. 

Similar modes of madness resonate from the recent films of the Safdie brothers, and the class distinctions (as well as the more subtle reflections of the life of sex workers) match well with Baker’s previous films. Yet Anora can even feel like True Romance, where violence and lust are given a certain gloss under Tony Scott’s direction, but the laser sharp script by Quentin Tarantino provides the requisite grit. It’s this hybridization of style and substance that makes Baker’s work that much more impressive, and for a filmmaker wearing more than a normal share of hats (director, producer, screenwriter, editor), there’s a wonderful coherence during even the most chaotic moments.

You’re tickled by Toros’ rage, feeling his despair when he must leave a family celebration to deal with yet another bout of a rich boy’s nonsense, but you’re simultaneously horrified by the situation that Ani finds herself in. You can laugh at the idea of Ivan ruining a pool by wanting to swim in Kool-Aid, causing $70,000 worth of damage, but also be sickened by this being no more callous or infantile that what happened on the Vegas strip, and the way he toyed with the heart of a woman who finally let herself feel that most dangerous of feelings: hope.

When Ivan’s parents do show up, there’s hell to pay. The mother (Darya Ekamasova, with an iciness that would make a Disney villain blush) has the money and power Ani lacks, but shares the same sense of determination borne of deep-seated insecurity. The father (the legendary Aleksei Serebryakov) remains quiet yet aware, most similar in temperament to the knowing glances we see from Igor, which, given where the story leads, is hardly coincidental.

Cinematographer Drew Daniels shot Baker’s previous film Red Rocket with a consistently blown-out look perfect for the small-town Texas locale. In Anora, the images shift in fascinating ways, from the gloomy bars on the boardwalk and the grimy glamour of the strip club, to Ani’s cramped apartment and the ostentation of Ivan’s family mansion. As Ani and Ivan’s relationship shifts, these various self-contained worlds that Ani shifts between feel almost documentary-like in their accuracy. With a New Year’s party turning a home into a nightclub, or the sheer debauchery Ivan’s crew get up to in Vegas living as high-rollers, the look of Anora changes once again. There’s a shift that creeps in, a coldness emerging that results in dread as the shine is slowly rubbed off this life, until all that’s left is a chilly, monotonal reminder of what’s already been fated to be lost.

And this heroic journey is Ani’s story through and through. It’s a brilliant role, written with such range that it takes Madison’s strong performance to bring her to life without succumbing to archness. She makes us believe every second, from the most extreme emotions to the most preposterous of situations in a work as heightened as a rich Tchaikovskian symphony, but sung with the purity of a simple folk tune.

Despite its moments of cacophony, Ani and Ivan’s tumultuous journey is, at its core, a quiet, beautiful story about strength, survival, and knowing when to let things go. Yet when all is said and done, we still have Toros trying to make as best a reset as he can, Garnick trying to not succumb to a lingering brain injury, and Igor—the only one to truly care about the situation—taking a moment to speak up for those being silenced. While the lives of all the other characters have changed in some ways subtle, in other ways profound, the dirty clean-up work is left to those whose lot in life is to be tasked with these efforts.

Director: Sean Baker
Writers: Sean Baker
Cast: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Aleksei Serebryakov
Release Date: October 18, 2024