Tag: russian wedding

Cannes 2024: Sean Baker’s Film ‘Anora’ is a One-of-a-Kind Sensation

by Alex Billington
May 23, 2024

It’s always an especially exhilarating experience to stumble upon a film so completely unlike anything that has been made before that it leaves you on a cinematic high after walking out of the theater. At the midway point in the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, we finally get to experience the bliss of Anora, the latest film from American filmmaker Sean Baker. Anora is his eighth feature film so far, and he was already in Cannes in 2017 with The Florida Project (in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar) and again in 2021 with Red Rocket. This might just be hist best yet. France obviously loves him, but so does everyone else – this film has received the highest marks out of any in the Main Competition from all of the critics at this year’s festival. The film’s title is the name of the young woman who stars in the film, a young stripper from New York City named Anora who falls for a rich Russian kid after he pays her to hook up with him. On a whirlwind trip to Las Vegas they end up getting married (Vegas, baby Vegas!!) – but there’s so much more going on in this film than just that.

Anora is written and directed and produced by Sean Baker, who is telling another wild and crazy story. Up-and-coming young actress Mikey Madison stars as Anora, who goes by Ani in the film. It’s a star making performance and she totally owns it. She works as a stripper at an upscale strip club in Manhattan (called “Headquarters”) and also occasionally hooks up with clients whenever she feels like it. One day, a Russian kid comes in named Ivan, also known as Vanya, played by Russian actor Mark Eydelshteyn. He’s the son of a Russian oligarch and has an endless amount of money to spend – so he hires her and they start to spend more & more time together. If you watch this film closely, they’re both young & dumb. That’s part of the plot whether you like it or not. Ivan just plays video games and gets wasted every day, spending all of his time in his (rather, his father’s) mansion when not out on the town. After a fun New Year’s Eve party, he hires Ani to be his girlfriend for an entire week, then flies a group of his friends to Las Vegas for more partying, where they end up deciding to get married in a “let’s do it!!” hangover haze. And this is when the real fun begins…

After the debauchery of this opening segment, the “oh shit” thrilling side of Anora kicks in. His parents find out he married a sex worker and freak out – these are extremely rich, powerful people who can do whatever they want, including cancelling a marriage. So they make calls and get their local guy to send his guys over to Ivan’s mansion to sort things out – and get the marriage annulled immediately. They’re in love, so they claim! So this obviously causes tons of chaos. The accuracy of the characters, this entire situation, how it all plays out, is so ridiculously spot on it’s almost unsettling how Sean Baker got all of this right. It’s brilliant. The film is one of the funniest of the year, and I was not expecting that with this kind of story. Despite the very serious, very emotional stakes of what’s going on with this marraige between these two youngsters, there’s humor coming from every line and every happening and every twist & turn. The whole second half of the film is getting compared to Uncut Gems, which makes sense, but it also feels quite unique in the way it follows Ani & Ivan and three men (two Armenians + one Russian who work for his parents) around the city.

Sean Baker is truly one of a kind, making films unlike anyone else that no one else can replicate in the same way. Anora is not just hilarious but incredibly deep, nuanced, layered, intelligent, complex filmmaking that gets every scene just right. I’m still breathless with joy over this film. I’m still going on & on raving about it and the way it handles everything in the plot, understanding the emotions of each character along with the audience’s engagement in the story. It’s best going in not knowing where the story goes and what happens next in each scene because the THRILL is watching it all play out. The second half if stronger than the first because there’s so much more going on – and the implications of their young love, the implications of own predicaments, are explored. I absolutely adore how the film grows & builds & morphs into something more (profound) as it plays out. Yes it’s filled with NYC intensity & thrills in the second half, but it’s also actually building and progressing and unraveling with an immense understanding of people, not just characters, but real people. This is a special filmmaking talent Baker has and it’s also what makes his films so memorable.

There’s no way I can talk about this film without mentioning one of the best parts of Anora. Yura Borisov has quickly become one of my favorite Russian actors, whenever he appears in anything you know he’s going to be the best damn character in it (also see: Compartment Number 6). His performance in this is especially unforgettable. He’s the real emotional core of the film. Everyone will fall head over heels for Mikey Madison, of course, and she absolutely deserves the acclaim for her remarkable performance as Ani. But it is Borisov who begins to take over and become a vitally important part of the plot and, once again, I was not expecting this. The final scenes in Anora are so extremely important to deciphering the rest of the entire film, and the point of everything we’re watching anyway. I worry that many viewers will not be able to fully grasp what is being said and the explanations here. There’s a depth to the characters that is revealed in these final scenes that is astonishing, making this film more than just another exercise in romantic comedy or big city thrills. This is the real magic of Sean Baker and his films, this is the real wonder of truly phenomenal filmmaking.

Alex’s Cannes 2024 Rating: 9.8 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing

Find more posts: Cannes 24, Review