Baker’s Cannes hit promises a volatile, anxiety-fest of a cinematic experience, pumped up by Mikey Madison’s outstanding performance as a stripper who has a ‘fairytale marriage’ to the son of a Russian oligarch, though it doesn’t always work triumphantly in its latter half.

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Anora finally landed Sean Baker the coveted Cannes Palme d’Or.  As one of American indie cinema’s darlings with films like Tangerine (2015) and The Florida Project (2017), Baker is also very active on Letterboxd, enthusiastically sharing his views about the films he has seen. 

With Anora, he continues his fascination with the lives of sex workers, and in Ani (Mikey Madison), he has created a protagonist who would, in the course of the film, experience the full spectrum of human emotions. 

Ani leads an unfulfilling life servicing her clients in an upscale strip club, but when, Ivan, a young and filthy rich Russian dude hits her up and proposes to her, she cannot refuse a fairytale marriage marked by luxury, comfort and excess. 

Baker’s work operates on a huge, comic disclaimer though: Ivan is the son of an oligarch… and his Ma and Pa are so ultra-pissed that he has ‘married’ a prostitute that they make an emergency trip to America to make things right. 

“Please! Stop! Screaming!”

So, Anora, through Baker’s high-intensity filmmaking style, becomes an anxiety-fest of toxic emotions and behaviours.  The first half of the picture contains some of the most unforgettable moments in all of 2024’s cinema, including a hysterical sequence involving Ani and two unfortunate Armenian henchmen. 

The second half, while still moderately compelling in its own way, clearly sags in comparison, as Ani and her newfound ‘acquaintances’ try to find Ivan who has flown the coop.  The frantic search has a by-the-numbers feel and is, to me, Anora’s weakest segment. 

Madison’s outstanding performance nevertheless pulls us deep into her character’s wild journey around New York and Las Vegas, though her scenes with Igor, one of the aforementioned Armenian guys, in the third act don’t work as convincingly as it looks, despite Baker placing most of his bets on it. 

Ultimately, Anora promises a volatile cinematic experience to behold, and delivers, though not always triumphantly, a largely entertaining, sexy, crude and often hilarious piece, as Baker dials up the histrionics but not forgetting what it is like for his characters to feel vulnerability both in body and spirit. 

Grade: B+

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