Autumnsong: Film | Anora (2024)

Anora (2024) | Sean Baker | USA

Anora 'Ani' Mikheeva is a young exotic dancer in Brooklin. One day, when the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch comes into the club, asking for a girl who speaks Russian, Anora is the obvious choice. Her grandmother never learned English, and although she's a little embarrassed of her Russian, she can understand Ivan - or Vanya, as he prefers to be called - just fine. He asks her if she ever works out of the club and they start seeing each other. It's still a professional relationship - he pays her for her services very time - but they also hang out, party with his friends and spend time together. Eventually Vanya pays Ani 15000 dollars to be his. girlfriend for a week, and during that week, they fly to Vegas and get married.

All of these things are in the trailer - which is a little surprising, because they do take up a solid 40 minutes to unfold - but it's only after their marriage that the movie becomes the piece that won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. News of the wedding reach Russian, infuriating Vanya's parents - especially his mom, Galina - and in the time that takes them to fly to the US, they reach out to the boy's godfather, Toros, to straighten him out, get the marriage annulled and get Vanya ready to be shipped back to Russia.

The real movie starts when a couple of Toros' henchmen, Garnik and Igor get to Vanya's house to establish the truth about these unsettling rumors that the little prince married an American prostitute. Half the time Ani doesn't know what's going on and when Vanya learns that Toros is on his way, he flees the scene unceremoniously leaving his new wife behind. This is the first real moment of surprise in the movie, and the scene doesn't end there. It keeps growing and growing, eventually leading Ani, Toros, Garnik and Igor on a manhunt for Vanya, all over Brooklyn and Brighton beach.

One of my favorite things about this movie was the setting. I remembered seeing a similar background in another film that heavily featured eastern Europeans in New York - some festival movie - so I looked it up and learned that the Brighton Beach region is also called "little Odessa". But the special thing about it is that it was evocative of Coney Islands with it's deserted boardwalk roller coaster and Freak Show posters, and that just speaks to me :)

There's a lot to admire about this film. I watched an interview with Mikey Madson, the actress who plays Anora, in which she talked about how she had never been to a strip club in her life and how she approached her research for the role, how that research culminated in what was largely an improvised first scene in which she approached clients in the club without the support of a script as the director followed her with a long lens from across the room. That was impressive. I also enjoyed Yura Borisov's performance as Igor, and I am glad he got a nomination for Best Supporting actor. He looks menacing - the other characters in the story repeatedly call him a "gopnik" - and he can definitely do some damage, but he conveys a lot of innocence and simplicity with his eyes.

Another highlight was the setting... it turns out that Brighton Beach is not only a region with a lot of Russian and Eastern European immigrants, but it's also close to Coney island, which meant that there were posters of freak shows and things like that splashed around the background of some scenes, which I really appreciated. And the movie was funny. You wouldn't necessarily expect that, considering the themes touched by the story, but the whole segment involving the car chase almost all the way to the resolution is peppered with a lot of funny moments. And then there was the soundtrack. There is so much music in this movie and I found myself wanting to reach for my phone to use Shazan once or twice.

These character posters look so cool... They also reminded me of the character posters for Harry potter and the prisoner of Azkaban, way back when. I don't know why more movies don't do stuff like this. The neon lights infused atmosphere is perfect for the story - and it makes sense that Igor is the only one bathed in natural light.

Yeah, Anora is undeniably a good movie. But in truth, I did not enjoy watching it.

When the movie started, Anora seemed to be a savy, independent girl. From the way she strolled around the club, talking to potential clients to the way she told her manager she would take a week off, and until he gave her health insurance he didn't have a say on the matter - everything about Anora seemed to embody the notion that sex work is just like any other type of work. She seemed like someone who chose to do that, someone who was good at it, who knew who she was and what she wanted. She seemed like someone who was in control. Vanya, in comparison seemed naive. Youthful and impulsive but full of life. Sincere. That scene, when he proposes to her, when he looks her in the eyes and says "I am serious. And I said twicely"... That seemed real.

But when the clock rang midnight and the carriage turned into a pumpkin again, all of those illusions were shattered. Vanya was just a callous rich boy, with no regard for anyone except himself. Anora was just a prostitute, desperately clinging on to her chance to get out of the life. By the time she climbs on top of Igor in the end, it becomes clear that she is damaged in ways she doesn't even begin to understand, and that scene is hard to watch. The self assured girl we met in the beginning is gone. All of her masks have fallen, and what is lefts is just... hurt.

It's gotta be challenging to make a scene look this good with so much colour and texture and noise everywhere, but somehow they managed it

I get why people liked this movie, but it's too much of a dog-eats-dog-world kind of story for me (muito "mundo cão", sabe?). In that sense it reminded me of the only other Sean Baker movie I watched - The Florida Project - and if that's a constant in his work, I am not really looking forward to tackling his other movies. Anora is now the front-runner for best picture at the Oscars - especially after taking both the Directors guild and the Producers guild awards - but it could never have my vote. In fact, of all 6 nominations it received for the Academy awards (Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actress, Supporting Actor and Editing), the only one I can imagine myself voting for is supporting actor, but bear in mind, Anora is the only movie I have seen in that category as of now, so that could change... Yeah... I wish I could end this review on a better note, but Anora is the type of movie that leaves a bad taste on your mouth. And least it did that to me.