30/45
Scenario
Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch
When this news reaches Russia, her fairy tale is in jeopardy as his parents head to New York to annul the marriage. IMDb editor Arno Kazarian offers quick access to 12 films he’s screening at the 2024 New York Film Festival, including Anora and the dangerous, curiously erotic Misericordia.. At the Cannes Film Festival press conference, Mikey Madison said director Sean Baker will show various sexual positions with his wife, producer Samantha Quan, to show the actors what he wanted from them. Igor: PLEASE! STOP! SCREAMING!.
Mentioned in Close-Up: Anora (2024)
The hype around Anora is colossal and it lived up to it. I had no idea what to expect going into it, other than I had all three of Sean Baker’s other movies combined in my head and thought maybe it would be somewhere in the middle of them all (The Florida Project, Red Rocket, and Tangerine – by the way, all great movies and everything about sex workers). It had some similar notes and foci, but otherwise Anora was a new beast in its own right. I will say that when it comes to the substance of the movie, it got a lot more Safdie Brothers than I expected! Lots of people yelling over each other for a very long time! Very tense!
You have your side, your conflict, and your conclusion
The film moves in three acts, as many great films do. I had a feeling at the beginning that it was going to be a bit like Boogie Nights in structure, and I’d say it was pretty spot on. Without saying much about it, I will say that the ending made the whole movie for me and my girlfriend agreed. You’ve got a 2-hour experience that’s mostly funny and mostly engrossing, all of which feels a little cheesy while offering a lot of very telling details about the experience of working in the sex business, but it’s all fun until you get to the end. Rather than an ending that wraps things up nicely in a nice bow, it’s an ending that unties the bow and opens the box, leaving you in the RAW reality of it all. I was a bit in awe of the very specific energy of the packed room as the soft credits rolled and people very slowly began to make their way (very quietly) out of the auditorium.
Mikey Madison is fantastic as Anora
When I saw the ads for the movie, I was expecting a bubbly, sweet girl – but she plays a tough, sassy, con woman who is VERY New York City, and it was a pleasant surprise. Anora is mostly a likable character, but not always, and that only adds to her humanity and the overall realism and complexity of her functionality as a main character. You will experience a rollercoaster of ups and downs with it, and the depth feels very real. She is also extremely HOT and there is a LOT of SEX in this movie. The entire cast is fantastic, but new faces Mark Eidelshtein and Yura Borisov make the strongest impression as capable actors who deserve many more casts in the future. Eidelshtein stole the show as the most believable rich kid on a rampage ever, and Borisov’s nuanced presence was loud AF without the need for many words.
It’s really cool to see this movie doing well
I definitely think this is one of Baker’s two best movies to date, possibly his best and one of the best movies of 2024. The house was completely packed at 9.30pm on a Monday night and I heard that the number of opening weekends was one of the highest of the year. This is the kind of original, honest and relevant filmmaking that needs to be seen, celebrated and supported, and it’s a joy to see it happen. I’m excited to see Mikey Madison’s career blossom after this and can’t wait for more from Sean Baker. Check out our list of exciting new films from this year’s film festivals, including Venice, TIFF, the New York Film Festival and more.