This review contains spoilers of Anora. If you haven’t seen the film, proceed with caution.
Seeing Anora, directed by Sean Baker, on the big screen hushed the audience into silent shock as we watched Ani — played by Mikey Madison, who’s a buzzy Oscar contender — work tirelessly to click her heels, bounce her ass, and slap herself raw against the cold, expensive shag carpet for rich spoiled brat Vanya played by Mark Eydelshteyn, who’s dubbed as the next Timothée Chalamet.
Madison’s Ani is a hard worker. She doesn’t take things lying down, is committed to a life of constant hustling, and doesn’t need anyone to save her — much less a scrawny, ratty-looking mama’s boy whose only claim to fame is his daddy’s fortune. She’s a Brighton Beach girlie, and she’s got the work ethic (and accent) to show for it.
But wouldn’t it be nice for all her hard work to finally pay off? Wouldn’t it be nice to take it easy for once? Perhaps these thoughts were racing through Ani’s head when Vanya popped the “big” question during their alcohol-induced, ketamine-fuelled trip to Las Vegas. Up until this point in the movie, Ani had been so consistent about keeping a more-or-less professional barrier between herself and Vanya. She made her hourly rate clear to him multiple times, even charging Vanya extra for New Year’s, and effortlessly haggled to receive $15,000 (upfront, in cash!) in exchange for pretending to be his girlfriend for a week.
However, Baker’s deliciously heartbreaking film is, at its core, a tragedy. It may pretend to be a romantic-comedy — which it does for its first 45 minutes, complete with a fun, ass-shaking playlist; its narrative is even deceptively similar to Pretty Woman, another fairy tale retelling about a sex worker and a rich socialite (albeit with a happier ending than Anora’s). It also pretends to be a slapstick comedy, especially when the Armenian goons, who are meant to keep an eye over Vanya, try to tie up Ani in a seamlessly choreographed home invasion scene that is quite possibly the pinnacle of modern-day slapstick (Careful, she bites!). At one point, it even became a quest movie. The unlikely rag-tag group of Ani, Toros (Karren Karagulian), Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), and Igor (Yura Borisov) journey across New York in the dead of winter to find Vanya, who has gone AWOL and evades his captors by going on an all-expenses paid bender (typical man-child behavior).
Despite her best efforts, Ani does not win. She puts up a good fight. She wreaks havoc on the Armenians, constantly reminding her inebriated husband that he is a grown man who can stand up to his mommy (he caves and cowers in fear when his mother shows up), and even tries to stand up herself to said mommy. This only lasts for a minute as Vanya’s mother is a terrifying woman, and threatens to ruin Ani’s life if she so much as thinks about suing.
If we are meant to view Baker’s latest cinematic exploration of the American Dream as a warped fairy tale, perhaps the moral of this tragedy is this: Shit will always hit the fan. We may root for Ani to escape Brighton Beach and marry the rich scion of her dreams, but the film’s abrupt, painful final scene does not come as a surprise. Have a good cry, Ani. You deserve it.
