‘Anora’ (2024): The Broken Cinderella

Directed by: Sean Baker || Produced by: Alex Coco, Samantha Quan, Sean Baker

Screenplay by: Sean Baker || Starring: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Aleksei Serebryakov

Music by: Matthew Hearon-Smith || Cinematography: Drew Daniels || Edited by: Sean Baker || Country: United States || Language: English, Russian, Armenian

Running Time: 139 minutes

One of the better dramatic auteurs of the last decade is Sean Baker, an independent American filmmaker who specializes in stories about the underappreciated, some might say forgotten segments of society. Though many an awards-bait movie panders to liberal sob stories about the downtrodden, particularly refugees or persecuted groups from major wars or ethnic genocides, few focus on the everyday lives of the “lower classes” in normal times, and even fewer do so in cohesive, well structured narratives. Awards-bait films also tend to focus their characterizations into simplistic good vs. bad archetypes, hitting their audiences over the head with preachy, often manipulative messages through heavy-handed dialogue.

Top: Mikey Madison (right) and Mark Eydelshteyn (left) party it up after eloping in a Las Vegas wedding chapel in Act One. Bottom: In Act Three, a much more forlorn Madison gazes out the second floor windows of Eydelshteyn’s Brighton Beach mansion.

Sean Baker’s work, at least the three movies of his I have seen thus far (Tangerine [2015], Red Rocket [2021], Anora [2024]), possess none of those judgmental qualities. In addition to their well structured narratives that feature distinct beginnings, middles, and ends, Baker treats all his characters, from the most relatable to the sleaziest, with respect. He treats none of his characters as punchlines nor glorifies the often shady, ethically questionable “business transactions” many of them conduct for their livelihood.

Anora is his latest and most successful film yet, having scored the first Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for an American film since Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life (2011). Its premise alone is more enticing than his previous films, too: A working-class Brooklyn stripper and escort (Mikey Madison) becomes involved with the wealthy son (Mark Eydelshteyn) of prominent Russian oligarchs; after a whirlwind courtship, they marry in Las Vegas and Madison seemingly transforms into a Cinderella-figure… until Eydelshteyn’s parents (Aleksei Serebryakov, Darya Ekamasova) discover their relationship.

This modern take on a Disney princess story mashed with a raunchy family comedy is ripe for entertainment of all sorts, and believe me, it delivers. The first act covers the aforementioned transactional sexual relationship and infatuation between our two leads; you feel the accelerated energy of every scene, with memorable pop songs and dynamic editing rhythms dominating the narrative flow. Act Two switches to a slapstick comedy tone once Eydelshteyn’s wealthy parents order their local henchmen (Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan) to coerce the two leads into annulling their marriage; all the while, Serebryakov and Ekamasova fly to the United States to personally escort their son back to Russia. I won’t spoil Act Three, but it retains a muted, depressed version of Act Two’s humor mixed with a quieter, dramatic deconstruction of Act One’s romance.

In terms of cinematography, Anora feels like a combination of his previous movies and various notable 1970s thrillers set in New York city (e.g. Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets [1973], Taxi Driver [1976]). Parts of the film, including its abrasive hard cuts and overall editing style, recall his earlier movies but without the pixelated tackiness of iPhone footage from Tangerine or the 16mm grunge of Red Rocket (Anora was shot on 35mm film). With that said, Anora benefits from a larger budget relative to its predecessors and utilizes more handheld camera stabilizing equipment and dollies, such as in the effective slow-motion opening shot that introduces Madison’s strip club.

As I mentioned above, the characters of Anora are three-dimensional, fully fleshed-out humans with understandable motivations and enough complexity to alternate the audience’s sympathy. Even the goons hired by Eydelshteyn’s family (Borisov, Karagulian, Tovmasyan) develop well beyond their initial archetypes along with Madison’s protagonist.

My criticisms of Anora are minor and are restricted to (1) how I feel Sean Baker overuses hard cuts, particularly in the first half of the movie, and (2) Anora does not need to be as long as it is. I appreciate the comedic effect of the first several instances of the former, yet after enough tries, the abrupt edits lose their luster. By a similar token, my long-running pet-peeve of films overstaying their welcome remains despite Anora’s sense of humor and pathos. Longwindedness is not nearly as egregious here as in, say, Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), another critically acclaimed yet far more mainstream hit, but it is worth mentioning.

In Act Two, longtime collaborator of Sean Baker and Armenian-American actor Karren Karagulian (center) attempts to corral his drunken godson (Eydelshteyn, center right) after a chaotic night searching for him.

As of now, Anora is the career crescendo of Sean Baker, patron saint filmmaker of the USA’s sex workers and underclass since the early 2010s. Thanks to his heartfelt characterizations and diverse, yet never overindulgent cinematography, this latest project is the rare awards-bait to have crossover appeal into mainstream entertainment. I have minor complaints with Anora here and there, but they are small fries compared to the relatable if peculiar adventure at the movie’s center.

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SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATION: Broad in narrative scope despite its intimate, contemporary style, Anora borrows from modern independent filmmaking trends as well as classical 1970s American New Wave aesthetics. Both main and supporting castmembers are fully formed, while the camerawork and soundtrack keep the film moving like the most elegant slapstick comedy ever made.

— However… I will never understand the point of these 2 hour, 15-minute+ dramadies despite how few of them justify their considerable length, while Sean Baker’s comedic editing rhythm grows old by the halfway mark.

—> RECOMMENDED for the wannabe Cinderella in you.

? I did not know that Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood had such a notable Russophone population.