Anora * * * ½

Ani and her "pay by the hour" hubbie. 

After the last film I saw of Sean Baker I would have avoided this.  But, you know, with all that fuss, calling the lead actress best performance of the year and awarding Anora the best film of the year, giving it an Oscar and what have you, I decided I'd go have a look. 

Since The Florida Project, Baker has also given us Red Rocket, a film I can say nothing about because I avoided it. Although I did notice he was on the same theme as he was in Florida Project and again in Anora. For some reason, Baker likes to use the sex industry as the background for his dramas.  Florida Project was about a stripper, Red Rocket about a retired porn star (apparently) and Anora is about  a stripper called Ani who moonlights as a hooker.  

Nearly everything about the main character Ani (Anora's working name) is presented to us as face value. We know very little about her background or where she came from. Although her affected New York accent would suggest it wasn't far away.  She can speak a little Russian because as a child she was mostly raised by a Russian Grandmother.  Not much more is shared with us about her childhood, mum and dad or anything else.  For me, this strengthened the character rather than weakened her and actress Mikey Madison takes every advantage of the broad canvas of the unknown. She puts in a very fine performance. 

We meet Ani working at a busy strip club giving lap dances. She is asked to entertain a partying young Russian guy called Vanya, who doesn't speak much English.  He offers her the big dollars to be his "girlfriend" for a week. He's got a magnificent house, a seemingly bottomless pocket and a party attitude to life; he's young and good looking, so why not?  She moves in with him.  Ani enjoys the partying, the laziness, the drugs and even seems to enjoy the sex, dismissing the client/worker relationship.  They go to Las Vegas, where, in a crazy night they decide they like each other so much they should get married in one of those novelty chapels they have there.  What fun!

It's at this stage Anora changes gear and moves into a caper movie, because Vanya has minders who have taken their eye off the ball and will soon have to explain to his rich and powerful parents as to why their boy has married a hooker.  And so three Russian heavies  - you got your bossy threatening leader, your hard man, and a younger player who just follows orders - set out to persuade Ani to get the marriage annulled and pin down Vanya till Mum and Dad arrive.  Anora now plays it for laughs as much as anything with Ani kicking and screaming and objecting and lashing out like a wild animal as she is abducted and dragged around looking for Vanya. 

Now it is the younger Russian tough guy, Igor, who becomes the man in Ani's life for a few days.  Not that she wants him. There is no warmth there.  She hates him! Or does she?  Anora isn't shy about throwing out a few challenges. She wants to know if Igor finds her rape-worthy. It pushes it, but it's an insight into Ani's brain. 

There is rarely a dull moment in Anora, I'll give it that, though the comedy is more physical than witty. For nearly two and a half hours it moves fast until the "full circle" ending which many reviewers are calling devastating, heart breaking etc. Obviously it was unclear to them too.  Personally I found it frustratingly ambiguous rather than a satisfying unknown, but that can happen when you give your actors space to work it through themselves rather than sticking to the script.  And that's the way Baker likes to work. 

Overall I found Anora a lot of fun, and certainly more satisfying than Florida Project .  It's well worth seeing, but given it's contenders hardly worthy of film of the year; but hey, Oscars, do they ever really get it right anyway?