“Anora” is wildly entertaining
"Anora" is not a movie for everyone. It very much earns its R-rating. Feel free to jump off this review now if that is not your thing. Go watch "The Flordia Project," the movie that put director Sean Baker on my radar. It is a fantastic movie, and while there is still a ton of cursing, it is easier to recommend than this one.
Ani (Mikey Madison) is a sex worker in New York City. One night, she meets Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch, at the club where she works. He offers to pay her to play the part of his girlfriend for a week. At the end of the week, the two impulsively get married while in Vegas. When his parents learn this, their whirlwind romance becomes threatened.
I am not that familiar with Madison's work. She was in the recent Scream" reboot/sequel and "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood," which I did not remember until looking at her IMDb page. I will have to revisit those two after this because she is fantastic. Once Ivan's parents get involved, we see how much of a fighter she is- sometimes literally. She wants to keep this marriage going, either because of the lifestyle it affords her or because she cares for Ivan; she will not give all that up easily.
It becomes a comedy once the henchmen show up to get the marriage annulled. They come into the situation expecting this "prostitute" to give up. They don't come looking for a fight; they just some light intimidation, and it will all be over. What they get is someone who is strong-willed. When we left the theater, my friend mentioned seeing some bumbling henchmen was great. Everything goes wrong for these two; most of the time, it goes hilariously wrong. They rush into every situation, thinking they have the upper hand because of their status and are constantly failing.
I had heard the hype about this movie after it won the Pom d'Or at Cannes and was a darling on the festival circuit. I was not prepared for how fun it was. The subject matter is not for everyone, and I get that, hence the warning at the beginning of the review. If you can get past the graphic nudity and the liberal use of the f-word (well over 400, from what I can tell), then the last 90 minutes of this movie are going to be a blast.
8/10
Rated R for strong sexual content throughout, graphic nudity, pervasive language, and drug use.
2h 19m
