Feature
Anora
***Winner – Palme d’Or – 2024 Cannes Film Festival
***Audience Award – Runner-up – 2024 Toronto International Film Festival
Sean Baker’s latest casts Mikey Madison (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) as a sex worker named Anora, or Ani as she prefers to be called. She may live in a shabby Brooklyn apartment above the rattle of the subway, but every night, Ani glams up and puts on a flirty smile for the men at a local club.
Between myriad lap dances, Ani finds herself talking to Vanya, a young Russian boy who joyfully throws around his parents’ money. His innocence charms Ani, and the two fall into a comfortable rhythm. She shows him a good time, and he opens the door to a charmed life she could only have imagined. They begin a whirlwind romance that’s soon threatened by Vanya’s powerful family. Ani finds herself gripping onto a fantasy by her long pink fingernails.
From quick-cut montages to anxious extended sequences, Anora showcases a filmmaker in brilliant command of his craft, expertly upholding a tragicomical tone for a story that keeps us on the edge of our seat.
Painting the air blue with her profanity, Madison is unflinching, delivering an unforgettably charismatic performance. It’s another stalwart actor-director partnership for Baker, who builds on his work in Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket for his most propulsive film yet.
2024, 139 minutes, USA, Directed by Sean Baker, Rated R
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“Mikey Madison gives an all-time performance!”
– IndieWire -
“Written and directed with an infectious, propulsive energy and featuring a star-making performance by Mikey Madison, it’s one wild joyride you don’t want to miss.”
– Zhuo-Ning Su, AWARDS DAILY -
“Phenomenal. A one-of-a-kind sensation”
– First Showing -
“Sean Baker’s flair for rough-edged characters, as seen in Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket, pays off handsomely in this high-voltage screwball comedy.”
– Peter Howell, TORONTO STAR -
“Anora is boundlessly alive with a quality we’ve seen continually in the movies of Sean Baker, among the most humanist filmmakers working today.”
– Tomris Laffly, ROGEREBERT.COM -
“Anora is a visceral experience, making its audience not voyeurs but one of the crew. Thus embedded, our pulses race, our eyes grow wide, our hearts dance as our heroes do. Anora offers a glorious thrill, as bold as it is brilliant.”
– Kristy Puchko, MASHABLE