ANORA - CAMBRIDGE FILM FESTIVAL
If you dream of becoming the fabulously wealthy partner of a Russian oligarch, think again. I realise this may not be ambition of many Cambridge Critique readers but you have been warned. Sean Baker’s latest movie, a Palme d’Or winner, takes us on a high roller-coaster frenzy fuelled by sex, drugs, schlock and rile. It is a film of four scenes. The first is an overlong and indulgently prurient glimpse into the goings-on in New York sex club. Men here pay for drinks, lap dancers, strippers and ‘VIP’ attention by no-clad girls in private rooms. Baker leaves nothing to the imagination with no attempt to disguise the naked sleaze of these haunts. We are introduced to our two main players: Anora one of the working girls and the young Russian, son of a tycoon, Ivan. Besides shots of the daily grind (literally), we get lots of lively ‘backstage’ chatter among the girls and a strong sense that this cohort is badly paid, under-protected and over exploited by the management.
Mikey Madison as Anora
The drunken Ivan (brilliantly but uncomfortably played by Mark Edelstein) has fallen in love with the wayward Anora and after a long pulsating opening scene, we move to his fabulously expensive apartment overlooking the Hudson. Or rather his father’s des res.
More sexy encounters ensue with Anora who is paid by the hour. But then the film twists and gyrates into something unexpected: a wacky farce reminiscent of Hollywood’s screwball movies only with more F words and ketamine.
Anora and Ivan marry in Las Vegas but this is not a marriage made in heaven but in the world’s gambling epicentre.. Ivan’s super-rich Russian family are not keen on his being wedded to whom they call a ‘’whore’. Tis pity for Anora has a lot going for her. Mikey Madison gives an outstanding performance in the title role – surely an Oscar contender? She is feisty, foul-mouthed, tough, tender, vulnerable and tragic by turns. The cartoon sex goddess grows wings and as the film progresses we come to understand that behind the bluster is a hurt human being. But before we get to that denouement, there is ribald hilarity as Russian and Armenian heavies are sent to break up the marriage. One of the henchman, Igor, turns out to be much more than hired muscle..
Though the movie goes too long in scene 1, what follows is a really funny, sometimes sad, exploration of the lure of money and the agonising search for true love. If money is not the root of all evil, it runs a damn close thing to sexploitation.
