The Good, The Bad and The Critic

Established on March 19th, 2012 and pioneered by film fanatic Michael J. Carlisle. The Good, The Bad and The Critic will analyze classic and contemporary films from all corners of the globe. This title references Sergei Leone's influential spaghetti western The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

Saturday, March 15, 2025

Anora (2024) Review

 Title: Anora
Year: 2024
Director: Sean Baker
Country: US
Language: English



At the 97th Academy Awards, Sean Baker's Anora won five Oscars. These were Best Picture, Best Editing, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. It was a very well liked film prior to the Oscars, having won Palm D'or at Cannes, but it wasn't really considered a front-runner until a few weeks prior to the show. I'm pretty happy that such a low budget movie won such a prestigious award. Made for $6 million, Baker proves that great storytelling can surpass big budget spectacles. 

In Anora, a young escort from Brooklyn (Mikey Madison) meets and impulsively marries the son (Mark Eydelshteyn) of a Russian oligarch Once the news reaches Russia, her fairy tale is threatened as his parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

Written, Directed, and Co-Produced by Sean Baker, Anora is a film with relentless energy. Despite it being 2hr 30min, it feels like a film with half that run-time as we go from Cinderella fairytale to Slapstick comedy to meaningful reflection on capitalism & class division. Baker really pulls us into Anora's world - giving us an empathetic glimpse of a life of a sex worker on the fringes of society. We relate to her because we are the same working class trying to not be exploited by the careless 1%.

We also empathize with the hired goons, Igor (Yura Borisov) and Nick (Paul Weissmann), who are men also exploited by capitalism & have to disrupt Anora's marriage as part of their job. They are fairly non-violent, which adds to the escalating tension & funny-as-hell slapstick that permeates the middle of the film. They have to restrain Anora, while getting beaten up by her. This results in a broken nose, falls through the table. It feels very much like a Three Stooges routine. 

I was very impressed by Anora. it had me interested in Sean Baker's other works like The Florida Project (2017). Baker does a great job at highlighting marginalized people & bringing awareness to people who are lower class. After watching the film, I had a lot of thoughts regarding class, gender and how we can improve society for people like Anora. Baker has made an important film that, hopefully, will be regarded as a classic in the future. 

No comments:

Post a Comment