Anora comes from the mind of Sean Baker, who recently set a record for winning four Oscars for one movie earlier this month. Walt Disney won four Oscars in 1954 but for four separate works (Animated Short, Live-Action Short, Documentary Short and Documentary Feature). And it’s no surprise Baker has a weird connection to Disney
In 2017, he gave us The Florida Project, a movie that was set at and around the Magic Castle Inn & Suites, an actual working motel in the Orlando area. The movie focused on the people who live in extended stay motels and their daily lives. During one hilarious scene, a foreign couple accidentally makes a reservation at the motel thinking it’s the Magic Kingdom.
It also gave Willem Dafoe one of his best roles as Bobby Hicks, the manager of the motel. The actor is known for playing villains, madmen and psychos. But here he is just a regular Joe who works a tough job in which he has operate a business but shows empathy toward the six-year-old girl who is the protagonist of the story and her mother, a former stripper who seems more immature than her daughter. I loved the scenes of him talking causally to some cranes that are blocking the drive as they could care less and another scene where he keeps an elderly creeper away from the kids.
Anora is another movie which revolves around a sex worker. Anora “Ani” Mikheeava (Mikey Madison) is a 23-year-old Russian-American who lives n the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn where she works as a stripper. One night, she is introduced to a young Russian Ivan “Vanya” Zakharov (Mark Eydelsteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch, who requests someone who knows Russian. Vanya lives a life of excessive partying although he’s supposed to be in the country studying.
After performing a lap dance for Vanya, Ani is hired for many sexual encounters at his mansion. It’s obvious from the start that Vanya is a virgin and his sex with Ani is somewhat comical but overtime it becomes very frequent the way it often is with couples when they’re starting out. After an invitation to his mansion for a New Year’s Eve Party, he asks her to accompany him and his entourage to Las Vegas for a week, paying $15,000.
Ani accepts and on a whim while partying in Vegas, they elope to a chapel to get married. Of course, you can tell by the way Vanya acts he may be stoned out of his mind to really understand what he’s doing. Despite being a sex worker, Ani seems to be smarter than people might think. While Ani gets a taste of the high life, it’s not going to last long as word travels back to Vanya’s parents that he has gotten married.
His handler, Toros (Karran Karagulian), and two henchman, Igor (Yura Borisov) and Garnik (Vache Tovmasyan), travel to the mansion to check on Vanya only to discover him there with Ani. Toros and Garnik are brothers who are Armenian and Igor, a Russian himself, seems to be very inexperienced as a hitman. You can tell by Toros that he’s had his hands full with Vanya. The young men tries to keep the henchmen from coming in after repeatedly ignoring phone messages.
During the scuffle, Vanya leaves angry while Igor and Garnik subdue Ani who isn’t willing to accept a $10,000 payoff for an annulment. She believes that her and Vanya have true love. And over the next several hours, they all try to find Vanya so they can get the marriage annulled. What’s funny is that even though they are henchmen, they seem to be very intimidated by Ani whose small body doesn’t match the piss and vinegar she has. For someone who has worked as a stripper, she’s learned to hold her own against some very creepy and predatory men, so Igor and Garnik are no different.
The middle part of the movie follows Ani, Toros, Igor and Garnik looking for Vanya and interacting with each other. This is played mostly for laughs as the henchmen are somewhat incompetent and no match for Ani. One thing Baker doesn’t do with this movie that too many other filmmakers have done is to use Ani’s work as a stripper/prostitute as a sign of desperation.
It’s been 35 years since Julia Roberts charmed us as a hooker with a heart of gold in Pretty Woman. But while her character might have done it out of desperation, it doesn’t mean a lot of people turn to stripping or even being an escort because they need money. Everyone needs money. I mean, we’re living in the era of OnlyFans where people can make a lot of money just by showing their naked bodies on the Internet.
Three years ago, Emma Thompson appeared in a movie Good Luck to You, Leo Grande where she had sexual encounters with a male prostitute. Despite the movie getting high praise, I didn’t care for it. Mainly because it just rehashes the same stereotypes why someone would be an escort – they desperately need money or they’re struggling with parental issues. The opening scene of the male character played by Daryl McCormack sitting pleasantly in a cafe playing on his his phone a few minutes before meeting his client were probably more honest and enjoyable than the rest of the hour and half of boredom and dull characters. It’s almost like writers and directors who make characters sex workers seem to know very little about them.
Ani may be a sex worker but this isn’t a movie about sex workers. It’s actually a comedy-drama about people. Vanya lives a life of extravagance but never thinks about the consequences. He doesn’t really love Ani. He just wants to stay in America away from his parents while remaining dependent on them. Toros, Igor and Garnik are no different than Ani. They’re beck-and-call people just like her except Ani has more control because she can name her price.
In many ways, we’re all using our bodies in one way or another for paid work. My first summer job as a stocker at K-Mart 30 years ago, one of my night duties was to collect shopping carts. The youth of the area would cruise the parking lot and every now and again, one of them just like Vanya thought it’d be funny to try to run me over. For $5 an hour, I was putting my body at risks that now I’m paying more. Anyone who works construction or the healthcare workers who are constantly on their feet run a risk to their health as well.
I didn’t like the movie as much as The Florida Project but Baker does have a knack for showing us the people we seem to ignore have lives and they deserve some respect. We’ve gotten to the point in this country where we only want to see movies about people who live unrealistic lives in suburban homes they couldn’t possibly afford with their jobs. (Side eye to Nancy Myers.) And they’re able to drop everything on a whim and go on vacation trips that costs at least $20,000.
People who live in apartments with roommates and work regular jobs have more decency and normalcy than those pulling in six figures. The people who change my oil may be grease monkeys but they know what they’re doing and they’re some of the nicest people I’ve met. Vanya lives an extravagant lifestyle but it comes at a cost. And when we finally do meet his parents who aren’t too happy, we see how someone like him could behave the way he does. With wealth inequality at the highest ever in this country, people with money and power think they’re invincible and we allow them to act that way even though we’ve created the concept of riches and wealth.
It’s the same way I look at sex workers. They’re just providing a service. People pay to see them naked and perform sexual acts. So is worse – the one who pays or the one who takes the money?
Anora is a movie about how fairy tales don’t always come true. And if they do, it’s short-lived and there’s no happily ever after.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 