User reviews

Anora is an early career magnum opus for Sean Baker that continues to destigmatize sex workers and offer some thoughtful class commentary as the uber rich mess around with the lives of others for a good time with no thought about the consequences for them. It's great when it acts like Pretty Woman and only gets better when it shifts gears into Uncut Gems territory with a highly tense second half that's also really funny throughout.

Mikey Madison is everything in a film that's built around her star making performance which confirms she only deserves more leading roles. She's so confident and refuses to back down whilst being endlessly likeable. It makes everything incredibly investing because you just want her to get the fairytale ending she's been promised, making you hold onto the slightest shred of hope even as reality sets in at every turn.

There's a strong cast of supporting characters too. Mark Eydelshteyn makes Ivan seem nice in spite of his obvious flaws before sadly revealing that he is just a spineless spoiled brat. Yura Borisov, Vache Tovmasyan, and Karren Karagulian are a delightful trio who just spend the majority of their screen time dealing with an awful job which quickly morphs into a spectacular comedy of errors so you just feel really bad for them.

Sean Baker's direction is amazing thanks to an air tight grasp of the tone, allowing it to do the big shift gracefully and the striking opening scene set to Take That sets the scene beautifully. His editing is a standout since this is 139 minutes without feeling overly long. The home invasion sequence goes on for a while and it's only a good thing since it keeps escalating and it definitely helps that the middle chunk is an in the moment search across town for Ivan.

I just watched one of the best films of the year. The Athens festival nights have kicked off, and at the opening ceremony, we were lucky enough to catch Anora. And let me tell you, this film absolutely slays. From the very first scene, you're glued to the screen, and that feeling just doesn't let up. As the movie went on, I kept thinking, "Come on, it has to slow down at some point, right? Give us a breather." Nope, no breaks, no dips, not even a hint of slowdown. Anora has one of the best paces I've ever experienced in a movie.

Anora, a sex worker and a tough girl from Brooklyn, meets the son of a Russian oligarch and, in a whirlwind of madness, marries him. But her fairytale quickly turns into a nightmare when the news reaches Russia, and his parents do everything they can to annul their marriage. The lead actress, Mikey Madison, who plays Anora, is an absolute revelation. She effortlessly combines sexiness, femininity, childlike innocence, and toughness in a way that leaves you speechless. She's going to go very, very far, and don't be surprised if you see her nominated for an Oscar. Personally, I'd also give a Best Supporting Actor nomination to Mark Eidelshtein, who plays the Russian son. He's the most entertaining thing I've seen in a long time. Fantastic.

Anora is a punch to the face of the traditional fairytale concept. It's a realistic, violent, raw, funny, and ultimately sweet modern Cinderella story. Only, in the real world, no prince is going to come and save you-you've got to pick up the pieces and lift your head up high yourself.

There's a lass, I'd have to say, you can't ignore her - working in a place with fascinating fauna, makes a living, just gets by, you can take her for a ride, if you're lucky you may get, to see her flora. An opportunist, she has an arsenal to deploy, knows a good thing when she meets a Russian boy, they enjoy some fun and frolics, they exchange lots of hydraulics, then word gets back to those, who are killjoys. So a dogleg's then deployed, plot rearranges, and the humour ratchets up as well as rages, guardians begin to prise, pulling apart the binds and ties, in a film that truly stuns, often amazes.

Great performances all round, wonderful cinematography, and a script full of magic.

In his previous films ("Tangerine," "Red Rocket," "The Florida Project"), Writer/Director Sean Baker has regularly visited several themes, particularly the plight of immigrants and the difficulties of sex workers. One of the hallmarks of Baker's work is the consistent respect he shows for his characters. While embodying all of the above, "Anora" is infused with a slight tinge of optimism, a vein of hope and a lead character with an attitude and a healthy dose of self-respect. These upgrades over his previous work make "Anora" Baker's best film to date.

When Anora (who demands to be called Ani - sounds like "Annie") encounters Ivan, the son of a Russian oligarch, it's hardly a meet-cute. They first come face to face in a strip club. Ani is one of the strippers. A lot of money changes hands during Ivan's initial infatuation. He purchases Ani's time for a night, then for a week. Ever the practical girl, Ani always requires cash up front. While she appears to enjoy herself with Ivan, she remains clear-eyed about her role and her place. That all changes on a substance-infused trip to Vegas that culminates with a wedding proposal, a four-carat ring and a trip to one of the wedding chapels on the Strip. Ani moves in with Ivan at his parents' three-story gated mansion in Brighton Beach. When word seeps back to Russia, the oligarch and his younger trophy wife are unimpressed. They board a private jet and fly to the States to have the marriage annulled.

The film is filled with Russian actors playing Russians, with several Armenians thrown in for good measure. But all eyes are on Mikey Madison ("Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood," "Scream," TV's "Better Things") in the title role. Madison's Ani is incandescent. She is self-confident, smart, sassy and very realistic about her place in the world. She goes about her sex work in a matter-of-fact manner that insulates her from perpetual cynicism and despair. By the time the film has established some momentum, every moviegoer with a soul is rooting for Ani. It's Madison's charm and magnetism that elevate "Anora" from a good film to an excellent one.

Along the way, Baker makes some interesting observations about immigrants trying to take their place, even temporarily, in the American melting pot. We see the clothes that are just a little off, the struggles with a new language and the too-frequent laughs and bravado that attempt to hide how hard everybody is working just to try to fit in. These transplants also demonstrate that sycophancy knows no national boundaries.

Baker also takes a clear-eyed view of sex workers. While the film contains frequent sex scenes and considerable nudity, it's not pornographic, lurid or voyeuristic. The film conveys that sex for money is a last-ditch source of income for people who otherwise may have few or no options for surviving financially. Sex work is neither glamorized nor vilified.

As it moves along, "Anora" avoids a variety of pitfalls. It never veers off into "Pretty Woman" territory. It gives us a flawed character we all want to root for. Throughout this narrative, Baker expertly blends laugh-out-loud funny moments with scenes of heartbreak. With a running time of 2:19, Baker (who also edited the film) might have better served this effort by leaving a few extraneous scenes on the cutting room floor. Even so, "Anora" is recommended for anyone with a functioning cardiovasculature and even a trace of sentimentality.

Sean Baker returns to his wheelhouse of exploring the dingy edges of society. This is a story of tormented love, a fiery look at how a young woman, scraping by as a sex worker in Brooklyn, sees her hopes and dreams become insanely real when she meets her prince charming, the son of a Russian oligarch. Their chemistry is instant and spellbinding. Her life changes dramatically as they get married.

Mikey Madison is miraculous as the young woman whose fairy tale dream comes alive. But unlike Elizabeth Taylor in "Butterfield 8" or Elisabeth Shue in "Leaving Las Vegas", the female protagonist here never becomes the classic hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold. She remains tough as nails, chock full of rage and ready to throw her next punch until the very end. While she never becomes a savory person, her resolve never wanes. She knows how to stick up for herself and rejects with fury those who fail in this regard. It's one of the best performances of the year.

Just when you think you know where this is going, it upends your expectations and proves to be a much more challenging film with a sobering reality at its core. Many have referred to this as partly a comedy. In all honesty, that's a bit of a stretch, notwithstanding a dark sense of humor. Fair warning, this film is pretty taxing on the psyche. You might be exhausted in the end. But it's a memorable film that will leave you in devastated awe. Recommended to the highest degree.

I am not really familiar with Sean Baker as a director. I know he directed a film called "Red Rocket" and another one called "The Florida Project" with Willem Dafoe but I have not seen either of them. This year he won the Palm D'or for the best film at the Cannes Film Festival for his new film "Anora". So I was looking forward to seeing it very much. I just saw it and I was not disappointed.

I loved this movie. Mikey Madison plays the title role of "Anora" who is a stripper and lap dancer in New York City who meets a rich Russian young man who pays her for sex and likes her so much that he pays her to spend a week with him.

Then he asks her to marry him. They go to Las Vegas and get married. Then his parents find out that he got married and try to get the marriage annulled.

The story is pretty simple but the film is very entertaining from beginning to end and the audience I saw it with found it very funny and laughed a lot.

The film is very emotionally involving and I really came to care about the character of Anora played by Mikey Madison. She gives the best performance of the year and I would really like to see her nominated for the Oscar for best actress next year.

Sean Baker is definitely a director to watch and I can't wait to see what he does next. Director Sean Baker and actress Mikey Madison are definitely a match made in movie heaven. This film is excellent.

Some films are completely made by their last scenes, and "Anora" is one of them.

For the entire movie, we've watched Anora, a sex worker who falls into a whirlwind romance with the son of a Russian oligarch, convince the world and herself that she's tough as nails. She holds her own against the heavies who the oligarch sends to "contain" the situation, that situation being a Vegas marriage between his son and this American girl that he wants to force them to annul. She stands up to the son's god-awful mother and gives her a dressing down in a Vegas chapel. She even kicks the crap out of a work colleague, a fellow dancer at the strip club who delights in seeing Anora brought down a peg. And then, in the film's final moments, we see all of that bravura fall away and Anora turn into a sobbing little girl when a character offers her a taste of genuine human kindness and affection. The moment took my breath away and turned me into a sobbing mess myself. It's the kind of ending that makes you want to go back immediately and watch the movie again to see how your impressions of everything leading up to that ending might change.

Sean Baker makes one small miracle of a movie after another. The man just cannot stumble as far as I'm concerned. Like all of his movies, "Anora" chooses to focus on a character who, let's be honest, many if not most of us would dismiss in real life as trashy and someone to distance ourselves from, and then he lets us spend time with them and see how our feelings about them change as they become less of a collection of obnoxious character traits and more of a fully fleshed out person with a complicated interior life. Mikey Madison gives an astonishing performance in the title role, and I hope this movie isn't too small and out of the mainstream to get her some serious awards attention at year's end.

Grade: A.

Watching this film at the Cannes Film Festival was such a unique experience that I completely lost track of things I usually pay attention to-direction, script, editing, acting, everything. That's when you know a film is truly exceptional!

Sean Baker takes us on another anti-stereotypical journey, one that makes you forget about everything else happening in your life.

I'm incredibly grateful to have had the privilege of watching this masterpiece at Cannes, in the iconic Grand Théâtre Lumière, sitting just a few rows away from the crew.

The 10-minute standing ovation was more than well-deserved-it was electric!

We're all familiar with the old adage that, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. It's a notion that applies not only to what can happen in everyday life, but also to what shows up on the big screen, as the latest feature from writer-director Sean Baker illustrates. This widely acclaimed indie offering follows the misadventures of a Brooklyn lap dancer/sex worker (Mikey Madison) who falls for the insanely rich, self-absorbed, wildly irresponsible son of a Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn). Together they take the plunge into an edgy, wacked-out fairy tale, a dark storybook romance strung out on steroids, quaaludes and crack. Their whirlwind affair soon lands them in Las Vegas, culminating in a green card wedding that junior's mobster parents (Darya Ekamasova, Aleksey Serebryakov) want annulled at any cost, even if it means calling on their oily, bumbling posse of cronies and heavies (Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Yura Borisov) to lean on the alleged lovebirds. But achieving that goal ultimately proves more difficult than imagined. As a cross-country chase ensues, a string of frenzied events leaves mom, dad and friends infuriated and the Gothamite Cinderella disillusioned, having erroneously thought she'd truly hit the jackpot this time. From this, one might easily think this premise has a solid foundation for an outrageous, uproarious comedy, but, sadly, the film lives up to its potential only some of the time. To be sure, there is some genuinely hysterical, wonderfully inventive material here, but it only hits the mark about half the time. What's more, much of the story (especially in the film's first half) is predictable, almost clichéd, with some bits dragging on needlessly long. Indeed, I'm somewhat mystified as to what all the critical fuss is about, something perhaps best evidenced by the picture's capture of the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, the event's highest honor. I readily admit to being a fan of Baker's work, having immensely enjoyed his previous efforts "Red Rocket" (2021), "The Florida Project" (2017) and "Tangerine" (2015). But I'm genuinely at a loss to understand the level of praise that's been lavished on this release. It's a capable film in a number of respects, but the filmmaker clearly has done better, and those prior offerings make better viewing options in my opinion. Don't fall for all the hype here, as this really is one of those cases of something being too good to be true.

The hype surrounding Anora is colossal, and it delivered.

I had no idea what to expect going into it, aside from combining all three of Sean Baker's other movies in my head and thinking maybe it will be somewhere in the middle of all of them (The Florida Project, Red Rocket, and Tangerine - all great movies by the way, and all about sex workers). It had some similar tones and focuses, but otherwise Anora was a new beast of its own. I will say that towards the meat of the film, it got WAY more Safdie Brothers than I was expecting! A lot of people yelling over each other for a very long time! Very tense!

The movie sort of moves in three acts, as many great films do. I was getting the feeling towards the beginning it was going to feel a bit like Boogie Nights in structure, and I would say that that was pretty spot on. You have your party, your conflict, and your conclusion. Without saying too much about it, I will say that the ending made the entire movie for me, and my girlfriend agreed. You have a 2-hour experience that is mostly funny and mostly riveting, that all feels a little pulpy while still offering a lot of very on-point details on the sex work experience, but it all feels for-fun until you get to the ending. Rather than an ending that wraps things up nicely in a pretty little bow, it's an ending that unties the bow, and opens the box, and leaves you with the RAW reality of it all. I was a bit in awe taking in the very specific energy of the packed room as the silent credits hit and people very slowly began making their way (very quietly) out of the auditorium.

Mikey Madison is fantastic as Anora. Seeing the ads for the film, I expected a bubbly, sweet girl - but she plays a hard, sassy, hustler who is VERY New York City, and it was a pleasant surprise. Anora is a mostly likable character, but not always, and that only adds to her humanity and the overall realism and complexity of her functionality as a main character. You will experience a rollercoaster of ups and downs with her, and the depth feels very real. She is also extremely HOT and there's ALOT of SEX in this movie.

The whole cast is fantastic, but new faces Mark Eidelshtein and Yura Borisov make the strongest imprints as capable actors who deserve much more casting in the future. Eidelshtein stole the show as the most believable rich boy on a rampage ever, and Borisov's nuanced presence was loud AF without the need for many words.

I definitely think this is one of Baker's two finest films thus far, perhaps his best, and one of the best films of 2024. It's really great to see how well this movie is doing. The house was totally packed on a Monday night at 9:30 PM, and I hear it's opening weekend numbers were some of the highest this year. This is the kind of original, sincere, relevant filmmaking that needs to be seen, celebrated, and supported, and it's a joy to see it happening. I'm excited to see Mikey Madison's career bloom after this, and can't wait for more from Sean Baker.

Significant amounts of sexuality, violence and profanity.

I don't think that any of it is out of context in terms of the story but it's still there.

Not a show for everyone, ABSOLUTELY NOT a show for children.

A well written story, exceptional acting from the top 5 cast members and an ending that makes sense in relation to the rest of the story.

The movie is probably 20 - 30 minutes too long (IMO). I think at least that much could have been cut with little or no impact on the story.

Mikey Madison's performance is beyond remarkable. She absolutely inhabits the character.

I never thought for a moment that I wasn't watching a real human being, living out their life.

The set-up is enticing. Mikey Madison plays the title role, a New York lap dancer. Then the story hooks us. She marries unwisely (a Russian oligarch's immature young son) and then finds herself in a terrible jam. There's a stand-out performance from Madison but all the performances are good. The glut of nudity and sex is unfashionable for a mainstream picture, but both this and the high drama - increasingly comic - have a rare vibrancy. Striking locations too - Las Vegas and out-of-season Coney Island are skilfully captured. At well over two hours, it's too long, but it just about holds our attention because we can't imagine how it's going to end. The conclusion is not a disappointment. London Film Festival screenings sold out and I'm not surprised. This is dynamic stuff from a fearless director.

I'd seen three of Sean Baker's films before watching Anora. Recently, I watched Tangerine and Take Out, both of which I enjoyed equally but for different reasons. The Florida Project was my first introduction to Baker-a film I deeply love and regard as a masterpiece in both direction and performance. Needless to say, I had high, albeit measured, expectations for Anora.

Based on the premise and snippets I'd seen from promotional material, I thought I had a sense of where the story was headed. However, halfway through, I realized the film was taking a different direction. Initially, I was skeptical, as it felt like the film took too long to "begin." But the second half more than justified the slower opening, leaving me utterly speechless when the credits rolled. Sean Baker took a fun premise and elevated it by telling a meaningful story, culminating in a powerful emotional sucker punch during the final ten minutes.

Mikey Madison delivers a brilliant performance as Anora. Following standout roles in Scream VI and Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, this role feels like it was made for her and by her. She completely owns it.

I also want to highlight how skilled Baker has become at orchestrating chaos in the third acts of his films. The climaxes are always driven by a natural progression of events and supported by well-written, believable characters. The realism stems not just from the writing but also from how authentic the characters feel in their mannerisms and speech-particularly in this film, such as the accurate portrayal of non-native English speakers.

Moreover, the pacing and cinematography reflect the film's events with great purpose. Every shot feels deliberate in depicting a young woman navigating her experiences of love, class, and cultural clashes, all through her own flawed and limited understanding of affection.

If I had to nitpick, there were a few moments where a character wasn't using a gaming controller correctly, but this minor detail doesn't detract from the film's brilliance. Anora is a masterpiece. I was already an admirer of both Madison and Baker from their earlier work, but now I can confidently call myself a fan. I'll eagerly follow their future projects. 10/10.

Also, a shoutout to Yura Borisov and Karren Karagullian, who were fantastic. Having seen Borisov in Compartment No. 6 and Karagullian in Tangerine, their performances here only added to the film's depth.

Watching this film I was reminded of some of those screwball comedies of the 1930s and 40s, with a touch of Tarantino thrown in, and a large dollop of raunchy non PC outrageousness. The story is in fact very modern. Beautiful escort girl in NYC gets mixed up with a Russian oligarch's son and marries him ...what could possibly go wrong? Well, everything. It's witty, outrageously non PC, explicit, and a lot of fun throughout. Yes, many of the characters are quite cartoonish and it is at times a bit of a pastiche, but Mikey Madison is brilliant in the lead, and it's all done with panache and terrific energy. Some might question its moral compass, but I loved this often crazy, funny, manic and very adult entertainment.

What's going on with modern movie making auteurs? Have they lost the art of editing, or are they just too sacred to be told to "make it leaner" by those with the money? A fault of the recent Yourgos Lanthimos, Greta Gerwig offerings and now Sean Baker's Anora; a film with such a bloated middle act that the high-octane momentum of the start felt like a distant memory as we limped our way toward the finish line.

The problem in this case stems from the pressure to transition the story from one "love interest" to another in a way that's both timely and dramatically believable. In short we need to move from the extremely shaky conceit that a savvy New York lap dancer wouldn't spot her latest "sugar buddy" for the coke-fuelled rich kid that he is, and plausibly get to the point where she finds redemption on the lap of an Armenian heavy with a heart of gold and the eyes of...well let's leave that there shall we.

Let's start with Ivan. Sure there may be underlying parental issues driving him to seek more than just a different girl every night, but the setup is far from Pretty Woman. Ivan here is more Borat on Spring Break than Richard Gere as Prince Charming. The story makes it clear that he is never going to be Ani's long-term rescue package and this inevitability slows the story to a standstill. Ivan and Ani never connect in a meaningful way-he's either on a downer, an upper, drunk on vodka, or glued to Call of Duty. Even when he does propose through the haze of yet another hangover we know exactly where it will end. Vegas. Which tells us all we need to know about its likely longevity. This then leaves Baker with a dilemma; either forgo a "salvation figure" altogether (a braver choice, in my opinion) or shoehorn one in. Baker opts for the latter, introducing Igor in the final act (and to be fair a stupendous last scene) but the question is, is it enough?

Once Ivan is out of the picture (he simply disappears without any real showdown until his parents show up), we are left with what happens until Igor emerges. Sadly this means a sluggish "hostage" scene, an endless search for Ivan, (with too many unanswered phone calls- seriously, no one thinks to send a text?) and a group of Armenian heavies verging on caricature.

More crucially, Ani isn't given an environment that allows her character to develop. Instead she spends this portion of the film scratching, screaming, and biting her way through oddly prolonged bondage scenes, without ever getting a chance to barter with her captors, or go on the run. When we finally do leave the house we are subjected to a relentless cycle of middle-aged observations about the state of Gen Z and vomit gags from the Armenian Marx brothers.

You also have to take issue that this is somehow a meaningful depiction about sex work. Sure, Ani is demeaned and subjected to some name calling, but not in a way that feels morally accusative or reflective. Make no mistake this is a hostage movie not a riposte to the faux glamour of the adult industry. There might have been an opportunity for Ani and Ivan's mother to discuss what makes men like Ivan and his father tick, but instead the film opts for a tired demonstration of power dynamics and misguided maternal instincts.

In short, Anora is an imbalanced and unsatisfactory film. It showcases some excellent acting-Mikey Madison is particularly strong-but falls short of delivering the sharp slap in the face it could have been. Instead, it feels more like being bludgeoned extremely slowly with a blunt instrument in the hands of a yet another East European stereotype.

It flies by with a certain brilliance and salty humor during the first 3 quarters of an hour of the film, after that, you get bored stiff for almost an hour due to the lack of a captivating scenario, then we end up with a rather unpleasant melodrama.

Too much length, really: the director seems to have been sooooo satisfied with his actors that he didn't cut several interminable and very boring periods of tracking between the different protagonists. This is really the film's biggest weak point: the director gets drunk on his own virtuosity and ends up telling nothing exciting. Too bad.

Yet it is this film that won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year...

Ani is a young sex worker in Brooklyn who falls in love with the son of a Russian oligarch Vanya. After their first meetings, the two become very close and marry in secret making it seem like a romantic dream come true for Ani. Soon, their fairytale marriage is threatened when a trio of goons sent by Vanya's parents come to take the couple to force them into an annulment, making the marriage meaningless.

Anora is a beautiful, dramatic and intense film that starts out as a fairytale romance that seems way too good to be true. It is very colorful, sexy and glamorous with the lifestyle Ani and Vanya live. They click right away with dynamic chemistry between Madison and Eydelshteyn who seem like they could be together all day and still enjoy each other's company. It is pretty cute to see how these two very different people get so attached and happy together making for a lot of heartwarming moments...

But then the home invasion kicks in and the movie changes all for the better. I love the way this movie flows once trio of Toros, Garnick and Igor show up. This movie is so funny from how over-the-top the comedy and dialogue is while remaining nerve-racking because Ani is alone with three men she does not know and Vanya is nowhere to be seen. The search for him becomes very intense with it being unpredictable if he is gonna be fine or not with both his wife and family trying to reach him. The story leads to some insane revelations that made story that much juicier.

The tone balances between comedic and dramatic. There are a lot of hilarious moments in this movie, especially with the misadventures with Ani and the trio, but it has some of the most important and powerful themes of the year. It delves into a relationship with a rich person and a lower class person go completely wrong showing why it is not the Cinderella dream it might seem. Another theme is how hard one person fights for the marriage or relationship only for their partner to give up on it quickly. A lot of this movie shows the more unsavory parts of romance or marriage especially marriages that happen quickly and secretly. This movie is definitely not a star-crossed lovers dream that it might seem on the surface, but that is what makes the movie so much more compelling.

Mikey Madison is sensational as Ani. She has so much range from sweetnatured at the start, ballistic when confronted by the trio, absolutely exhausted towards the end and sadness. We can even see how tired Ani is the longer the search goes on which I do not see too often with actors looking like they are struggling to stay awake. Madison shows in this role how flexible she is and she brings so much depth, personality and passion in Ani that I do not think another actress could bring to this character. Madison delivers one of the best lead performances I have seen in years and might just have my single favorite one this year.

Ani as a character is fascinating. On the surface, she seems like an abrasive and shallow woman who might come off as obnoxious with how much she screams after the invasion, but she has a good reason. She starts out as a rather friendly and outgoing person who treats everyone with kindness who is not rude to her. She is completely devoted and determined in her relationship with Vanya and she goes from hell to back to find her husband. She barely sleeps at all and the whole movie has her dream world crash down to reality each step of the way. No wonder why she becomes so enraged and I am fully on her side the entire movie. Ani is a fantastic character with multiple layers and a difficult journey.

The supporting is outstanding too and I do not see them get enough love. Mark Eydelshteyn is very charming as Vanya and he shows Vanya's other side to perfection. Yura Borisov as Igor is my favorite supporting role. Unlike everyone else, he has such a calm and lovable presence making for the best kind of straight man for this story. Karren Karagulian is memorable as the hotheaded Toros who is sympathetic to a degree towards Ani, but makes it clear he will find Vanya no matter what. Karagulian has some really fun rants in this movie. Vache Tovmasyan is a lot of fun to watch as the unfortunate Garnick. I could not help but feel a little sorry for him because he goes through the wringer here. Darya Ekamasova only has a few scenes as Vanya's mother, but she has an ice-cold presence that commands the direction of the movie when she shows up. This cast is phenomenal and everyone brings something to the table.

Visually, the movie looks awesome. The cinematography by Drew Daniels is lovely to look at between the lively color grading with terrific use of red and blue and smooth and fluid camera movement that captures all of the chaos happening. The editing is razor-sharp too, especially during the invasion scene and the scenes with Ani and the trio searching for Vanya making the drama that much more intense. I also love the set designs, especially Vanya's house with the giant mirror in his living room. It makes for a great way to show the different between Ani's normal life and the life Vanya lives.

One thing I noticed throughout the film is that there is not a whole lot of music. There are some great songs in the first third, but after the invasion, the movie plays without any music that is not playing on one of the sets. Even the credits have no music! I find it a very interesting stylistic choice. I can see that Sean Baker wanted reality to be as sucky as possible for the Ani so once separates with Vanya, the good times for end and I think that is what the lack of music represents. It is a weird choice, but I think it is very unique and risky.

I am so glad that I took a second trip to the theater this weekend to catch this movie. Anora is an amazing movie with some of the most memorable performances and themes of the year. The first third is not quite as strong as the next two thirds, but after the invasion kicking off the rest of the film, I was hooked with this story and never wanted it to end. Sean Baker delivered such a great shattering of the Cinderella dream romance. This is one of the best movies of the year and I recommend seeing it as soon as possible.

Actually that is only sort of true for the first half of the movie ... and even then, this is way more mature or rather "adult" than the Richard Gere and Julia Roberts movie ... a lot of nudity, a lot of ... having fun. Though I suggest you do not watch it because of that ... the scenes are not long enough to enjoy them in that sense.

The movie is not for kids, yet I reckon there are some fairy tale elements in this. Also a bit of Very bad things (if you have not seen the movie, I suggest you do so - right now) amongst other things. The acting is amazing - and putting a character late in the game and making him a major part of the story ... he looks intimidating, yet acts like a "softie" ... which makes him adorable in a sense.

Someone who would just be a side note in other movies, takes center stage more often than not. Of course Anola (or Ani as she like to be called) is the main star ... and her journey is quite something! What a powerful performance! Deserving of at least a nomination (Oscar wise) ... she really goes places and has studied her role ... physically but also mentally ... she feels like she is the real deal. And she has quite the issues - some will get touched upon (parents), but most is for us to piece together ... and her final scene ... in her head she is always in control ... even if she isn't (and there are many times where she is not) ... but it is fun to watch! For us but also for those who get berated by her (Igor and others come to mind).

The director is able to conjure up a lot of feelings ... and he is able to get amazing performances that feel real from his actors! This will not be everyones cup of tea - especially if you are overly sensitive - but those with a sense of humor ... though who like genre hopping movies (begins romantic, gets to a totally different place in the end ... and is as suspenseful and dramatic as it gets! Watch it if you can handle it ... or rather her! She is more than a handful - no pun intended once again.