By Sandra Hall
ANORA ★★★★
(MA) 138 minutes
American writer-director Sean Baker is an expert in creating semi-programmed mayhem – a talent that has made him a great hit on the festival circuit. His latest film, Anora, is typical of his style. The winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes, it shines with inspired bits of improvisation delivered by a cast so spirited that anything seems possible.
Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn) and Anora (Mikey Madison) are a mismatch made in heaven.Credit:
He also has a particular affinity for those down on their luck, especially the kind who won’t give up. Anora (Mikey Madison) – or Anie as she prefers to be called – is just such a character. She’s a 23-year-old lap dancer working at a “gentlemen’s club” in midtown Manhattan. Although it’s a job with no discernible future, she’s tireless, putting up a plausible show of enthusiasm for every client, no matter how unappealing.
Then, one night, her luck changes – or so it seems. Into the club comes Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the hyperactive 21-year-old son of a Russian oligarch. He and his pals love to party, and in Anie he finds a like-minded accomplice. Impressed by the fact she’s as reckless as he is, he promises to pay her $10,000 to spend the following week with him in his absent parents’ cavernous apartment in Brooklyn. And so the fun begins.
As far as energy levels go, these two are a great match. Eydelshteyn’s Ivan is irrepressible in every way, joyously performing spontaneous somersaults when the mood takes him, which is usually after sex, and refusing to sit still except when playing video games. Anie is delighted by him, although she can’t quite find the words to say so, possibly because her vocabulary doesn’t extend far beyond the “f” word in all its inflections and conjugations.
When Ivan suggests they fly to Las Vegas and get married, she readily consents – once the diamond engagement ring is on her finger. But when they get back to Brooklyn, there’s trouble. The news of the wedding has reached Ivan’s minders, who arrive at his doorstep, determined to escort the bride and groom to court for an annulment.
Mayhem ensues and Anie flies into a feral fury, during which the heavies turn out to be lightweights. While the most serious injuries are sustained by the furniture, she does succeed in reducing Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), the senior minder, to a quivering mess by breaking his nose, while Igor (Yura Borisov), the team’s so-called enforcer, turns out to be a softie. He keeps trying to interrupt her flow of obscenities long enough to apologise for having to tie her hands together with the telephone cord.
From here on in, things get crazier by the minute as Ivan escapes and Anie and her captors embark on a search that involves a tour of Brooklyn, taking in Brighton Beach and Coney Island. Settings are important to Baker. He likes to explore them thoroughly, and this time, his desire to put Brooklyn’s Russian-American enclaves on screen accounts for a big part of the film’s charm.
His real skill lies in extracting endearingly funny performances from his whole cast. Or most of his cast. Ivan’s mother, Galina (Darya Ekamasova), is all malevolence, making a late appearance so chilling that Anie is rendered speechless until, just in time, she comes up with a zinger that successfully ends the conversation.
It’s a rollercoaster ride, yet Baker never confuses movement with action. Every twist takes you somewhere you hadn’t quite expected to be, revealing an emotion you hadn’t expected to share. It may be a farce, but the final scene is all heart.
Anora is released in cinemas on December 26.
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