Anora Review

I saw the movie Anora, here are my thoughts…

Aurora is an exotic dancer who begins a Cinderella-type romance with a rich party boy, but problems arise when the parents find out…

The first half of this movie is like “working-class Cinderella meets Showgirls.” We follow Anora and her hard-knock life of staying up all night, dancing half-naked for drunk guys, and trying to get as much money as she can to pay the rent. We all have bills to pay, so we can sympathize with her for having to make money in a tough job.

Then Anora meets Ivan, whose charm is also what’s wrong with him… He’s incredibly naïve. When he shows up, he doesn’t speak English well, but he’s just looking to have a good time and party with people. He’s like if Goofy were a spoiled rich club kid: “Gosh, let’s have fun and go to Vegas Mickey, hu-ha.” 

So Ivan takes Anora on these whirlwind adventures, to giant mansions with beautiful views, gets her all these expensive outfits and things, a free private jet ride to Vegas with limbo rides, Highroller hotel sweats that look like a Roman Colosseum, and a private pool balcony… and he’s always like, “Let’s go do more fun things,” so who wouldn’t want to hang out with this guy?

And then, admits the glamour, sex, and cocaine… Ivan wants to marry Anora, and you realize “Oh this kid doesn’t know how the real world works and has never heard the word responsibility”. Because in his mind he’s like “Oh this girl spends time with me, that means she likes me. And we have fun, she loves me”. And it’s like no bitch, you keep paying her to hang out, this a stripper who is riding the money train until the wheels fall off. And you can’t fault Anora because we who live in the world and know the value of money know she’s just doing her job and trying to make as much as possible… but as the trailer shows, they get hitched.

So a small critique, as previously stated, through the first half of Anora is clearly just milking Ivan like she’s Farmer Joe getting milk from old Betsy, but at some point, she actually falls for him and wants a life with him… But we never see that eureka “oh wow I guess I actually “like him” like him” moment, and through the second half she goes through a lot to try and be with this guy and I think it would’ve made the character’s motivation more clear and sympathetic if we had seen that scene.

So this movie is getting a lot of praise for Mikey Madison’s performance, which I can safely say does meet the hype. Now the character of Anora is a mixed bag, at first, she can be fun in that abrasive “Fran Drescher, Harley Quinn, Jersey Shore” caricature kind of way. But like Ivan, her greatest charm is also her greatest annoyance… she can be so confrontational like she will drop swears like giving fine china plates to be held by a blind hurdle runner. But her rough edges are mostly used for comedy's sake, so you roll with it. Also, Mikey brings a lot of nuance and emotion that isn’t necessarily on the page, which adds a lot of depth and intrigue to the character.

Then the movie turns when Ivan‘s parents find out and are less than thrilled to find out their son has married a stripper… and that’s when this movie becomes what I can describe as a Cohen Brothers version of Trailer Park Boys… Trailer Park Comrades lol

This is one of the funniest movies I’ve seen all year, my experience was helped out a really lively audience, but there’s a lot of funny gags, physical humor, and “Abbott and Costello” type wordplay that makes it darkly fun. 

We meet Toros, Igor, and Garnick… who have a sort of” The Three Stooges” dynamic. The guy who plays Toros brought a lot of nervous chaotic energy to his comedy, he was probably the funniest character in the film. 

Igor is just tired and wants to go home… We’ve all been there, very sympathetic.

The actor who plays Garnick at first starts out as someone you think is just a thick-headed muscle, but throughout the film, he brings a lot of nuance and emotion with just his eyes… He might actually be the heart of the film.

The movie does go on a bit long, but it never loses me with the comedy, artist moments, or emotional beats (which I appreciate and think the film does a pretty good job at). But it does start repeating some of those beats and it doesn’t add much to the film, just prolongs it, where I think the overall movie could’ve had more of an emotional impact if it was a bit shorter and tighter.

Some other notable enjoyable side characters were Ivan‘s mom and Aurora‘s rival Diamond, they were very much over-the-top almost mustache-twirling obstacles, but they were so fun at chewing scene; I got some good laughs out of them.

The movie looks gorgeous, with a lot of soft lights and bright colors, but always almost natural lighting, like looking at a sunny day or beautiful sunset is how would describe this movie, but also natural and realistic.

Now cinephiles love this director Sean Baker like they LOVE to ego stroke this guy. And this being the first movie I’ve ever seen of his, I can say he is super talented. He knows how to get natural and fun performances out of the cast, he’s very good with the camera, setting mood, and getting pretty shots. Plus I’ve read he’s a very kind and supportive person to collaborate with, so that’s always great.

Now this movie has some good Oscar buzz, and with Sean Baker being a “critics darling”, (which is someone critics and film people will just hype up and get super excited over, thinking they loved their work in the past so they’re just gonna be great no matter what), you’ll hear a lot of praise and acclamations from people (which is mostly well deserved) but heading into the film might feel a bit daunting and non-intentionally affect your viewing of the film… so I would say, just forget what you’re hearing, go in an form your own opinion. I think it’s very accessible to general audiences and between the comedy and the artistry, there’s something for everyone to like.

For me, this movie plays into a lot of things I like, good laughs, well-made visuals, interesting characters, and good-looking ladies dressed as school girls 😅 it’s a nice stew of my favorite things, and while it all doesn’t come together as much as I’d hope, it was very entertaining, had a satisfying ending, and I had a great time while watching it... I give it a low six out of five stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

But my absolute favorite part of the movie was seeing in the credits that my friend Acei Martin was the stunt double for the lead actress. I didn’t even know she was in the movie, but by chance, I saw her name and literally let out an excited gasp 😮 it’s wicked awesome that she gets to work on such cool films doing fun stuff, excited and happy for her success ❤️