David Farnor | On 16, Feb 2025

Director: Sean Baker
CastL Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Lindsey Normington
Certificate: 18

“I like Anora more than Ani.” Those are the words of someone who admires Anora deeply – and they come from the most unexpected place. That balance of heartfelt affection and surprising turns of events is what makes Sean Baker’s tale so thrilling, funny and surprisingly moving.

Anora (Mikey Madison) is an exotic dancer in Brooklyn. We meet her while she’s in full flow at work, owning what she does and who she is – even though she exists in a transactional world, she knows what she’s worth. So when Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch, asks if he can hire her to be his girlfriend for a week, she doesn’t hesitate to come up with a sum – $10,000 – and then add another $5,000 on top of that.

What ensues is a week of partying, dancing, sex and playing on the Playstation, although not necessarily in that order. It culminates in an impromptu visit to Las Vegas, where Anora and Ivan end up getting hitched. That moment should be a transformative, life-changing shift in direction for both of them – Anora is financially secure and valued by someone other than herself, Ivan becomes a US citizen and can stand up to his parents. But this isn’t a rags-to-riches fairytale – and their marriage is soon under threat from Ivan’s overbearing father, who disapproves of him marrying a sex worker.

What ensues is tragic in many ways – the neon-lit opening accompanied by Take That’s Greatest Day is replaced by a day-lit, often claustrophobic ride through disappointment in the back seat of other people’s cars. The real sadness isn’t that Ivan isn’t a Prince Charming type who can rescue her, but that he doesn’t really see her value. Rather than wallow in that realisation, Anora simply becomes more determined to stop her dream life being snatched away from her.

All this could be sad, if it wasn’t so hilarious. Sean Baker’s remarkable achievement is to fuse that downward spiral with a screwball energy that borders on farce. As Anora clashes with the simultaneously fierce and incompetent enforcers Toros (Karren Karagulian), Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov), things escalate to a fast-paced, frenetic and funny pace. The cast nail that balance of tone impeccably, creating something that’s cynical and sweet, amusing and affirming.

None of this would work without the two central performances. Mikey Madison is astonishing in an instantly star-making performance as Anora, steering away from cliches to present a woman who is more than her work, who is passionate, loyal, honest and pragmatic. Bringing unsuspecting heart alongside her isn’t endearingly naive Mark Eydelshteyn but the brilliant Yura Borisov, who impressed recently in Compartment No 6. He finds genuine warmth behind Igor’s brutish exterior, as he sees Anora for herself – even as she struggles not to repay that affection with something transactional.

The result is a whirlwind of heart, humour and tension, fuelled by Sean Baker’s knack for celebrating outsiders on the fringes of society with compassion, effortlessly jumping from fantasy to reality with a thrilling, empathic confidence. What a vivid treat this is.

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