Anora

Anora is a grittier experience. All the performances are impressive and I will not be surprised if Madison receives an Oscar nomination.

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.

As brazen and unapologetic as many of Baker’s characters are… There is a desperation and a dependency on others that Ani refuses to let define her.

It's absolutely breathless in terms of its energy.

I know you won’t believe it’s as good as everyone is saying it is until you hear it from me so here you are: yes, it’s as good as everyone is saying it is.

At its core it’s a romantic dramedy that’s gotten a lot of comparisons to Pretty Woman, though it seems even more spiritually akin to Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria.

Baker proves his point in a movie of split motivations held together by the revelation that is Mikey Madison.

The final gut punch of Anora is in Sean Baker's decision to suggest what these characters will do after the movie ends. It is a moment of emotional vitality and unexpected truth, delivered with the help of Mikey Madison's wondrous performance.

Anora may be the clearest example of class solidarity put to film in recent years. A f----d up Cinderella story about the ways in which our capitalistic society regularly makes financial security and uninhibited self-expression mutually exclusive...


In the second section... we lose the Ani we’d come to know.