48/42
in Hollywood and Scream
Plot
Anora, a young prostitute from Brooklyn, meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. After the news reaches Russia, her fairy tale is in jeopardy as his parents leave for New York to annul the marriage. of Once Upon a Time…
Featured in Close-Up: Anora (2024)
At the Cannes Film Festival press conference, Mikey Madison said that director Sean Baker would act out different sexual positions with his wife, producer Samantha Kwan, to demonstrate to the actors what he wanted to do make.. Sean Baker is right up there with Chloe Zhao as one of the most humane and empathetic directors of our generation. His eye for the outcast and his strong ability to show the limits of the American Dream cement his place as an important, much-needed artistic voice.
That being said, his latest film ANORA proves that he is much more of a character/atmosphere director than a story director
What starts out as a promising offbeat comedy with signature edginess turns into a slapstick farce that needs an editor, with some scenes just going round and round to the point where I wanted Paul Simon to jump out and sing, "I’m on my way/I don’t know where I’m going/But I’m on my way…"Blake Edwards’ work seems to be a subliminal influence here, making such excesses a little more understandable; a movie like VICTOR/VICTORIA might be a masterpiece if it weren’t for one too many bar fights. Yet the comedy often seems more contrived than a natural product of the characters' idiosyncrasies and a poignant but abrupt ending scene would have worked better if some of the antics had been traded for more moments fleshing out the main character beyond, well, her flesh. Mikey Madison undoubtedly maximizes what he can maximize with a signature character (the added nuance, possibly provided by Baker’s usual co-writer Chris Bergoh, seems missing), and the supporting cast does the same, especially Baker regular Karen Karagulyan.
Check out the full lineup for the 62nd New York Film Festival this fall
But having enjoyed Baker’s last two films, which were less plot-driven and more atmospheric, empathetic explorations of neglected American communities, this film came as a huge disappointment. There are several scenes in the film that show a seemingly lonely and melancholic maid forced to clean up the excessive mess left by the spoiled rich man she works for. I think a movie about her story would end up being a lot more interesting…