“Anora,” Sean Baker’s hilarious, poignant romp about a stripper who elopes with the son of an oligarch, is going to make a huge star out of its incredible lead, Mikey Madison.
Sometimes it feels like an actor has just been waiting for their breakout moment: Mikey Madison just had hers at the. , a twisted fairy tale about a sex worker who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. The film is very funny, until it punches you in the gut with a beautiful ending, and it entirely rests on Madison’s performance as the tough-as-nails Anora.
Anora, however, goes by Ani, when we first meet her through a series of lap dances at the midtown strip club where she works. That night her boss tells her to go meet with Ivan , a gangly Russian patron, who wants her for a dance because she speaks his language. He’s infatuated, they hit it off, and she gives him her number.
But once they get back to New York it all starts to go sour. His parents get wind of the nuptials, and send their lackeys to clean up his mess.
So when his parents’ muscle arrives, Ani stands her ground. In the movie’s most thrilling sequence, she gives two guys much bigger than her absolute hell when they try to prevent her from following Ivan into the snowy streets. She leaves destruction in her wake, kicking furiously, breaking noses, and biting necks. She can fight back and scream louder than anyone.
Madison wears Ani’s vulnerabilities just under the surface. We never learn much about her backstory—just that her mom now lives in Florida and she hates going by Anora. To be a descendant of Russian immigrants in New York comes with a sort of shame for her, but to be the bride of a rich Russian guy? That's fine. All that tension builds up until the last beat of the film, making the ending all the more poignant. (Baker has a thing for great endings.
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