'Anora' Is Another Sean Baker Masterpiece!

Over the weekend, "Saturday Night Live" aired a hilarious skit showing what it would have been like if other well-known celebrities -- like JoJo Siwa, Charli XCX, and Sydney Sweeney -- had auditioned for a role in Wicked. One of the names that popped up which viewers might not have been as familiar with as the others was Mikey Madison from Anora (played by Heidi Gardner). Madison plays the lead role on NEON's film festival fave Anora, helmed by Sean Baker, the humanist director par excellence. He has certainly done it again with his latest film, the comedy-drama Anora, released in limited theatres on October 18. It is a delicate and remarkable film that treats the most marginal aspects of society with extraordinary beauty. Again, Baker shows exquisite sensitivity in dealing with broken characters who seek the American dream while living on the fringes of society. It combines the harshest social reality with the craziest humor, creating a difficult balance between social awareness and comedy.

Baker is certainly no stranger to taking on provocative subject matter and characters. If in Tangerine (2015) he told the story of a transgender sex worker, in Florida Project (2017)  he delved into poverty and motherhood, or in The Red Rocket (2021) the protagonist was a failed porn star, in Anora he enters the world of prostitution by the hand of a Brooklyn stripper who dreams of marrying a millionaire that will rescue her from poverty. It is, therefore, a new story of marginalization treated with respect and dignity and with a strong critical charge against the system.

With Anora, Sean Baker is consecrated as a filmmaker of the dark side. Throughout his films, he has shown great ability to find humor with the marginalized, but he is also endowed them with great dignity. Failed porn stars, prostitutes, transgender sex workers, mothers overcome by poverty... all characters on the edge, always treated with extraordinary delicacy and beauty. Innovative, sensitive, and unique, Sean Baker is back with another masterpiece!