'Anora' Is Another Sean Baker Masterpiece!

Written by Ada C. Rahola and Katie Marzullo. Published: November 19 2024

(Photo: NEON)

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.

Anora, which was edited, directed, and written by Baker himself, premiered in May 2024 at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Palm d'Or. It was the first American film to win the Palm d'Or since 2011's The Tree of Life and received a 10-minute standing ovation. Besides Cannes, Anora was also a selection at the New York Film Festival and the San Sebastián Film Festival, among many others. Sean Baker also won the Silver Scream Award, and Mikey Madison -- in her role as Anora "Ani" Mikheeva, the high-priced stripper at the Headquarters strip club -- has also won several awards, including the Breakthrough Award at the Savannah Film Festival, and at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The actress and producer Samantha Quan, Baker's wife, has also won the Producer Award in the Celebration of Cinema and Television by the American Canadian Critics Choice Association. Last but not least, it has achieved a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and 91/100 on Metacritic.

Anora's plot may initially seem like a version of the classic Cinderella, or a new Pretty Woman. Mikey Madison, known for roles in Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood and "Better Things", seduces in her role as Ani, a young sex worker from Brooklyn who marries a Russian millionaire, believing that she will escape from her stripper prostitute life. But far from being the Vivian Ward of the 21st century, Anora is a genuine subversion of the classic rags-to-riches fairy tale.

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!