Sean Baker directs Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn and Yura Borisov in this romantic comedy caper where a sex worker marries a Russian oligarch’s spoilt son and has to deal with the families heavies when the brat runs away.

Very much hugs the shape of the Hays Code screwball comedy. If there weren’t so many boobies and butts it would be rather traditional. The excellent sugar rush hedonism of the first act does dominate the experience. There is a single setting middle act that grows repetitive and, even with everyone’s best intentions, feels dangerous. If this were truly reality our Anora would be in major peril yet it plays out as slow farce. The third act brings things back to a pleasing road movie vibe closer to New American Cinema. The strange little bleak whistle stop quest the players go on to wrap things up recalls The Last Detail and Paper Moon. While still clinging to that long lost 1930s genre structure. So… an uneven ride. Probably not on a par with Sean Baker’s Red Rocket or The Florida Project. Yet one with a more accessible pre-existing shared plot (Pretty Woman) that mainstream film critics and multiplex audiences can dip their toes into his gorgeously lit vistas of sex worker and crushed dreams without feeling lost. The strip bar and Vegas are the American dream now. Rigged games of glamour and salesmanship where intimacy is temporary ownership. As a character study Anora rocks, I hope Mikey Madison keeps getting roles this deep and rich as she’s a real one of a kind.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Hustlers (2019)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin