Thank you for making my last trip to America so fun.
“Anora” does not hold back. A mix of comedy and tragedy, it is a fast-paced, infuriating, achingly beautiful film. It was nominated for six Oscars this year, winning five, including best actress and best picture.
“Anora” stars Mikey Madison, Yuriy Borisov and Mark Eydelshteyn, and is directed by Sean Baker, who also directed “The Florida Project” and “Tangerine.”
The film starts at a strip club in New York City, in the Russian neighborhood of Brighton Beach. From the moment Ani enters, she is magnetic and bold — Madison’s performance of Ani, who is a sex worker living in a low-income area, holds the film the entire time.
She meets Ivan “Vanya” Zakharov, played by Mark Eydelshteyn, the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch, which sets in motion for the events that are going to both traumatize her and change her life forever.
There is no slow burn when it comes to Vanya and Ani. She gives him one dance, and he promises her the world. He pays her generously for her sexual acts, but it never satisfies him: he ends up paying her $15,000 to be his girlfriend for the week. To a boy who has never been told “no” in his life, he then marries her.
Whether or not Vanya is aware of it, he is using Ani as a way to disobey his parents. He spoils her in his family’s mansion, not telling her that he owns none of it. Vanya does not want to go back to Russia because he does not want to start working for his father’s business. The one solution to that? Get a green card, of course. Become an American citizen.
“So, you want to get married to me, Vanya? You want me to be your little wifey?”
They get married at The White Little Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. “We’re going to fucking Vegas,” he says, as if it’s the easiest decision in the world. To him, it is. To him, he can get married on a whim and not think about the consequences. If he knows there are consequences to come, he ignores it by drinking, having sex, gambling and doing drugs.
Ani quits her job as a stripper after getting married and spends her time in the mansion. Nothing really changes in their relationship, except everything has. It is like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop, but she also ignores the red flags in his behavior. Vanya has a chid-like demeanor, with no sense of empathy. Maybe it’s because he never had to grow up, truly.
Ani is not stupid in the slightest, and for the majority of the film, she did have power over him — emotionally and physically. He has money and used it to bend to her will, and their dynamic veered toward her until the roles switched when other factors outside of himself came into play.
Sean Baker does not pose the question on why Ani decided to get married to Vanya. The reason really is simple. She just wants to be loved, and when someone decides to offer you everything in their palm of hand, you trust them. Despite the fact that she had no real reason to trust him, you see her softening toward him. She believes it’s love, naively, but you can understand why. A taste of love and attention will have you starving for the rest of your life.
The shoe finally drops when Vanya’s godfather, Toros, gets word that Vanya got married. He then attempts to do everything in his power to get the wedding annulled. To that, Vanya runs away. He runs away from Toros, from Ani and from Igor and Garnik, the two henchmen Toros brought with him. He just runs, leaving Ani confused as she has no idea what is going on. Chaos ensues, leaving Ani tied up following the multiple brawls she had with the three. They make one thing clear: they will do anything to get this marriage annulled, especially at her cost.
Vanya’s parents had no clue he got married either, though Ani was under the impression they did know. Ani believes they will be accepting, as they love their son, and wouldn’t they want him to be happy? It is clear that Ani has no understanding of the societal and class differences between them. While the four of them begin to search for Vanya all throughout New York, she still believes that Vanya will fight for their marriage. They find him drunk at her old strip club, receiving a lap dance.
She only realizes that the marriage is truly over when he brings her to the private jet that will take them back to Las Vegas. He tells her their marriage is over, and her face, which is usually composed and full of fire, breaks quietly.
“Your son hates you so much he married a hooker to piss you off.”
The facade fully breaks when they get on the plane. His parents have arrived from Russia, and they make it very clear to her that she does not belong in the family. They have called her a prostitute and an escort over and over, diminishing her very worth to that. They do not indulge in Vanya’s rebellion. They fix his “issue” for him.
Nothing has changed, except everything has. Nothing has changed for Vanya, and Ani is left $10,000 from the annulment. Igor drops her off at her apartment that we saw her seldom go to in the beginning of the film, and the movie ends with her breaking down in his arms, crying for the first time in the film. She tries to have sex with him — maybe as a way to say thank you, as sex is very transactional in “Anora,” or maybe as a way to feel something — but cannot go through with it as the events of the last 24 hours catches up to her, and she realizes just how heartbroken she truly she is.
Igor may have been the only person to show Ani — though he prefers her full name Anora — compassion, even if he was under orders. He saw through Vanya and his childish tactics, though he never tried to correct it. He was complacent throughout, even if he had a heart.
The events of “Anora” will likely change Ani’s perspective of love, of trust, of sex for the rest of her life. She will be left reeling, and Vanya? He will probably forget about it by next week. Though, Ani has a strong sense of will and identity. Maybe one day, she will understand why this happened, why she was a pawn in his life, even if there is no why.
Let @VALLEYMag on Instagram know if you have watched “Anora.”
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