Story Movie
Brooklyn. Stripper Anora, who prefers the name Eni, meets the son of a Russian oligarch Vanya, who spends all his time in parties and entertainment. Soon the guy buys out Eni's time for a week, offers to fly to Vegas, and there the young people spontaneously get married. Having learned about it from the newspapers, Vanya's parents are furious and urgently fly from Russia to the USA, and they tell the New York Armenian Toros, who was supposed to look after their son, to sort out the situation.
Review 4K Movie
The unpretentious ‘Anora’ has frighteningly high ratings on all the aggregators I know. With the Palme d'Or at Cannes, Sean Baker seems to have grabbed people's love on three continents at once. In the USA, the films of the main singer of strippers' life have always been popular, in Europe the film has been recognized by the most important festival, and Russia is not worth talking about - here the movie has long been dubbed ‘our victory’.
At the center of the story is young Anora Mikheeva, or simply Eni. She lives in a tiny house by American standards with her sister's family, and in the evenings she dances and not only in a local strip club. Once in it and enters the neoperennye, but obscenely rich son of a Russian oligarch Vanya. After a couple of jump-skips on the boy's knees and several sessions of eromassage, Ani finds herself at the guy's house.
Further the fate of the escort ‘Cinderella’ passes all the heavens of Dante's paradise and eventually reaches the wedding in Vegas. Except that almost immediately Vanya is followed by an Armenian babysitter, his jockish, whiny brother and a sad Russian gopnik. And what's even worse, his mom and dad fly out of Russia to pick up the guy. It seems there's no escaping the belt.
The first major trump card of ‘Anora’ is the perfect casting. Mark Eidelstein is literally created for the role of a money-squabbling major. Yura Borisov is responsible for the Russian longing, in some places slipping into primitive patsan humor, or even giving out the image of the dream man of all our women. Karen Kagulian steals shots, who ridiculously escapes from a baptism in a surba, and then explains to the young people sitting in the bar about the fall of morals. Contagiously laughs quite episodic Serebryakov, businesswoman-solver gives out Ekamasova, epically whining in the frame Vache Tovmasyan.
But the main find of the movie - Mikey Madison. Deftly pronouncing the Russian text and vulgarly twisting the heel, the actress has worked at least for an Oscar nomination. Her hands and facial expressions create the main image of the movie - deceived ‘Cinderella’, ‘Pretty Woman’ on the contrary, where they forgot to take Richard Gere. Overall, there is no doubt that ‘Anora’ in its entirety is one of the top favorites for the future ‘Oscar’ race.
The second thing the movie definitely takes is the comedy of situations. The energy of the scene with the Armenian rescue team showing up at Vanya's house is almost impossible to beat. The humor of ‘Anora’ sometimes works harshly in the forehead, but it doesn't lose quality. The main audience layer of ‘Anora’ is the very funny sketches. Sean Baker can write them as well as the conventional Todd Phillips. But that's the superstructure.
The deep base is, of course, the femme story of the cheating girl. Tying itself into a knot with the anti-capitalist tale, ‘Anora’ begins and ends through the eyes of Micah Madison. And while the poor remain poor and the rich remain rich in the movie, it all pales against the girl's personal drama and dead-end job. How did she end up as an escort? What drove her? We'll never know.
But ‘Anora’, at the very least, suggests abandoning sanctimony towards people in this profession and looking through the lens of personal drama. As a maximum, to enter into an extramural polemic with Dostoevsky (and for Russian audiences, with Balabanov) on the subject of the sanctity of the fallen body. 'Anora' is another story about the fact that prostitutes have no less chance of going to heaven than the righteous.
What on Russian yearning? Outside of a couple of wordless lines from Yura Borisov, the Russian theme in the movie is a pretty optional thing. In fact, Baker could have settled on anyone - Mexicans, Chinese, Gypsies, Jews - but he chose a different trope. Russian oligarchs, Russian bandos, Russian majors, Russian gopniks - it was all well known and researched long before ‘Anora’.
Would you like to think that Europe and America missed the party like a Russian under ‘Tatu’? Get a new argument in your piggy bank. But don't be offended later if it turns out to be just a veil in your head. Although we must admit, there are no uncomfortable Russian questions in ‘Anora’.
Why did ‘Anora’ win Cannes? Well first of all, it's a very easy choice. It's moderately watchable, speaks to one of today's sought-after themes, and is, after all, gorgeously made. Picking ‘Anora’ to win anything equals getting away from the need to argue. And from the tough questions at numerous press conferences. Secondly, ‘Anora’ at Cannes is Greta Gerwig's choice. And the movie, more similar to all her films at once, try to find.
As a result, ‘Anora’ is a brightly burning amphetamine lighter, which is extinguished only at the very end of the narrative. Only when the narrative, according to all the canons of antiquity, should fade into an enduring drama.
One of the main virtues of any good story is the ability to bring you to laughter or tears. And the magic of ‘Anora’ is that it manages to do both in two hours. It's like a roller coaster ride. There's a reason they call them Russians in the US.
