One Thing About: Anora

The Palme d'Or winning film from Sean Baker understands that when the pressure is on, we show the world who we really are.

In times of stress and conflict, a person will show you who they truly are. It’s much easier to stay composed and show the world what we want it to see when things are easy. When anxiety runs high, that energy gets diverted to other places, and what’s behind our public-facing personas starts to show. Our true selves, for better or worse, peaks out from behind the curtain.

This concept is something that Sean Baker’s excellent new film Anora grabs onto and uses to great effect in one of the most energetic and hilarious sequences I’ve seen on screen this year.

Obviously, spoilers ahead for those of you who haven’t yet seen the movie and don’t want to know anything about it going in.

The build-up of Anora is a fairy tale. The Pretty Woman-esque story of the 23-year-old Anora, a sex worker living and hustling her way through Brooklyn. Because of her ability to speak Russian, she lands in the (literal) lap of 21-year-old Ivan, the son of a Russian oligarch. Through her ability to wrap Ivan around her finger, Anora brokers an exclusive deal to be Ivan’s girlfriend for a week in exchange for $15,000. While on a whirlwind trip to Las Vegas, the pair get married.

This is where the fairy tale (and a movie like Pretty Woman) ends. Anora takes things to the logical next step asking the question “what the fuck would happen after this?” The answer: (his family finds out about the marriage and is super pissed about it) sets the real engine of the film in motion. Ivan’s mother and father jump on a plane to head to the United States while their cronies rush to the family home in an attempt to get the marriage annulled as fast as possible.

This leads to an incredible frenzy of a home-invasion sequence filled with non-stop comedy, anxiety, confusion, and a buzzing, electric energy reminiscent of films like Uncut Gems, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Goodfellas (and probably many more but these are my reference points) It’s a story progression that is both grounded in the reality of the story and characters and heightened to its logical, hilarious, frantic peak.

It’s the type of sequence that inspires me to write. Not just write this piece where I talk about it, but to write a story, or a screenplay, or a sketch, or something because damn does it seem like fun to create a world and then push the limits of the people in that world to their breaking point and beyond. To build them up and break them down and find out who they really are.

We find out that Ivan, unsurprisingly, is a little bitch-ass baby. The signs were there before. They weren’t really subtle, either. All he wanted to do was party, get high, and play video games. Sure, he’d take a break if Ani initiated sex, but outside of that, he didn’t really show all that much ambition. You could forgive Ani for ignoring these high-flying red flags because Ivan let it be known that he would soon be leaving America to work for his family. Of course, he would want to spend his last few weeks of freedom on Rumspringa. He was staring down the barrel of the cold, unforgiving real world¹.

But this wasn’t just a phase. Ivan was a full-on, afraid of his parents, tiny little baby boy. His refusal to speak on the subject of his family whenever Ani would bring them up wasn’t just temporary avoidance. Ivan literally runs away from his home when the pressure is on, leaving Ani behind with his family’s hired thugs to try to figure it all out.

Ani shows us who she truly is in this moment as well. She’s a fighter. She’ll do whatever it takes to survive. She (literally) bites, and claws, and kicks her way through the home invaders, gaining their respect in the process. I love that she also shows that she’s honorable. She doesn’t lie to them. She gives her word that she won’t try to run, and she doesn’t. She wants to figure it all out. She still thinks her marriage to Ivan has a chance if she can just talk to him. I think this shows that she truly does believe in her marriage, and wants to make it work (even if her version of “love” is a whirlwind, fucked-up, infatuation that also comes with a major upgrade in her theoretical tax bracket.²)

It’s only when they catch up with Ivan, and his parents show up, that Ani truly discovers that the fairy tale is over. When she meets his parents and sees firsthand the fucked up dynamic and power Ivan’s mother has over him (and his father) she knows it’s over for her. But she tries her damndest to go out on her own terms.

We’ve already known that Ani is savvy, and smart, and will hustle to make ends meet, and now we see how that translates outside of her typical element. She’s able to keep it together, and only breaks after its all over and she’s given everything she’s got.

I’ve been trying to watch movies with more thought and intent lately. I make notes of things that I like and don’t like in films to find things to inspire me when I am writing. How Anora lays the groundwork and establishes its characters before dropping them into the fire and showing what happens when their established traits get blown up is just so much fucking fun. It’s a great reminder of how to start grounded and heighten, allowing the characters to go big with their actions while it all makes perfect sense to who they’ve already shown us to be.

1. As “real” as being a nepo baby working for your Oligarch family can be, I guess.

2. Do Russian Oligarchs pay taxes?