Review: Anora – A night to remember

Directed by Sean Baker
Starring Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Karren Karagulian, Yura Borisov

9/10 

Here is one of the most alive films of the year. This is a film with a real pulse going through it, in the same way that some of the greatest and most memorable American movies of the ‘70s had. Anora uses mostly very lengthy scenes to bring the audience in and be shocked and electrified by how intense the drama is and how funny the humour is.

Our title character, Anora ‘Ani’ Mikheeva (Mikey Madison), works at a strip club, where she is introduced to Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the dim-witted, hedonistic son of a very wealthy Russian oligarch. He hires out her services so often, she seems to never leave his side, especially when he offers her $10,000 for a girlfriend experience when they travel to Las Vegas. Smitten by a kind of love, or maybe by the money, they end up getting married in true Las Vegas shotgun style.

The film begins fine enough when it’s setting up this romance, but you wonder where exactly it’s going with this very transactional, unreal, and surface-level new relationship. But the film has a turning point, where the intensity of the situation really brings you in. Vanya’s parents, who are living in Russia, hear about this impromptu wedding and send their godfather/babysitter, Toros (Karren Karagulian), and his two henchmen, Igor (Yura Borisov) and Garnik (Vache Tovmasyan), to deal with Vanya… who escapes from the mansion and can no longer be found on his phone.

From here, the film takes place over the course of twenty-four hours, with everyone looking for Vanya. It’s of utmost importance to Toros, who has Ani apprehended and interrogated, treating her in any way he can to find out where Vanya may be. This very lengthy scene taking place in the luxurious living room is an immense screaming match, with the intensity becoming so overwhelming, all you can do as an audience member is laugh.

Like with Sean Baker’s other films, this one is brimming with life, coming across like we’re voyeurs into these peoples’ lives, though during such a fraught time that can be so dramatic and yet so funny. And like Sean Baker’s other films, his casting is inspired and pays off entirely. Mikey Madison is absolutely dynamite in the centre of the film and is purely confident with leading all the insane chaos throughout the film (though you’d imagine she lost her voice with all the screaming that she does). Karren Karagulian is also a stunner with his hilarious performance, and he’s another big driver of all this film’s intensity and insanity.

But to cap off all this anxious energy, the film comes to a slow landing that takes the time to process all of the emotions that had come before it. Maybe such overwhelmingly wild performances will not be to everyone’s liking, but for those looking for a louder kind of film to be engulfed by, Anora is the film to set you alight, as it prods its way into your mind to stay there forever.

DAVID MORGAN-BROWN