Anora
Gaining quite a lot of buzz and momentum after picking up the coveted Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, indie director Sean Baker's much-anticipated Anora finally gets its release this side of the Atlantic this weekend, and you're not going to be disappointed.
Having made a name for himself by telling uplifting stories about society's underdogs, Baker has set about taking Hollywood's stereotypical version of marginalised outsiders, and smashes them to smithereens with a big, tacky, Cinderella-inspired glass slipper in this funny, raunchy and frenetic little gem of a film. Some critics have been touting it as this generation’s version of Pretty Woman, but it is much, much better than that.
With a spell-bindingly fiery performance from rising star Mickey Madison, Anora is a shimmering, jovial daydream of a film that will whisk you away on a lovelorn fantasy with images that dance, skip and play to the beat of Sean Baker's impulsive imagination.
Mickey plays Ani, an erotic dancer who works in a seedy strip club on Brighton Beach. Her stage name is Anora, and she's well used to the work of keeping her punters happy and spending money.
But life for Ani changes in an instant when she reluctantly agrees to cut her lunch break short when a customer arrives looking for a girl who can speak Russian, and luckily Ani is the only working girl on Brighton Beach who is known to possess this bilingual skillset.
It's then that Ani meets Ivan, a young and cute Russian national who just happens to the be the son an extremely wealthy oligarch with riches beyond her wildest dreams.
Hitting it off in a big way, Ani and Ivan pretty much live out those wild dreams from the moment they meet, and their love affair is as passionate as it gets. But there's more than blind lust on the cards here.
Ani and Ivan appear to be kindred spirits and it's not long before the doe-eyed playboy has proposed to the very lucky and shell-shocked Ani. Who said true love was dead?
But when Ivan's parents find out about their son's exploits in the USA, the influential family send over some muscle to put the affair to an end.
From here on in, Anora sparkles with a narrative ingenuity that will keep you perched on the edge of your seat. These aren't your usual screen bad guys, and this isn't your usual coming-of-age, rags to riches tale.
Anora is a flight of fancy on a acutely personalised level, and Mickey Madison lifts, carries and releases the might, majesty and fearless magic of Ani's feisty personality to full bodied and vivid colour on the screen. She's a force of nature, and one you won't easily forget in a hurry.
An entertaining film that will bring you along on a fanciful ride, Anora is a must-see for all film fans this weekend.
