Sean Baker didn't notice the similarities between Anora and Pretty Woman

Anora: an irresistible burlesque odyssey (review)

Sean Baker continues to assert himself as a subtle painter of American outsiders with this wild variation on Pretty Woman, Palme d’Or at Cannes.

How does capitalism impact love, sex, our romantic lives? This is one of the questions that runs throughout the filmography of Sean Bakerof Tangerine has Red Rocket. And who also animates Anorahis eighth feature film, crowned with the Palme d’Or at the last Cannes Film Festivaland which can easily be described as a modern and rude variation on Pretty Woman – with lots of coke, vodka and weed to replace the Hollywood candy of yesteryear.

In this case the meeting, then the complicated romance, between a sex worker and a rich guy. Anora, stripper and prostitute in a New York club who, one evening, comes across a young Russian on the prowl, Ivan (Mark Eidelshtein, very amusing as slacker rotten-spoiled). Ivan becomes infatuated with Ani, offers his escort services, and invites her to his huge rich-kid shack to spend, for $15,000, a few days in her company – days filled with mechanical bacchanalia, sex, smoking, video games, repeat.

Sean Baker films in his (falsely) messy way, espousing the manners of the underworld and vulgar worlds he passes through: the private boxes of the Brooklyn club where Ani and her friends string together lap dance on the laps of not very attractive clients, Ivan’s nouveau riche palace, to a luxury hotel in Las Vegas, where the expensive romance suddenly takes a wonderful turn, when Ivan decides to marry Ani. This is the turning point of the film, as the announcement of the marriage does not take long to reach the ears of the young man’s family in Russia – the clan then sends a tough Orthodox priest and his henchmen so that they break the union manu militari.

And Anora to turn into chaotic comedy under amphetes, a little After Hours on the edges, between Homeric fights, hysterical parentheses and a long trip through the New York night, within the Russian community of Brighton Beach, over there, on Coney Island, in the south of Brooklyn… In reaction to a home invasion led by the sinister emissaries of Ivan’s parents, the sweet Anora shows her fangs – we knew the explosive temper of Mikey Madison since Once upon a time… in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino (another story of home invasionwhere she played one of the members of the Manson Family), but she impresses even more in this 2h20 odyssey written for her by Sean Baker, which sees her go through all the states, by turns combative and dejected, surly and disenchanted.

We often think ahead Anora At Uncut Gems of the Safdie brothers, for this art of digression, scenes which stretch, and stretch again, like an elastic band, always on the verge of breaking. The cinema of the 70s is not far away either, for the way in which the very beautiful photo of cinematographer Drew Daniels captures the coldness of winter, this feeling of bite which pierces even in the funniest and crazy moments of the movie. Because if Anora presents itself as a comedy, it is the emotional power of its last act which really makes its price – and allows us to excuse the sometimes somewhat lengthy detours taken along the way.

The weather is freezing in this film, the snow is falling, we suspect that the fairy tale will not last. Igor, one of the henchmen – a professional, like Anora – advises the young woman to raise the collar of her coat so as not to catch a cold. He knows that at the end of the drunken night, there will be a hangover, and the nasty bout of blues that goes with it.

By Sean Baker. With Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov… Duration 2h19. Released October 30, 2024

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