ANORA

You’ll no doubt be familiar with the oeuvre of festival-favourite Sean Baker - TANGERINE, RED ROCKET, ANORA - with log-lines beginning (in order), “a sex worker in Tinseltown on Christmas Eve...” and “a washed-up porn star returns to his small Texas hometown…” and “a young sex worker from Brooklyn…”.  Hmmm, much like John Tesh’s amazing “jazz” albums (Sax by the Fire, Sax on the Beach, Sax All Night), I sense a theme!

Yes, Sean Baker has made yet another film about a sex worker… yawn.  I recognise sex is a big part of our lives, but I just don’t find it interesting enough to justify an entire career.  When I worked briefly at the London Film School, a ridiculously large proportion of graduation films were about sexual experiences.  Like… A LOT of them.  And I was forgiving of the all-too-common choice of subject matter as the filmmakers were mostly young men with puerile sensibilities who will hopefully mature into older men with interests other than ejaculation.  We can hope, can’t we?  But Sean Baker, at 53 years old and with the Palme d’Or casting a shadow over his writing desk, really needs to grow up a bit, methinks.

There is an exception to prove the rule, and I consider THE FLORIDA PROJECT to be Baker’s best film by some very considerable distance.  That says something, right?  I think, perhaps, it says, “Dear Mr Baker, Please can your next film be about something other than sex workers?  You are starting to seriously give me the heebie-jeebies….”

Anywho, on Friday my horoscope said, “A book or film will inspire a big professional change and travel opportunity,” and I had ANORA in my diary, a film about a Brooklyn sex worker who marries the son of a Russian billionaire, and I thought to myself, huh… I’m ready for a career change, newly divorced/single, broke and I love Brooklyn, so…. 🤔 And I immediately filed a greencard lottery application (or Diversity Visa, as they are officially called) and went to the screening.  I am nothing if not entirely suggestible….

ANORA opens brilliantly with multi-camera coverage of a strip club and our introduction to mesmerising Mikey Madison as the lead character, a sex worker (did I already mention that?).   The energy of the first 40 mins or so of the film is phenomenal and I thought it was incredibly well paced, completely engaging and almost immersive.  We’re introduced to Mark Eidelshtein’s Ivan/Vanya, an awesome debut and brave and funny performance.  He’s wonderful.  Shenanigans ensue and you can’t take your eyes off the screen which is visually rich and narratively strong as they head to Las Vegas to get married (incidentally, in the Little White Wedding Chapel where I was married to my now ex-husband, following in the footsteps of Liz Taylor, Britney Spears, Michael Jordan etc… all of whom I’m pretty sure were quite quickly divorced?  Hmmmmm.  Interesting…..) and then back to Brooklyn to face the consequences.

That’s where the phrase “diminishing returns” starts to ring through my mind.  If I’d left then, not long post-wedding, I think I’d have given ANORA the full five stars… but I didn’t leave.  As per my marriage, I held on way too tight and refused to let go for way, way too long…. I held on through the indulgent, cliched and comparably slow second half of the film, and through the ending which is, to my mind, disappointing (and Baker says that is the first thing he wrote of the film, and I think it is a “kill your darlings” situation - he should have thrown it out as the story and characters took shape), and I was still holding on through a desperately painful Q&A and a cab ride home with friends who had found some of the film’s choices pretty offensive… and here I am on Monday morning, finally rid of ANORA, divorced from the experience, and instead of reflecting upon the happy times we had together, I am bitter.  I have tried to remember the high points and I acknowledge there was great joy in the beginning, when I was in the full flush of love and in the honeymoon period, but things ultimately turned sour.

So, I think ANORA is ripe for a torrid affair, best abandoned at the mid-way mark when things are still hot and heavy.  But it is not marriage material, imo: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

[And I’m totes serious about the greencard application: filed on Friday. 🇺🇸]