Anora is an early career magnum opus for Sean Baker that continues to destigmatize sex workers and offer some thoughtful class commentary as the uber rich mess around with the lives of others for a good time with no thought about the consequences for them. It's great when it acts like Pretty Woman and only gets better when it shifts gears into Uncut Gems territory with a highly tense second half that's also really funny throughout.
Mikey Madison is everything in a film that's built around her star making performance which confirms she only deserves more leading roles. She's so confident and refuses to back down whilst being endlessly likeable. It makes everything incredibly investing because you just want her to get the fairytale ending she's been promised, making you hold onto the slightest shred of hope even as reality sets in at every turn.
There's a strong cast of supporting characters too. Mark Eydelshteyn makes Ivan seem nice in spite of his obvious flaws before sadly revealing that he is just a spineless spoiled brat. Yura Borisov, Vache Tovmasyan, and Karren Karagulian are a delightful trio who just spend the majority of their screen time dealing with an awful job which quickly morphs into a spectacular comedy of errors so you just feel really bad for them.
Sean Baker's direction is amazing thanks to an air tight grasp of the tone, allowing it to do the big shift gracefully and the striking opening scene set to Take That sets the scene beautifully. His editing is a standout since this is 139 minutes without feeling overly long. The home invasion sequence goes on for a while and it's only a good thing since it keeps escalating and it definitely helps that the middle chunk is an in the moment search across town for Ivan.
