Anora

My third Sean Baker film after Tangerine and Florida Profect. Anora was absolutely amazing and not what I expected. It is far more glamorous and high budget than some of his other working class centric indie films, despite continuing a theme on female sex worker communities. Anora tells the story of a high end stripper who becomes romantically involved with a young Russian man. The film develops in a very unexpected way, putting a twist on the traditional Hollywood narrative. Like all Sean Baker films, there is a strong focus on comedic dialogue and local community, which becomes a strong driving force for the film. His style is so distinct. It’s a film that’s difficult to digest due to genre switches but grows with time and rewatches. Igor is a huge audience vehicle more through observation than dialogue. It is hard to accept Ani’s gradual loss of power despite knowing this is probably inevitable. She shifts from anger to love to eventual fragility and resets to her default state which creates an extremely powerful and difficult ending that makes the film complete.  The often seen but not heard relationship between Ani and Igor is particularly amazing, but there are so many other standout performances. It is incredibly ambitious to create a film as heartfelt, original and comedic as Anora and this is why it stands out above the others Oscar contenders and as one of the 2020’s best.