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    • A fairy tale falls apart, a star is born
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    A fairy tale falls apart, a star is born

    Vaseline Posted on

    Mikey Madison steals the show as a sex worker in writer-director Sean Baker’s latest.

    Adam Graham
    | Detroit News film critic

    A fairy tale — or at least a version of it — shatters into a million little pieces in “Anora,” writer-director Sean Baker’s cracking romantic comedy that sends viewers to a dizzying climax and then throws them back down to earth as if want to say, “Honey, that’s the real world not the movies.” Or at least not for some people.

    The film features no shortage of narrative left-wing twists, as well as a fantastic performance from Mikey Madison, the shining center of this fractured fantasy about power, struggle and class, as well as sex work and the modern world. In her first leading role, the young actress – seen in 2022’s ‘Scream’ and part of the generational ensemble in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ – carves out a niche for herself as a smart, badass, bubbly screen presence, and ” Anora” is tailor-made for her.

    Madison stars as the title character, known simply as Ani, who works as an exotic dancer at a New York City strip club and occasionally sleeps with clients for extra money. The film’s opening shot, set to the ecstatic sounds of English boy band Take That’s “Greatest Day”, shows Ani and her colleagues giving private dances to customers under the darkened lights of the club, establishing the parameters of the world we live in . dive in again.

    Ani is the only dancer in the club who speaks Russian, and she meets Vanya Zakharov (Mark Eidelstein), the son of an obscenely wealthy Russian oligarch. Ani and Vanya hit it off, and he hires her to spend the night with him in his spectacular mansion. One night turns into two, and so on, and soon the couple is approaching something approaching a committed situation, even though he’s still technically paying for her time. (She charges him $15,000 for the week; he says he would have paid her $30,000.)

    It’s a whirlwind of sex, drugs and parties, and Baker frames their courtship as a dizzying fever dream of young, drunken lust. He’s a dumbass, but they have a light-hearted chemistry that she can work on. Their adventure leads them to Las Vegas, and like so many stargazing partygoers challenged by the city lights and buzz of Sin City – and by the promise of a green card for him, which would free him from his parents’ control – they married on a whim. Hey, why not.

    That’s why you don’t catch up with them very quickly. When Vanya’s parents learn that he has tied the knot, several thugs are sent to Vanya’s mansion, including his godfather Toros (Karren Karagulian) and a pair of henchmen, Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov). They are ordered to have the marriage annulled immediately, and Vanya’s parents board a plane from Russia to ensure it is dealt with on short notice.

    But young love conquers all, right? Not so fast. At the first sign of trouble, Vanya flees on foot, and ‘Anora’ suddenly turns on a dime and becomes a very different film than he had previously intended it to be.

    The story changes completely – from ‘Pretty Woman’ to ‘Zola’ – and we are now involved in the reality of a situation where things that have been done have to be undone, and it is a difficult, clumsy process.

    Audiences are conditioned to expect certain beats in Hollywood productions, especially romantic comedies, and Baker cleverly subverts those expectations at every turn. Ani can’t just snap her fingers and make things better, or dream her way out of her situation. As she realizes the severity of the mess she’s in, we’re in it for the long haul.

    But Baker again refuses to fall into clichés, and the thug tactics that other films easily lean on aren’t followed here. As a storyteller, he identifies with the little man, the links in the chain that form collateral damage in other stories, such as the store owner whose house is destroyed during the search for Vanya or the tow truck man who collides with Toros just because he has done his job . function. And Baker quietly sets up a relationship between Igor and Ani that stalks them both, as well as the audience, and leads to a conclusion that once again turns “Anora” on its head.

    From “Tangerine” to “The Florida Project” to “Red Rocket,” Baker has established himself as a champion of the underdogs, as well as an empathetic filmmaker who identifies with the struggles of everyday people in the gig economy. Instead of focusing this story on the crazy adventures of a Russian party boy, he chooses to tell it through the eyes of Anora, the sex worker who others might see as a side character.

    But Baker makes it her story, a character who is a small piece on a much larger chessboard. It’s a triumph for Baker and for Madison, and the harsh reality makes it less a traditional fairy tale than a fairy tale for our times.

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    ‘Anora’

    Grade: B+

    Rated R: Due to strong sexual content throughout, explicit nudity, pervasive language and drug use

    Running time: 139 minutes

    In theaters

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