text: Sean Baker’s 2024 film “Anora” is one of the year’s less obvious Oscar Best Picture frontrunners. Despite winning the Palme d’Or, the most prestigious award at the Cannes Film Festival, earlier this year, it received an unusually quiet release and slid silently into select theaters mid-October. However, the film has steadily gained traction online since its release. The film follows Anora (Mikey Madison), or Ani, as she prefers to be called, an exotic dancer from Brooklyn who meets and quickly marries Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch. Once Vanya’s parents learn about the marriage, they promptly set out for America to have the marriage annulled.
  “Anora” is a film that both furthers the legacy of and departs from Baker’s earlier works like “Tangerine” and “The Florida Project.” On the one hand, it is directly related to themes Baker has experience depicting, especially his stance on sex work as legitimate work. However, “Anora” deals with these ideas on a much grander scale than past projects. Baker’s films are best known for their gritty realism, capturing mundane, intimate moments with tenderness. “Anora” blows this concept wide open — Ani is placed in high-stakes, frenzied situations surrounded by the über-rich, where she faces new forms of exclusion and control in a way previously unexplored by Baker. With “Anora,” he has drastically expanded outwards in terms of scale and budget, this is a decision that generally seems to work in his favor when the film can retain a strong emotional core.
  “Anora” does stand out, for reasons outside of its contrast to Baker’s other works. In particular, the performances are stellar. The film, as New York Times reviewer Alissa Wilkinson described it, is a “star-maker.” Mikey Madison, who up until this point has played relatively small roles, delivers an unforgettable performance. She perfectly balances the physicality and emotional depth needed for a dynamic character like Ani. It is rare for an actor to excel so clearly in both departments. The rest of the cast is nothing to disregard either. Eydelshteyn shines as an eye-wateringly wealthy man-child with an unexpected dark side that he slowly and believably reveals throughout the film. Igor, one of Vanya’s henchmen/babysitters, is portrayed by Yuriy Borisov, who gives surprising depth and humor to what could have easily been a throwaway role. He is certainly someone to watch for as a candidate for Best Supporting Actor this year.
  In terms of its narrative, the film is divided into three distinct parts: the first, a romance; the second, a screwball comedy; and the third, a heart-wrenching drama. This tonal dissonance is most evident within the second act. Slapstick gags abound, but with a bizarre undertone of sexual violence that is begging to be either addressed or removed. The second act is also where “Anora”’s pacing suffers. Once Vanya’s bodyguards and godfather enter the scene, the film’s plot grinds to an utter halt. We are subjected to a grueling bottle sequence that doesn’t advance the plot in any meaningful way despite taking up a significant chunk of the total runtime. Things pick up towards the conclusion of the film, though with so little time left it ends up feeling a bit rushed.
  Though its uneven pacing and tonal shifts perhaps hold it back from absolute greatness, “Anora” is both a powerful and worthy addition to Baker’s filmography. Flaws and all, it is a film that sparks conversation, packs a punch, and is entirely worth seeing.