Mikey Madison and Yuriy Borisov in a still from the film Photo: Neon Mikey Madison and Yuriy Borisov in a still from the film Photo: Neon Sean Baker, indie filmmakers’ darling, vaulted to the epicentre with Anora seizing five Academy Awards in a landslide triumph. It’s a historic win for Baker, him becoming the first individual to grab four Oscars, ranging from directing to editing, for a single film. Anora is also the fourth Palme d’Or-winning title in history to land Best Picture. While it’s common for a select section of contenders to get a brief, rushed theatrical release in India during PVR INOX’s annual Oscar Film Festival, Baker’s film, despite its frontrunner status, was left out of the bunch. Initially slated for a November release, the theatrical release was kept hanging. Now, the film will have its OTT premiere later this month on JioHotstar.
“For sure, the transition is probably the hardest, from the slowest surface to the fastest surface,” Swiatek said.
brancoTo anyone who’s seen the film, the theatrical stalemate holds no surprise. Stacked with nudity and sex, Anora couldn’t have made past the CBFC without extensive cuts, and hence alienating its Indian distributor over mutilations. Built around a Brooklyn stripper and escort, Ani (Mikey Madison in an utterly magnetic, galvanic, Oscar-winning turn), Baker tracks her journey towards dizzying hope-and eventual heartbreak. Her routine seems to change course when a young Russian client, Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn acing the irresistible red-flag energy), son of a loaded Russian oligarch, is so charmed he proposes marriage. For Ani, living as she has been with tightened straits, the allure of wholly reorienting her destiny, a life cushioned by not having to stress over surviving, making through another day, is impossible to resist. She, too, falls for him.
Mark Eydelshteyn and Mikey Madison in a still from the film Photo: Neon Mark Eydelshteyn and Mikey Madison in a still from the film Photo: NeonBaker has made a career out of foregrounding the marginalized. Right from The Florida Project, he’s sought to evoke their joys and anguish and dreams daring to defy their circumstances. However, Anora registers as the first outing where his interests in the protagonist, the world she occupies and tries to climb out of, land as glib, as slight and fleeting as the glitter Ani drapes herself in. Baker, having also edited the film, infuses the film with brash energy, a thrilling dynamism. The film chugs ahead furiously, as if to capture Ani’s surging hopes that will not pause for reflection,fef777 cassino any second thoughts on the high improbabilities of her romance. In its first half, Anora breathlessly plays out like a chase film, hurdling through dramatic, decisive moments in quick succession. A detour to Vegas for the marriage, the return to Vanya’s fancy mansion-Ani’s giddy thrills, a dreamy spell with seemingly endless money and comfort are cut off by the world kicking in. When Vanya’s parents get wind of these sudden events, they send a bunch of henchmen to ‘fix’ the issue, annul the marriage. Ani’s bright, shiny bubble with Vanya bursts.
Mark Eydelshteyn and Mikey Madison in a still from the film Photo: Neon Mark Eydelshteyn and Mikey Madison in a still from the film Photo: NeonHowever, in all the film’s leaping verve, Ani’s dash towards the marriage, her impulsive choices and too-enormous faith in someone as irresponsible as Ivan, aren’t always plausibly grounded. Anora strains to be funny, frantic, riffing on the screwball form. Occasionally, it’s undeniably exhilarating but too often, certain gags come off forced, like the pose Russian characters exert who are either bumbling or flat-out tropey in stressing menace. Ani projects a canny exterior, knowing how to play her clients around, but Baker increasingly diverts from any intelligence, wariness she might have. As a result, the film renders her so spotlessly credulous in her devotion to Vanya, her belief in his word, it becomes a tall ask to fully buy into the shimmer of their love story. Ani strikes as a strangely unprobed wisp of a character, only half-realized.
Mikey Madison in a still from the film Photo: Neon Mikey Madison in a still from the film Photo: NeonLuckily, Baker pulls the brakes in its final half-hour. It’s a marvellous tonal switch anchored by Yura Borisov’s quietly winning turn as Igor, one of the Russian henchmen tasked with handling Vanya’s rash marriage that’s put his family in distress. As a shattered Ani reckons with a brutal reminder of her place in the world, Borisov navigates these scenes with delicacy and compassion. It’s a wonder to watch how a seemingly peripheral character slowly edges to the very center while Ani’s romance unravels. The actor’s gentle presence soaks Anora in soft reassurance, a growing trust that has long evaded Ani. This hushed coda, with the year’s most wrenching ending, rescues the film to some degree, filling it with the light of tenderness, acknowledgment and comfort. Yet, it’s not enough, for Baker keeps up a veil between the viewer and Ani. Madison is spectacular, slickly oscillating and achingly vulnerable, by turns, but remains wedged within Baker’s free-ranging directorial design, denied inhabiting Ani’s entire, bristling personhood. For all the dazzle on display, Anora digs barely skin-deep.
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