On paper, plenty about the premise of Sean Baker’s Anora suggests the high possibility that a vexing nightmare is about to unfold. Ani, played with verve and vulnerability by Mikey Madison, is a sex worker living in the working-class Brooklyn neighborhood of Brighton Beach. At the Manhattan strip club where she dances she meets Ivan, who goes by Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), an impish, spoiled son of Russian oligarchs.
They begin a relationship that’s at first purely transactional, but rapidly escalates into an intense, mutual infatuation between horny, impulsive 20-somethings. After just a few days, they have a quickie Vegas wedding – no pre-nup – and word gets back to Vanya’s parents back in Russia, who definitely won’t stand for their goofy son bringing “shame” upon the family by marrying a “prostitute.” They deploy his handler Toros (Karren Karagulian) to ensure the marriage is annulled; Toros in turn enlists a couple of burly henchmen to wrangle the couple and get them down to the courthouse.
Ani and Vanya resist, to the deep irritation of everyone else involved. Being a pop culture enthusiast who’s consumed an untold number of gritty American thrillers from the ‘80s and ‘90s and an embarrassingly incalculable number of hours of Law & Order: SVU , I’ve become accustomed to expecting the bleakest while hoping for the best when encountering any of Anora ’s elements on screen – sex workers, Russian oligarchs, whirlwind Vegas marriages, etc. Thing.
