Palme d’Or winner, Sean Baker’s “Anora,” has set up a theatrical release on October 18, via Neon. It’s being well-positioned for awards season. Most pundits believe it’s the current frontrunner to win Best Picture. A new trailer has been released.
It is with a sense of freedom, freshness and energy that, in Baker’s mise-en-scene, from the camera to the non-professional actors, his films continue to map contemporary America, marginalized communities, and in such illuminatingly fashion. His resume includes the likes of “Tangerine,” “The Florida Project” and “Red Rocket.”
“Anora” is Baker’s latest; an ambitious, bold and hysterically funny screwball comedy tackling upper- and lower-class differences. The film is also a character study, tackling Ani (Mikey Madison), a Manhattan stripper who falls for rich Russian playboy, Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn). He’s just 21. She’s 23. Their vastly different backgrounds should not gel, but romance strikes.
Don’t be scared by the genre, Baker’s film can best be described as a nightmare romcom. It takes big swings, going back and forth in tone, and Madison somehow keeps it all together in a performance that is an absolute firecracker of physical and emotional bravura.
Madison as Ani is astounding. The work she does here, manifesting a wide array of emotional switches, will be too hard to forget — it’s spirited, buoyant, acerbic and ultimately poignant work on her part. Baker has always had an instinct for spotting talent, and here, he hits the jackpot with Madison.
Her counterpart, Eydelshteyn, is a man-child, filled with immense privilege, getting whatever he wants in life, and unfamiliar with responsibility, and yet, he still comes off, at first, as a loveable putz who can’t seem to put a single sentence of English together. Ani doesn’t seem to mind his obsessive Play Station playing and bong hits.
Shot in beautiful 35mm widescreen, “Anora” is a chaotically energetic film that’s filled with life. It’s also a stress-inducing experience, akin to the Safdies’ “Uncut Gems,” but breaks out by mixing other genres into its DNA — romcom, thriller, screwball — to create a hybrid that’s unlike any seen before. Palme d’Or deserved.
Edward Berger seems to have settled on what comes next. His Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, is now holding casting calls, with production eyed for January.