Anora

Sean Baker’s latest casts Mikey Madison as a sex worker named Anora, or Ani as she prefers to be called. She may live in a shabby Brooklyn apartment above the rattle of the subway, but every night, Ani glams up and puts on a flirty smile for the men at a local club.

Between myriad lap dances, Ani finds herself talking to Vanya, a young Russian boy who joyfully throws around his parents’ money. His innocence charms Ani, and the two fall into a comfortable rhythm. She shows him a good time, and he opens the door to a charmed life she could only have imagined. They begin a whirlwind romance that’s soon threatened by Vanya's powerful family. Ani finds herself gripping onto a fantasy by her long pink fingernails.

From quick-cut montages to anxious extended sequences, Anora showcases a filmmaker in brilliant command of his craft, expertly upholding a tragicomical tone for a story that keeps us on the edge of our seat.

Painting the air blue with her profanity, Madison is unflinching, delivering an unforgettably charismatic performance. It’s another stalwart actor-director partnership for Baker, who builds on his work in Tangerine, The Florida Project (TIFF ’17), and Red Rocket for his most propulsive film yet, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

JANE SCHOETTLE

Content advisory: accident trauma, sexual content, nudity, coarse language