Film: “Anora” directed by Sean Baker

In “Anora,” Sean Baker’s new film, the title character, called Ani for short (and played by Mikey Madison) works in a Murray Hill tittie bar, giving lap dances to cheesy-looking customers and occasionally working as an escort. One night, she meets Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), a boyish young Russian immigrant who is so enchanted after his session, he wants to see more of her. Eventually he texts her and they meet at his home in Mill Basin, Brooklyn. (She lives with her sister in nearby Brighton Beach.)

To call Vanya’s residence a “home” is the understatement of this century and all that follow. It’s a Beverly Hills-ish mansion (by way of Dubai) with waterside views, an endless number of rooms and a five-car garage. After they have full-on sex, Ani timidly asks him in Russian (she learned it from her grandmother) how he can afford such a place. “It’s my father’s,” he coolly explains, as he turns to play another video game and take another swig of vodka from the bottle.

Vanya’s father you see is a Russian oligarch. (Mic drop.)

Ani attends Vanya’s wild New Year’s Eve party, not long after he has asked her to be his “girlfriend for the whole week” but at a price which she negotiates: $15,000. A few more weeks pass by and Vanya asks her to go to Las Vegas with him and his posse.

While in Vegas, Vanya, in a moment of alcohol- and coke-fueled weakness, asks Ani to marry him. Incredulous at first, she eventually agrees. They have a Las Vegas wedding and return to New York.

But there’s trouble brewing in Paradise. Word gets out that the oligarch’s son has married a hooker and Vanya’s wealthy parents back in Russia are incensed. Their American-based fixer Toros (Kareem Karagulian) and his two henchmen (Vache Tovmasyan and Yura Borisov, who looks like Putin) are ordered to track the couple down and have the marriage annulled.

When the thugs finally arrive at Vanya’s house, he escapes out the front door, leaving Ani behind. The goons hold her hostage, and when she tries to escape and fight back, they tie her up and gag her. This is followed by a wild goose chase through every Brighton Beach video parlor and strip club in search of Vanya, Ani being dragged every step of the way.

Full disclosure: I hated this movie. Watching goons tie up a young woman, muscle their way into bars and smash up candy shops is not my idea of fun. Their search for Vanya through the streets of Brooklyn is supposed to be slapstick but comes off as tedious and scary. Of the main characters, Eydelshteyn as the clueless drugged-out Vanya is okay. And i acknowledge that Mikey Madison as the wretched potty-mouthed Ani is a revelation. But the violence committed against her is unwatchable. The audience at Cinema seemed to feel similarly. I almost booed as I left.

This movie inexplicably won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this past May and got a rave in the failing New York Times—from a female reviewer! The world really has gone mad today. A big fat “nyet.”

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