I worked crew for a movie that was shooting in a swanky neighborhood and one of our locations was a house with a motherfuckin’ elevator. You bet yer g-string money belt that shit was LIT!
“I don’t have Instagram, I’m an adult!” The contentious rift between generation gaps fuels the hilarious, vitriolic frustrations in Sean Baker’s latest exploration of outsiders living on the fringes of society. Whereas Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket mostly took place within impoverished environs, Anora makes little distinction between outsiders who scrape by and the outsider elite who have so much money that they too don’t belong amongst the so-called “norms.” Whipping his cast into a slapstick, near-farcical frenzy of profanity, violence, and the desperate pursuit of validation, Baker’s comic drama is a frenetic, outrageous modern day romantic adventure that’s as irresistible as it is traditional in the narrative sense.
“I just want to go home to Armenia. This sucks.” I feel ya, Братан. Plus, few of us could ever afford a honeymoon at Disney World. Hell, even Chuck E. Cheese is a real stretch.
Baker’s attentive world-building is never in question and his sharp, economical rendering of exotic dancer/occasional escort Ani’s darkly lit, skeezoid schmoozefest existence immediately clues us into Mikey Madison’s expert ability to “go through the motions.” Once manic playboy tool Mark Eidelshtein ‘pussy drips’ his way into her life, the plot machinations of a dubious “Green Card Marriage” gets underway and what was previously a magical, sweeping dream of never-ending partying and sex becomes a madcap man (née BOY) hunt with plenty of riotous, loony set pieces. Baker orchestrates an atmosphere of chaotic, instinctual emotional instability which his appropriately reactive, desperate players lean into with lunatic abandon.
Madison is a fairy-haired fireball and her steely determination and ‘take no shit’ attitude clashes beautifully with her sorta-captors/rescue team of sweet, constantly belittled Yura Borisov, hulking doofus Vache Tovmasyan, and the wonderfully frantic, eternally pissed off Karren Karagulian’s Toros, whose unfortunate need to ‘tend to an emergency’ completely (and hilariously) ruins a baptism. The many foibles of this mismatched crew lead to numerous moments of heated bickering and unbelievable set pieces, like a daring tow truck disaster and proof that strippers will drop EVERYTHING for a fight.
There’s some uncertainty to the outcome of this “shameful marriage,” leading to a fraught, but not uninvolving third act of hateful, classist confrontations of condescension and revelations of true character (or lack thereof). Still, one can guess where the story is headed, and this predictability may be why Anora is arguably Baker’s most palatable and least challenging since Prince of Broadway. Riotous and overflowing with energy, it’s a bittersweet treat that’s as exciting and dangerous as wondering whether Vanya’s cryochamber really works. A real cocktease, that was.
Comentários