Anora

Sean Baker is the biographer of the dark side of the American dream. His visionary work proceeds by sticking close to the realm of sexuality and its intrinsic relationship with the economy, and how both affect the human condition. The main characters of his stories are porn performers, mothers and trans women who pay the rent through sex work and, in the case of ANORA, erotic dancers who can choose, if they wish, to shift the dynamic with their clients from one of admiration to one of physical contact. The dancer in question here meets an 18-year-old whose father is part of the new Russian oligarchy: he hires her, they have a good time and in a moment of madness they get married in Las Vegas, after which problems duly ensue. This is the antithesis of PRETTY WOMAN. Baker’s plot twists serve to explode the idea of the redemption of the powerful while also discreetly introducing a secondary character—a Russian thug—whose patient observation of what is taking place around him is also that of a worker. The film’s ending provides everything missing in the world and in cinema: gestures of tenderness, human actions taken outside the logic of supply and demand and emotional exchanges that can still unfold within the logic of business. (Roger Koza)

Sean Baker: FOUR LETTER WORDS (2000), TAKE OUT (2004, KO-REGIE), PRINCE OF BROADWAY (2008), STARLET (2012), TANGERINE (2015), THE FLORIDA PROJECT (2017), RED ROCKET (2021)