Film Review: Strippers, oligarchs and a fairy tale gone sideways, 'Anora' is a wild ride

Things are going a little too well in “Anora” until a call from Russia and a knock at the door changes the trajectory of the movie. This extended sequence, deeply stressful and riotously funny at the same time, is reason enough to see Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner. But somehow the journey that follows only gets better and more interesting.

“Anora” is a fairy tale that spoils. An exotic dancer from Brighton Beach, Anora (Mikey Madison), or Ani, as she likes to be called, gets paired one evening with a young man, Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), who requests a Russian speaker. She can speak a little and understand everything and they quickly hit it off, embarking on a whirlwind ride together. First, Ivan hires her by the hour, then for the week for which she commands a cool $15,000 (accounting for inflation that’s about double what Vivian got in “Pretty Woman.” Edward may have been a successful corporate raider, but he didn’t have oligarch money.) Ivan even tells Ani he would have paid $30,000.

For as crass and ugly and reckless as it all is, it’s also something of a joy bomb to watch Ani and Ivan indulge in the youthful hedonism of unlimited funds — there's drugs, champagne, private jets, luxury suites and, perhaps most importantly, they're having fun. When he proposes and they marry on an impromptu trip to Las Vegas, you almost believe it could work. Then the foundation collapses: Ivan’s parents find out and the guys who were supposed to be keeping track of the wayward kid, presumably in the U.S. to study, are sent off to fix it, and fast. They have less than 24 hours before Ivan’s parents land in New York and Ivan has gone missing. Suddenly, “Anora” with its ticking clock, missing kid, anxious goons and determined dancer, turns into a white-knuckle ride that gives “Uncut Gems” a run for its money.

Prior to “Anora,” I’m not sure that I was especially concerned with the odyssey of a streetwise exotic dancer who, for a fleeting moment, has everything money can buy. Now I can’t imagine not having taken the trip, and meeting the colorful ensemble: Anora, Ivan (who is being called the Russian Timothée Chalamet), Igor (Yura Borisov) the thuggish-seeming muscle with a soft voice, kind eyes and a heart of gold, Toros (Karren Karagulian), the very stressed Armenian who was supposed to keep Ivan in line, and Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), Toros’ in-over-his-head brother hoping to make a good impression on Ivan’s family. They aren’t just bad-guy types, either: They are all fascinating and empathetic in their own right, just trying to do a job for their powerful employers. By the end of one very long night with this motley crew, you might wonder if you’re even rooting for Ani to get what she says she wants anymore.

As a filmmaker, Baker has a particular knack for transporting moviegoers to places they’d not ordinarily go, with characters they’d similarly likely never encounter. Whether it’s a few transgender sex workers walking down a less-than-picturesque stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard one Christmas Eve, a single mom and her six-year-old living in a downtrodden motel right outside the “happiest place on earth,” or a washed-up porn star/conman who goes home to Texas, he finds wonder, beauty, dark humor and truth in the ugly, the unseen and the unheard. The milieus are gritty, not something anyone would be bragging about on Instagram, and yet feel endlessly more authentic than some other filmmakers indulging in poverty porn.

The biggest handicap of “Anora” is perhaps the hurdle of preconceptions. It seems almost too '90s for a young actor’s big, serious, awards-buzzy breakthrough to come from getting naked and dancing on a pole. And yet in the hands of Baker and Madison, it works: “Anora” both embraces and transcends the cliches. It’s not trying to pretend that it’s not exploitative on some level; that might even be the point. And anyway, you might be surprised just how quickly you commit to this once-in-a-lifetime ride.

“Anora,” a Neon release in select theaters Friday and expanding in the coming weeks, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “strong sexual content throughout, graphic nudity, pervasive language, and drug use.” Running time: 138 minutes. Four stars out of four.