The London Film Festival 2024 has returned for another year at Glasgow Film Theatre with the anticipated Anora (2024) from Sean Baker.
Which has met that anticipation.
What will catch audiences by surprise is how Anora has sweetness and humour to it – on paper the subject of a sex worker meeting someone through their work is not the most upbeat topic, but that is something Sean Baker is good at.
Baker does want to look at the treatment of sex workers. Ivan’s parents suggest that because Anora works at the club, she must have sought him out, but it was him that made the first move.
That comes from a sense of arrogance that Ivan has had installed in him – that someone in Anora’s line of work just sees everyone as a pay check, when in fact she is just trying to get by like everyone else.
A moment that drives that further is the Las Vegas sequence where Anora and Ivan get married, Ivan throws money away, and you see Anora is shocked he is throwing away thousands of dollars away as if it is nothing.
Sean Baker is making a film that really wants to tackle the way sex workers are vilified when – like most people – they are just trying to get by.
But underneath that is a film full of great humour and sweetness that will catch audiences by surprise.
The humour at times comes across as Sean Baker showing a lot of love to Three Stooges with the characters of Toros and Garnick having the worst day at their work ever by just falling about and making mistakes.
A sense of sweetness comes from a moment near the end where Anora has an outburst of emotions and consoles in Igor. It’s a really touching moment where Anora is feeling every emotion.
Now, performance wise it is a statement performance from Mikey Maddison as Anora – she excels swagger, and it links to the meaning behind the name Anora – bright. It is a performance that lights up the room. Especially with some of the line delivery linking back to Ivans ignorance. Anora calls him a pussy – it’s hilarious because even Ivan’s father laughs. Anora, unlike anyone else, will not try to tip toe around his son.
It’s a great performance that will get her noticed.
Mark Eidelshtein is Ivan. He gives a good performance as a snobby guy who has everything handed to him on a silver plate.
I would watch a film of Karren Karragulian playing Toros and Vache Tovmasyan playing Garnick – two guys just having worst day at work ever who are also clearly out of their depth. The moment where Toros leaves the baptism is great.
Overall, Anora really met its expectations.
