Review: 'Anora' a Screwball Dark Comedy with Award-Worthy Chops

Winner of this year's Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Sean Baker's much-celebrated new work "Anora" is a screwball dark comedy with a captivating performance by Mikey Madison at the film's core.

Baker's oeuvre ("Tangerine," "The Florida Project," "Red Rocket") has had critics falling over themselves with praise, but with "Anora" he achieves a brilliant balance between authenticity, high comedy, deep pathos, and nail-biting suspense. The movie genre-blends rather seamlessly.

"Anora" opens inside a strip club where a gaggle of female sex workers are performing lap dances for a slew of skeezie men. However, it becomes apparent that Baker isn't exploiting these women as much as giving them agency and power over their clients. They're good at their work, and great at the art of manipulation.

Ani, a.k.a. Anora (Madison), is so good that she bewitches a cute, rich, and charming young man who asks for her number. The two begin an oddball romance of sorts. Of course, he's paying her, but their whirlwind week ends with an alcohol-induced decision to get married in Las Vegas. The problem is that her 21-year-old prince is Ivan "Vanya" Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a powerful Russian crime family boss. The "Pretty Woman"-with-mobsters plot thickens when Vanya's parents get wind of his nuptials and immediately board their private plane to the U.S. to annul the marriage.

Meanwhile, the parents enlist the help of Toros (Karren Karagulian), an Armenian priest, who sends over a couple of bumbling Russian fixers to Vanya's mansion. Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), Toros' not-so-bright brother, and Igor (Yura Borisov), a quite sensitive guy, show up. All hell breaks loose, and Vanya vanishes.

The arrival of Vanya's snobbish and cruel mother (Darya Ekamasova, perfection) puts Ani on the defensive, and everyone embarks on an odyssey to find Vanya.

Madison is already being heralded as this year's Best Actress shoo-in, and for good reason. You can't help but fall in love with her character and want her naive dream to come true. Madison absolutely beguiles, and deserves all the kudos she is receiving.

Eydelshteyn is also quite the find. A Russian actor, he manages to make us fall in love with Vanya despite the fact that he's a mollycoddled, entitled brat. He's also sexy as fuck.

Borisov does strong work as a stooge that is slowly falling for the titular character.

Drew Daniels' whirling cinematography is key to the transfixing nature of the film.

Baker has crafted a rather ruthless but honest criticism of class in our country. Simultaneously, he's given us a wack-a-doodle rom-com for our time.

"Anora" is easily one of 2024's best films.

"Anora" opens in theaters on Oct. 18.