Frenetic ‘Anora’ a piercing, deconstructed Cinderella story


It’s the dream of every working person in the world to be suddenly whisked away from their struggles and offered a way out of the grind and into the high life.

It’s such a classical fantasy, in fact, that there’s an entire category of storytelling dedicated specifically to the trope.

Any time a goodhearted, down-on-their-luck toiler is plucked from obscurity and sadness by the kindness of the rich and elevated to the status and wealth they deserve just because of their good heart, it’s “a Cinderella story.”

And who doesn’t love a good, romantic Cinderella story, right?

Well, the first act of writer/director Sean Baker’s brand new, wave-making “Anora” is everything that a hyper-modern Gen-Z Cinderella story could be made of, and it’s little wonder why this saturated, over-stimulating little indie has already captured audiences and awards-watchers across the film world.

Our title heroine, Anora (or Ani, as she prefers,) is a New York City sex worker in her early-20s, all glittering hair extensions and blunt Brooklyn attitude, complete with endearingly thick accent.

She spends her nights dancing and stripping for tips, gossiping with friends, squabbling with coworkers, and occasionally hooking for some big money when the opportunity arises.

But lest you think this is some uptight morality play, Ani seems genuinely happiest at work. She’s good at her job and she has fun doing it. It’s the reality of her sparse, joyless home life and the harsh light of daytime that seems to be bringing her down.

So when a chance club encounter with Ivan – an absurdly rich 21-year-old heir to a Russian fortune – blossoms into a high-speed whirlwind romance, she latches on tight.

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Mikey Madison and Mark Eidelstein in “Anora”

And so begins a Cinderella story for the modern age as Ivan sweeps Anora off her feet and into the life of the naively young and stupidly rich, with spontaneous flights and drunken, drug-fueled parties all night and lazy days of video games and weed-smoking every afternoon.

So it comes as no shock at all when, during a spur-of-the-moment tryst around Las Vegas, Ani and Ivan decide on a lark to get married.

Now Ani’s rich and in love and she quits her job back home and walks out of the club the happiest girl in New York, making good on the promise and fantasy appeal of the Cinderella story.

And if you want to preserve the mystery, the fun, the frustration, and the ratcheting tension of everything that happens next, you should stop reading now and simply go in blind to the real story that Baker is telling and the real issues and relationships that he’s examining.

But for everyone else and anyone still reading, let’s just say that’s where the Cinderella story ends and the story of “Anora” begins.

As soon as the tale of young love and immature wealth crashes into the second act, Ivan’s billionaire parents get word of the marriage back in Russia and dispatch their stateside handlers to round up the kids and force them into an annulment.

The handlers come to Ivan’s mansion, disrupt the kids’ fantasy romance, and tell Ivan that his parents are on their way to America.

Ivan runs and disappears and leaves Anora to the handlers without a second thought.

You wait and wait and wait along with her, expecting him to show back up and rescue her so that they can make their escape together.

He doesn’t.

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New York scene from “Anora”.

From there, it’s all about the search for Ivan as Anora and this new cast all race frantically to find him, lest their lives all be ruined by the wealth and influence of his parents.

And eventually the same realization sets in for the audience as it does for Ani. This was never a story about the glamour of love or the romance of wealth, it’s about the people left in the thoughtless wake of the super rich, and about how easily they’re thrown away and exploited.

The romance vanishes as quickly as it came, and all that’s left is a creeping understanding of how easily and willfully the rich use the bodies of the people beneath them.

The handlers dispatched to find the boy are all poor Eastern European immigrants, all clearly left with no choice for making it in America aside from selling their strength and their well-being to this rich and powerful family thousands of miles away, effectively selling their own bodies just as Ani has sold hers.

There’s a surprising theme that keeps popping up in recent cinema, beginning with the modern classic Oscar-winner “Parasite” and continuing even through the arguably empty spectacle of last year’s “Saltburn.”

They’re all about how practically impossible and physically dangerous it is to even attempt that kind of Cinderella story class mobility, and the final summation (and indeed the final moments) of “Anora” may well hit the hardest of any of them.

What happens when someone has been offered a taste of riches only to be tossed aside and reminded that the only currency they have is their own physicality? How badly, and how sadly, can that break someone?

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Mikey Madison in “Anora”

It’s a question, a finale, and even an entire film that couldn’t work if not for someone as talented and effortlessly believable as lead Mikey Madison as Anora. She carries the entire film on her back, from the elation and naïve love of the first act all the way through to the anger and despair and defiance of her final realizations.

Even for all the raunchy content, sex, and graphic nudity that can often scare away acclaim for a film, there’s already been a flood of awards buzz surrounding “Anora,” even claiming the Palme d’Or at Cannes. And it’s pretty easy to see why.

As more and people every day – especially young Americans of the same age and disposition as Ani – are waking up to the realities of untenable class disparity in our current world, they’re beginning to recognize the ridiculousness of those Cinderella fantasies and the inherent danger in letting ourselves believe in them.

A film like “Anora” was bound to strike the right chords with audiences at the right time, even if the whole affair is one big, admittedly depressing rug pull, with the romance and hope being yanked out from under you as the color and light and fun slowly fades away from scene to scene.

It’s a feeling that perhaps we’re all connecting with whether we realize it or not.

“Anora” is in theaters now across OKC and runs at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art from Friday, November 15th through Sunday, November 24th.


Catch Brett Fieldcamp’s film column weekly for information and insights into the world of film in the Oklahoma City metro and Oklahoma. | Brought to you by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.


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Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.