‘Anora’ movie review: Mikey Madison leads Sean Baker’s electrifying, heart-wrenching anti-fairytale

The anti-Pretty Woman

Romance is often packaged as wish-fulfilment in films. Pretty Woman gave us the ultimate fantasy—an escort swept off her feet by a billionaire, her world changed by love and struggles erased by wealth. Anora takes a sharp detour from that path. It isn’t interested in fairy-tale endings. It’s been called “anti-Pretty Woman” for a reason. Here, love doesn’t magically erase class divides, and money, rather than liberating, becomes another form of control.

Ani (Mikey Madison) isn’t a wide-eyed dreamer waiting to be rescued. She’s a Brooklyn stripper who knows exactly how to navigate the men who walk into her world. The film’s opening minutes establish her routine—the hustle, her charm, the calculated seduction that pays her bills. But when she meets Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch, something shifts. There’s an ease to their connection. With him, she isn’t working. She isn’t performing. And that, perhaps, is what makes her fall—not just for the wealth, but for the feeling of stepping out of survival mode, even if only for a little while.

Mikey Madison and Mark Eydelshteyn in a still from Anora

The romance is intoxicating but also opportunistic. Ani isn’t blind to what Vanya’s privilege could mean for her. But here’s where Baker is clever—he doesn’t reduce Ani to a gold digger, nor does he make Vanya a naïve rich boy being taken for a ride. There’s genuine attraction between them. Ani is drawn to Vanya’s energy, his recklessness, his ability to make her feel like life could be something more than survival. There’s an undeniable dopamine rush in their dynamic—a high that feels mutual. And Vanya, for all his privilege, seems enamoured with Ani’s independence, her physicality, her maturity—everything that fascinates a 21-year-old who has only ever seen the world through the tinted lenses of luxury bought with his father’s money.

Sean Baker’s world: A gritty, grand stage

Baker has built his career on the fringes of society, crafting films (Tangerine, The Florida Project) that elevate the stories of people overlooked by mainstream cinema. With Anora, he extends this tradition to an even grander scale.

The film still carries his signature vérité aesthetic—naturalistic performances, unvarnished settings, an eye for the poetry of the mundane. But there’s an undeniable sense of scale here.

New York is alive, humming in the background, a city that doesn’t stop moving just because someone’s heart is breaking. The strip clubs, dingy apartments, and lavish penthouses feel equally authentic, each setting contributing to the stark contrast between Ani’s world and Vanya’s—a world where a hundred Ani’s could fit inside and still go unnoticed.

A film in constant motion

Just as the love story refuses to settle into any one definition, Anora, as a film, is constantly shifting gears. It starts as a romance, then morphs into a sharp feminist drama, takes detours into a comedy of errors, dabbles in a pursuit thriller, and by the time the third act arrives, it has transformed into something far more raw and unforgiving—a piercing look at power, class, and control.

One of the film’s most brilliant tricks is how it plays with perception. When Ani is at her most powerful, she’s in her sexiest outfits—skimpy dresses, towering heels, an image carefully curated to draw the gaze of men. But as the film progresses, her wardrobe changes; she gets into fully covered clothes, but is at her most vulnerable––her world beginning to shift beyond her control.

Another fascinating element of Anora is how it doesn’t just tell a story about power, it shows it through small but deliberate choices. In a world of money and influence, the rich don’t have to raise their voices or make dramatic threats. The quiet assertion of control, the ability to make someone disappear without a trace, is far more terrifying.

Anora is Mikey Madison, Mikey Madison is Anora

There is no Anora without Mikey Madison. Known for her sharp, deadpan presence in Better Things and Scream (2022), Madison delivers a performance so raw, so textured, that it feels like we are watching a real person unravel before our eyes.

Mikey Madison as Ani in Anora

Ani is magnetic—brash yet vulnerable, street-smart yet achingly naïve. She doesn’t fit into the “hooker with a heart of gold” archetype; she’s far too complicated for that. Instead, she exists in a world of contradictions, both hardened by experience and softened by the desperate hope that maybe, just maybe, this time love will be enough.

Her chemistry with Eydelshteyn is electric. There’s a genuine sweetness to their early interactions, an almost childlike innocence to their reckless love. But as the film progresses, Madison strips Ani’s layers (no pun intended), revealing a woman whose agency is systematically stripped away—first by Vanya’s family, then by society’s perception of who she is allowed to be.

The final act is an emotional tour de force, a brutal reckoning with the consequences of believing in fairy tales.

Yuriy Borisov’s quiet brilliance

Among the film’s many standout performances, one that lingers is Yuriy Borisov as Igor, a reluctant but perceptive Russian henchman. He isn’t just muscle for the family; he’s an observer, someone who sees the way Ani is treated and recognises something in her struggle that mirrors his own. The small moments he shares with Ani—exchanges that start as mere obligation but slowly turn into something resembling mutual understanding—add an unexpected warmth to a story that otherwise races towards its inevitable conclusion.

Yuriy Borisov as Igor with Ani in Anora

Borisov’s performance is subtle, never overplayed. He watches from the sidelines as power is exercised, as choices are made for people who have no say in their own fate. In another film, he might have been forgettable, just another background player in a larger story. Here, he almost steals the movie, precisely because of how much he holds back.

Inevitability

As Anora barrels toward its final act, it becomes apparent that Ani’s journey was never as simple as it first seemed. Baker doesn’t give her an easy escape, nor does he allow the audience the comfort of a redemptive arc. What he delivers instead is something truer, something that stings.

By the time the credits roll, there is no triumphant victory, no grand speech to tie everything together. There is only the lingering weight of everything Ani has endured, the brutal reality of what it means to challenge a system built to keep people like her exactly where they are.

One of the best films of 2024

There’s a reason Anora has dominated conversations since its Cannes win. It is propulsive and contemplative, thrilling yet deeply melancholic.

Baker has crafted something remarkable: a film that operates on multiple levels, giving us the thrill of romance, the tension of survival, and the heartbreak of realisation, all wrapped into one. Madison delivers a performance worthy of her Oscar nomination, and Baker cements his place as one of the most vital voices in contemporary cinema.

If Anora is anything, it is a testament to the power of storytelling—to its ability to make us feel, question, and see the world a little differently than we did before.

Anora
Anora Director – Sean Baker
Anora Cast – Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan
Anora Rating – 4.5/5