The Oscar Race Review: "Anora"

Buoyed by an all-time lead performance, Cinderella gets updated with a tragicomic dose of reality

Have you watched Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood recently?

Quentin Tarantino’s most recent film released 6 years ago now, a ‘60s period piece marketed primarily using a powerful trio of established stars: Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Margot Robbie. All three do great work (though I found Robbie underutilized as Sharon Tate), but when I revisited the film about a year ago [it’s a 4/5, better than I remembered], what struck me most was a supporting cast filled with young talent that has grown to be the backbone of a new generation of leading men and women.

Elvis [3.5/5] star Austin Butler has two scenes as a guy who briefly fights Brad Pitt. The Substance icon Margaret Qualley slaps her feet right up on the windshield in classic Tarantino fashion while flirting with the much older Pitt. Stranger Things star Maya Hawke has a brief yet memorable role as the most rational Manson Family member that never existed. Even Sydney Sweeney pops up for a line or two, just one month after the first season of Euphoria premiered on HBO.

Some of this can be explained by Tarantino’s casting choices. The director intentionally sought young actors with a family lineage in Hollywood. Qualley and Hawke are both nepo babies, as is Harley Quinn Smith, daughter of writer/director Kevin Smith and another member of the movie’s Manson family. Is this an auteur director exploring the relationship of Hollywood’s past and future in the metanarrative? Or is it further proof that if you’re the child of an established star, you can get roles easier than if you were coming from nothing?

The answer to both questions is probably “Yes,” but I will give Tarantino credit: he also recognized talent from performers with no familial ties to show business. Austin Butler’s parents were never actors, and he’s an Oscar-nominated dreamboat. Sydney Sweeney grew up in Spokane, Washington, and now she’s a generational sex symbol, on top of being a pretty quality actress.

And Mikey Madison, whose brief but unforgettable scene of getting attacked by a dog before being set on fire by Leonardo DiCaprio, made it into show business all by herself. Now, she’s the frontrunner for Best Actress at the Oscars after starring in one of the best movies of the year.

As I write this, I have a little over a day left until the Oscars air. In the last week, I’ve seen predictions from all over the web and from friends about who will pick up the major awards at the show. I think it’s more of a toss-up for Best Picture than others are willing to admit, but the general consensus for frontrunner as of right now is Anora, Sean Baker’s brilliant inversion on the Cinderella story.

Mikey Madison stars as the title character, a brash, foul-mouthed sex worker who lands the client of a lifetime and a new husband to boot when she meets Ivan (Mark Eidelstein) at a New York strip club. Ivan is the aimless, hedonistic son of a Russian billionaire, a young man who adores video games and ketamine with equal fervor. The relationship between Ivan and Ani (as she prefers to be called) is always transactional, frequently dangerous, constantly entertaining, and, at certain points where you allow yourself to believe in true love, occasionally sweet.

The impromptu Las Vegas nuptials between the two lands Ivan the American citizenship that stops him from having to return to Russia to actually work with his father and grants Ani the financial and romantic security that she’s never been able to achieve. The happy ending, however, is only the start of Act 2, however, leading to the movie’s legitimately gutbusting turn to screwball comedy.

Enter in Ivan’s keepers: Toros (Karren Karaguilen), his brother Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), and underling Igor (Yura Borisov, nominated for Best Supporting Actor), all on strict orders from Ivan’s parents to get the young couple in front of a judge to annul their union as soon as possible.

It’s in this middle section where Anora shows its truly special charm. Ani’s introduction to these new characters, a hilarious sort-of home invasion, lays the groundwork for a hilariously adversarial relationship between them. She destroys priceless goods in Ivan’s mansion (well, it’s his dad’s actually) and gives Garnick a concussion that plagues the Armenian giant for the rest of the movie (I swear, this is an incredible bit). There’s nothing demure about Ivan’s wife; she’s a force of nature that these goons are lucky to briefly harness for their own ends.

Mikey Madison is simply incredible. Sexy, smarmy, and perfectly believable as a girl who just needs one break, you can see entire arcs of her character just in her face in the moments between her screaming profanities at those who get in her way. The movie’s ending hinges on her ability to summon up all the complicated emotions and feelings built up over the previous two hours, and Madison nails it. If the Academy is feeling nostalgic, they’ll give the Oscar to Demi Moore. Otherwise, this is Madison’s prize to lose.

The actors playing Ivan, Toros, Garnick, and Igor are all great as well, but special mention must be given to Borisov. When we first meet Igor, he’s a blank slate henchman, but as the movie goes on, a thoughtful character begins to emerge even as he mostly sticks to the background. He’s as crucial to the final moments of Anora as Madison, but he more than matches the quality of her performance. Plus, Borisov is just as funny as everyone else.

Sean Baker also wrote the screenplay for Anora. It’s filled with delicious foreshadowing and callbacks that never feel out of place or unrealistic. The dialogue is sharp and purposeful, even when it just seems like a lot of yelling between Toros and Ani. This isn’t Baker’s first time examining the world of sex work (though the only other film of his I’ve seen is The Florida Project [4/5]), and he does so without a judging eye. Ani and her coworkers are not bad people because of what they do, they’re just trying to get by, just like the rest of us. In an increasingly prudish era, I appreciate that perspective in our major films.

Baker’s cinematography often jumps out for its simple yet beautiful framing of characters. Ani and Ivan celebrating their marriage under the fake fireworks of Las Vegas is a particularly potent shot I’ll be thinking about for a while, and the last few minutes of the film are filled with equally powerful images. The director’s use of lighting and color are also notable, striking a beautiful balance between realism and a heightened version of it. Baker only gets fancy a couple of times with his camera, but a hilarious extended shot in a strip club soundtracked to “Where the Hood At” looks great and may be my favorite needle drop of 2024.

If I have one major complaint about Anora, it’s the pacing. The film is just a liiiiiitle too long at two and a half hours long, with some parts of the first hour of the movie going on just a bit past their narrative expiration date. I also found the transition out of the hilarity of Act 2 into the quiet sadness of Act 3 to be a little jumbled. It felt like the movie still wanted to still make me laugh even though it was clear that narratively, the time for that was over.

That might have been a result of my viewing experience though. I watched Anora via my iPad on a crowded bus from New York to DC.¹ I hadn’t been able to stretch my legs for a couple hours by the time the movie was wrapping up, so I may have just felt a little restless personally.

No matter how you watch it, though, Anora is brilliant. Sexy, smart, absolutely hilarious, but ultimately a bit tragic, it embodies everything about its title character throughout its slightly too long runtime. The fact that a crass, artistic movie like this is the current favorite to win Best Picture may speak to a permanent shift from the voting members of the Academy. If Anora is crowned the film of the year, not only will I be happy because of how much I enjoyed it, but I’ll be thrilled that the stereotype of “Oscar bait” films can finally be put to bed.

I’ll be thinking about Anora for a long time, and I’m already excited to watch it again from the comfort of my couch. Like The Substance, it’s a bold take on the female experience, giving us a woman trying her best to make it in a patriarchal society and ending up as its troubled antihero. Unlike Fargeat’s body horror romp, however, I feel no need to qualify your potential enjoyment of Anora. It’s a brilliant time, and I hope the Academy sees in Mikey Madison what Tarantino saw all those years ago when he gave her such an iconic scene across Pitt and DiCaprio.

Rating: 4.5/5

1. Not the best way to watch this movie, but less mortifying than watching The Substance on the train up to New York a couple of days prior.