10/31
in Hollywood and Scream
Story
Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, spontaneously meets and marries the son of an oligarch. When news reaches Russia, her fairytale is put in jeopardy when her parents travel to New York to have the marriage annulled. Mikey Madison reflects on the roles that shaped his path to making Anora, from Better Things; Once Upon a Time…
Quoted in Close-Up: Anora (2024)
At the Cannes Film Festival press conference, Mikey Madison said that director Sean Baker acted out different sex positions with his wife, producer Samantha Quan, to show the actors what he wanted them to do.. Sean Baker is at the helm, and Chloe Zhao is one of the most humane and empathetic directors of our generation. His eye for the outcast and his keen ability to show the limits of the American dream cement his position as an important and much-needed artistic voice.
Mikey Madison will no doubt maximize what he can with a sheltered character (added)
His latest film, ANORA, proves he’s much more of a character/atmospheric filmmaker than a plot. “What starts out as a promising drumball comedy with that trademark poignant touch devolves into a complete slapstick farce in desperate need of editing, with some scenes just going back and forth to the point where I wanted to have Paul Simon jump out and sing “I’m on my way/I don’t know where I’m going/But I’m on my way…” Blake Edwards’ work seems to exert an underlying influence here, making such excesses a little more understandable; a film like VICTOR/VICTORIA could be a masterpiece if there weren’t too much of it. Still, the comedy often feels more contrived than a natural product of the characters’ quirks, and the poignant but abrupt final scene would have been better if some of the gimmicks had been swapped out for a moment where the main character bares her flesh.
I think a film about his story would have been much more interesting in the end
(the nuances Baker’s usual screenwriter Chris Bergoch provides seem lacking), and the supporting cast does the same, especially Baker’s regular collaborator Karren Karagulian. But after liking Baker’s last two films, which were less plot-driven and offered more atmospheric, empathetic studies of neglected American communities, this film was a major disappointment. There are a few scenes in the film where a seemingly lonely and melancholy maid is forced to clean up the excessive mess left behind by the spoiled rich she works for.
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