Anora (2024) proves the grime of it all

Anora sets out to shine the light of truth on a classic story of a prostitute who marries a rich guy. Pretty Woman be damned as the heroine of our story is a disconnected vaping twenty-something not looking for anything but to get paid and do some good drugs. Our rich lothario spends most of his time on screen playing video games and being intoxicated. At the end of the movie you will be seduced by the grime of it all.

     Anora (Ani) lives with her sister in Brooklyn while working at a club dancing and taking escort clients from time to time. We see her grinding on and laughing with older men, the first twenty or so minutes containing more nudity than Hollywood has let on the screen in over a decade. In walks Vanya, a young Russian rich guy who invites her to be his girlfriend for a week. They get married Vegas style, and his family is not happy.

     The next hour roars around between slapstick and dramatic tension. Vanya's family sends a trio of "fixers" who are not equipped to deal with this. Two of them are above all this having lived the life of luxury and are used to fixing Vanya's messes. The third Russian Evan Peters enacts the most violence in the movie but also is the kindest, demanding apologies and shocked by how the little girl "doesn't fight like one."

     Ani ends learning one thing: rich people get what they want with the resources they have, not because of who they are. She tries to take power multiple times but finds the wall between their worlds covered in barbwire. All the rich pricks limp into the sunshine while she retreats.   She had hope, and he had a good time.

     Mikey Madison shines, bringing the mania that made her so much fun to watch in Scream (2022) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). Yura Borisov (Russian Evan Peters) stands as the movie's emotional bridge and holds many of the scenes on his back. Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, and Mark Eydelshteyn make for a sinister but comical troupe of Russians. All this is tied together by Sean Baker who destroyed me with Florida Project in 2017. 

     Four stars, see this one as big as you can.