Anora is seemingly the movie of the year after its major box office success and being named one of the top ten films of 2024 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. What makes this film special is the actors who bring the artistic vision of the work to life through their dedication to their roles.
The talent and detail in this film contributed to its success at the Oscars, winning five awards for the cast and crew. Overall awards included Best Picture and Best Editing. Sean Baker was selected for the Best Director and Best Original Screenplay awards. Most notably, however, Mikey Madison, a mere 26 years of age, won Best Leading Actress for her role as Ani in the film.
This movie follows the main character Anora Mikheeva, who goes by Ani, who is a stripper in Brooklyn, New York. She meets a young man named Ivan Zakharov who turns out to be the son of an extremely wealthy Russian oligarch.
Ani and Ivan meet at the club Ani works at and they instantly hit it off. Ivan invites Ani over to his mansion and they slowly begin to spend more time together and learn more about each other.
Eventually, Ivan asks Ani if she can be exclusive with him and not work at the club anymore. He offers her $10,000 to be his “girlfriend” for the week and spend time with him and his friends. Ani agrees to do it for $15,000 and they spend the next seven days together.
During their week together Ani and Ivan wind up in Vegas and Ivan asks Ani to marry him. Ivan’s parents live in Russia and want their son to come home to start working in their family business, but Ivan wants to stay in America. Inspired by his seemingly genuine affection for Ani and his possibility of getting a green card, Ivan pops the question and Ani says yes.
After their marriage, all seems to be going well, but when Ivan’s parents hear of this union they are outraged and order their assistants to detain Ivan and Ani and force them to get a divorce.
Ivan flees his house leaving Ani alone forcing her to make some discoveries about herself and how little Ivan cared for her.
Throughout the remainder of the film, Ani’s character struggles with her self-worth and feels rejected by Ivan. She tries to deflect the fact that he left her and they will no longer be married by showcasing her very strong-willed and even violent temper towards the Russian men sent to detain her and Ivan.
Once Ani has been left by Ivan the viewers can see her insecurities that she was able to disguise with her snarky and determined personality in the beginning of the film. This character transition was what connected the audience to Ani’s character and made her seem relatable.
At the end of the day, everyone wants to be loved and valued and have a wonderful lavish life, living the dream in a mansion on the hill. Ani had it all but lost it in a moment and was betrayed by someone she thought cared about her.
That is what makes Anora a film with a deeper meaning and able to be resonated with. This movie shows that it is easy to put up an act and project yourself to others as a fearless and unbothered individual who has confidence, but when all is said and done everyone has their insecurities that will inevitably be shone upon.
