The Night Butterfly: Anora (2024) Review
Words by Arabella Green
Sean Baker’s Anora spills between the genres of tragicomedy in a stunning Cinderella subversion.
At the start of the film, we meet the titular character of Ani played by Mikey Madison. Akin to Pretty Woman, Ani is sex-worker and a force-of-nature. There is an implication that she is the predator, not the prey, and sex-work is almost framed as female empowerment. Almost.
As a Russian-speaker, Ani is hired by Vanya (Mark Eidelstein), the entitled yet loveable son of a Russian oligarch, to be his girlfriend for a week.
“[Eidelstein] injected [Vanya] with this earnest naïveté in the beginning, which was really disarming for me as an actor and I think also for Ani as a character,” Madison said in an interview with Vogue.
A still from ‘Anora’ (2024), directed by Sean Baker
It’s tough to watch Ani’s defences soften to him. You don’t get the sense she’s anybody’s fool but the fantasy clearly gets to her, as it does the audience. Money is at the crux of their romance after all.
However, unlike Pretty Woman’s romcom approach, Anora is more faithful to reality and the fairytale ‘love story’ unravels in a humorous yet heartbreaking manner.
For all of Ani’s inner strength and confidence, it can only be bravado in sight of her financial vulnerability.
However, despite the undercurrent of sincerity, the film is comedic too. The slapstick henchmen got a lot of laughs in the movie theatre (particularly from myself).
Some may find it uncomfortable, perhaps undermining the delicacy of certain topics, but I thought the humour was essential. It created an absurdity within the narrative, disenfranchising certain characters via their perceived foolishness in a way that mimicked their lack of control.
Visually, the cinematography was gorgeous.
A still from ‘Anora’ (2024), directed by Sean Baker
Red, black, and blueish white made a thread throughout the film. The red especially stood out: red is passion, red is blood, red is Russia. A favourite moment of mine was a closeup shot of Ani: alabaster skin and black hair, mouth bound by a red scarf, eyes defiant.
The use of setting was beautiful, playing with liminality and Americana. The fairytale was alive in the scenes at Brighton beach, the Las Vegas chapel, the sweetshop — thresholds on the cusp of reality.
One thing that struck me towards the end of the film was the euphemism ‘the night butterfly’, a term used by the most unlikely character to describe Ani’s profession.
Ani rages throughout the film against being called any synonym of escort — yet this passing instance acknowledged her, however accidentally, that she is as beautiful and elusive as a butterfly. Maybe this term resorted some power back to her, but then it raises the question who has the right to empower Ani, besides Ani herself?
A still from ‘Anora’ (2024), directed by Sean Baker
I’m aware of the style-over-substance criticism that has been levelled at Baker — as Richard Brody said in an article for the New Yorker, “his characters talk a lot even though they say very little”. I have to disagree. Anora doesn’t need to spell itself out to the audience via overwrought, pretentious dialogue in order to have weight.
The characters are certainly disconnected but they’re not one-dimensional; this isolation is testament to their respective lack of autonomy. Each one plays a twisted archetype and, like characters in a fairytale, they cannot escape the naturalistic confines of the story/society; the anti-heroine, the false prince, the henchmen just doing their jobs, a jealous evil queen.
I loved Anora. Five stars.
References —
Brody, Richard. “‘Anora’ is more for Show than for Substance.” The New Yorker. Oct 22, 2024. Accessed 23 Nov, 2024. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/anora-is-more-for-show-than-for-substance
Seth, Rahika. “Anora’s Mikey Madison On Fashion, Being A Horse Girl And Her Oscar Frontrunner Status”. Vogue. Oct 17, 2024. Accessed 23 Nov, 2024.https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/mikey-madison-interview-anora
