Anora (2024) FilmNation Entertainment/Cre Film/Neon 📢 Director: Sean Baker. 💰 Producers: Alex Coco, Samanthan Quan, Sean Baker. 👫 Cast: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Darya Ekamasova, Aleksei Serebryakov. 🏆 Awards ceremony: -97th Academy Awards: March 2, 2025. Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. 🎭 Other films nominated for Best Picture this year: -The Brutalist. -A Complete Unknown. -Conclave. -Dune: Part Two. -Emilia Pérez. -I'm Still Here. -Nickel Boys. -The Substance. -Wicked. 📕 Plot summary: Anora (MIKEY MADISON) is a lap-ancer / stripper / prostitute from Brooklyn, who gets a fair amount of attention from a client, a young Russian man Ivan (MARK EYDELSHTEYN) who pays her a tidy sum of money to be his personal girlfriend for a short time. She agrees, and hangs out with him at his huge mansion, eventually getting a quickie marriage in Las Vegas. When news of the wedding hits home, some henchmen are sent to the States to get the marriage annulld because it has allegedly brought shame on his family. Anora resists and has to do battle with them all, including Ivan's very persuasive Armenian godfather and a real bitch of a mother-in-law. 💥 Standout scene(s): -Anora giving everything she's got to let the two henchmen they aren't going to be taking her without a fight when they invite themselves into the home after Ivan runs out. The shouting match on the phone between her and Toros is so brilliant! "Go fuck yourself!" This scene was a clear demonstration of Mikey Madison's impressive acting credentials. -When the Russians go into the candy store and demand to talk to Ivan before Igor smashes the place up with the baseball bat. -The chaos in the New York courtroom during the hearing for the divorce was good. -Toros getting his impounded car back from the tow-truck driver. 🔑 Facts: -The 97th Academy Awards. -Nominated for 6 Academy Awards, it won 5: Best Picture, Director, Actress (Mikey Madison), Original screenplay, Editing. 🙂 Personal opinion: Nudity is not in short supply here and there is plenty of sex to keep porn fans entertained; but the movie is much more than a bit of tit and flash of arse. After an extremely tediously slow start with a generous helping of gratuitous nudity, the film does begin to gain traction at a good speed as we head towards the 1-hour mark and it all kicks off at the mansion with the henchmen doing their best in restraining the thoroughly pissed-off Anora! The two henchmen are Garnik (VACHE TOVMASYAN), who gets his nose broken by Anora (I thought his character was really good and often quite humorous); and Igor (YURA BORISOV), who has the unenviable task of restraining Anora until Toros (KARREN KARAGULIAN) arrives. The other characters in the film were not particularly memorable. A good film, with Mikey Madison putting in an Oscar-worthy performance. The slightly subdued ending was both surprising and touching at the same time. Did it deserve the Oscar? ✅YES. In preparing for this Best Pictures project I did also watch CONCLAVE just 24 hours prior to watching ANORA because I wanted to make up my own mind as to which film I personally preferred. Being completely impartial I decided that CONCLAVE was the (slightly) better film. That said, ANORA is good enough to warrant the win. 7/10

Review date: 25 August 2025