150 Word Review: 'Anora' (2024)
All the things she said
Sean Baker is smitten with Ani, the Gen Z sex worker, in his strip club fairy tale Anora. He roots for her but doesn't quite get what makes her tick. Thankfully, Mikey Madison does. Madison is an actor who juggles invincibility and fragility without breaking eye contact. As Ani, she is a street-smart pretty woman in a thong with bills to pay. Unapologetic.
Her prince charming is the dopey son of a wealtjy Russian arms dealer; their romance is intense and first-class. Karren Karagulian is deadpan as a panicked henchman tasked with breaking up the class-crossed lovers.
Anora mixes vibes and genres: a pinch of the Safdie's outer borough grit and a welcome dose of Coen-esque dark comedy. There are old-school Hollywood tropes: the harlot with the heart of gold and foreigners with funny accents. But this is writer-director Baker's underground party: thrumming, scary, funny. But this is Madison's dance.
Bonus 150 Word Review: ‘Red Rocket’ (2021)
Red Rocket is an ugly but funny portrait of a parasite from the parasite’s point of view. The bottom feeder in question is Mikey Saber, who runs home to Texas after spending twenty years in Hollywood as a porn star. Simon Rex stars as Mikey, a motormouthed leech who sweet-talks his way back into the life of his estranged wife and her mother.
He’s broke, a failure through and through, but still dreams the big dream. Eventually, he meets a pretty 17-year-old at a donut shop and starts to groom her for a career in the adult film industry. She’s his comeback.
Rex’s performance is funny and sweaty, his Mikey an incompetent predator. Suzanna Son is both naive and clever as Strawberry, the small-town girl seduced by an aging loser’s lies. Like writer-director Sean Baker’s previous movie, The Florida Project, Red Rocket is about Americans lost inside their own fantasies.
New 150 Word Review: ‘Terrifier 3’ (2024)
Grief. Friendship. Jazz hands. My debut memoir, ‘Theatre Kids,’ is now available. You can order it at Amazon or Barnes & Noble or support your local independent bookstore. Look how happy I am (don’t worry, I’m dead inside.)
New 150 Word Review: ‘Mermaids’ (1990)
New 150 Word Review: ‘Reagan’ (2024)
