“Anora” may be my movie of the year.

This is not the first time director Sean Baker has left me in awe. I watched “The Florida Project” earlier this year and was left sobbing into my laptop. 

While “The Florida Project” was distributed by A24, “Anora” comes from Neon, an independent production company also responsible for this summer’s blockbuster: “Longlegs.”

These sorts of indie movies have a feat of trying to capture the human experience and making it as believable as possible—whether the lens is through humor, tenderness, horror or tragedy. The end goal is to evoke emotion, and reach out to the audience in some way.

I came out of “Anora”  thinking it was so refreshing to watch a film that actually made me feel something. Though I can’t put my finger on it, I had the feeling that it accomplished what other movies have failed. It had a lively essence, character and charm — it was alive and I was living alongside it.

“Anora” follows sex worker Ani – aka. Anora – who becomes entangled in an extravagant world when she marries the son of a Russian oligarch, Vanya.

This film radiates glamour and opulence, from the gorgeous tinsel of Anora’s hair to million-dollar New York mansions. The color schemes of the film were purples and pinks, creating the notion of a dream. This sense of fantasy emphasizes the way the top 1% lives exorbitantly, in ways that most could only imagine. 

A sense of unreality permeates through an editing style that feels like a stream of consciousness. These shots were especially felt when showing the seemingly endless parties, all intimate and lingering. In other moments, viewers were sitting in perfect stillness and uncomfortable silences. 

What made this film so fantastic was how drawn-out these moments were. Often quite painful and awkward, yet they felt integral to its makeup. 

The human-to-human interactions were spot on. Tensions within moments and between characters were built up so beautifully, they felt real and painfully human. I felt things. I was invested.

Vanya’s character, son of a wealthy Russian mogul, was particularly embarrassing. His and Anora’s initial moments together felt incredibly accurate in how it feels to be a woman catering to a man, who is seemingly oblivious to her discomfort. The stiff laugh to a terrible joke, biting your tongue — those uncomfortable subtleties in making yourself smaller for someone else were evident throughout the movie.

“Anora” never fell flat. It shifted and moved with fluidity. Through humor, pain and love, nothing felt overdone or just one note. The human experience felt honored and encapsulated. I felt so human watching it.

Wealth inequalities were glaringly clear and subtly woven into the dynamics of the characters’ interactions. They did so by sharing as little detail as possible about Anora’s life, instead honing in on encounters with her external world, through dialogue, reactions and silences. For instance, her stupefied reaction to other characters’ blatant disregard for rules and public property highlights their privilege — they could afford the luxury of indifference.

While we viewers can simply walk out of the theater, or Vanya can go back to his privileged life, Anora exists in every one of these painfully long instances. Her life is not the overarching trauma, but in the silences where the pain lingers. While the dialogue itself was boastful, the true power lay in those lingering moments and in the nothing; it all felt so heavy. All I can think is that I left her behind. The ending makes it feel as if the audience abandons her. 

It feels rare when a film properly captures the human experience in all ranges and depths of emotion without feeling like it’s glorifying something. The beautiful and the aesthetic aspects do not romanticize the painful ones and instead paint life as infinitely intricate and mysterious in its ebbs and flows. It is extremely uncomfortable at times, and yet it sparkles exquisitely. My heart feels so sore and aching now. 

Edited by Ava McCluer | amccluer@themaneater.com 

Copyedited by Natalie Kientzy | nkientzy@themaneater.com

Copyedited by Hannah Taylor | htaylor@themaneater.com

Edited by Emily Skidmore | eskidmore@themaneater.com