US director Sean Baker's latest film exploring the world of sex work has been greeted rapturously at the Cannes Film Festival – and after great reviews for his previous work, it could be his breakout commercial hit.
The Palme d'Or
Anora review:
This adults-only screwball comedy about a quick-witted stripper is like a 'more believable Pretty Woman'
By Nicholas Barber
Some writer-directors specialize in films about superheroes, others specialize in films about cowboys.
Sean Baker specializes in films about people who have sex for money. They are invariably sympathetic, credible and chaotically funny slices of life, hence Tangerine (2015), The Florida Project (2017) and Red Rocket (2021) have garnered rave reviews and cult followings, even if they haven't been box-office smashes.
Baker's latest film, Anora, is earthier than ever, so it might not buck that trend, but this adults-only screwball comedy is so likeable and entertaining that it might just reach a wider audience, and it might just win a prize at the Cannes Film Festival's awards ceremony today, having premiered there on Tuesday.
If nothing else, it should make a star of its leading lady, Mikey Madison, who appeared in Once Upon a Time In Hollywood (2019) and the rebooted Scream (2022), but is a revelatory force of nature here. She plays Ani, a twentysomething stripper from Brooklyn with a mustard-thick New Yawk accent and so much sassy charm that her quick-witted conversation is almost as attractive to her clients as her other assets. Baker being Baker, the club where she works is convincingly dingy and sleazy, and the services being offered are shown explicitly, which makes a change from the more glamorous yet prim clubs that crop up in some TV dramas. But it isn't horrifying or dangerous, which makes a change from the dives that crop up in crime thrillers. Ani and her colleagues are essentially safe and happy in their work. . . "
If nothing else, it should make a star of its leading lady, Mikey Madison, who appeared in Once Upon a Time In Hollywood (2019) and the rebooted Scream (2022), but is a revelatory force of nature here. She plays Ani, a twentysomething stripper from Brooklyn with a mustard-thick New Yawk accent and so much sassy charm that her quick-witted conversation is almost as attractive to her clients as her other assets. Baker being Baker, the club where she works is convincingly dingy and sleazy, and the services being offered are shown explicitly, which makes a change from the more glamorous yet prim clubs that crop up in some TV dramas. But it isn't horrifying or dangerous, which makes a change from the dives that crop up in crime thrillers. Ani and her colleagues are essentially safe and happy in their work. . . "
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