Who is Anora? Is she you? Is she me? You might get the impression this movie has some kind of Pretty Woman story line. I did, although I never saw Pretty Woman. A cinderella story it is, with a thoroughly modern ending.
I’m always attracted and grateful for movies, these days, that take on adult themes. When I was growing up there were X and XXX rated movies listed in the Arts & Entertainment movie section in the newspaper. Even if you had to go into shady parts of town and into somewhat dilapidated theaters these movies existed relatively mainstream. R rated movies dominated the 1970’s cinema compared to the PG and G rated movies that dominate the cinema today. I’m sick of it. Oh yeah, I guess people are happy to watch adult movies at home, except for cinephiles whose idea of the big screen is silver and really big.
The NC-17 rating replaced the X rating and was intended to allow films with adult subject matter to be released in theaters. Thank you Motion Picture Association of America! The new rating debuted in 1990 for the erotic romance, Henry and June. I went alone that night to a packed theater.
Last night, I saw Anora at Mary Fisher theater in Sedona and I don’t know if they even publish a rating for the movies they show, but this is definitely an NC-17 film. So, buckle up for some steamy nude scenes, young love sex, and strong language entangled in a coming of age, hard knocks story that juxtaposes commodity and sex, wealth and poverty, power over inability, social class and ageist attitudes, nationalist pride and the anti-establishment, compassion and heartlessness all played out through a seemingly Cinderella story gone awry.
How could it go any other way? After all, Anora is a lap dancer at HQ, one of the hottest erotic dance clubs in New York City. Beyond pole dancing, lap dancing has full body contact and HQ lines up the large, roomy club chairs side by side for the gentlemen clientele. If that isn’t titillating enough, the club also allows “block sessions” of lap dances (usually half an hour to an hour) that take place in a "champagne room" or "VIP room", which is a private room located in the back of a club. More privacy equals more money.
This is where our story begins. In the club. Reminiscent of Bob Fosse’s Big Spender scene from Sweet Charity, the camera slowly pans down this row of nude, undulating, and writhing women each straddled on a man, as aforementioned, seated one right after the next in a club chair, hands down by their sides, enthralled grins upon their faces.
In the first few scenes we follow Anora through the club, on various nights and in various barely there outfits, introducing herself to men and lining up dances. She is vaping, meeting other dancers in a side ally to smoke a quick joint, laughing and gossiping about the clientele in the dressing room, finally riding the subway train home fully covered in winter attire. We see her ascend a long flight of exterior stairs and enter a tiny duplex right next to the train tracks. She sleeps all day.
Enters Vanya, a charming 21 year old Russian. Vayna and Anora are introduced at the club because of all the girls she understands Russian better the she can speak it, but nonetheless she can speak it. The two connect immediately with their broken English and Russian exchanges. He comes off silly and sweet, but sincere. When Vanya innocently suggests they have champagne she takes his hand and leads him to a champagne room. The lap dance has them both enraptured and evolves into her requesting that he sits on his hands. Then she pulls down her g-string sending $100 dollar bills fluttering about. She then turns away from him to sit back and grind her bare ass on top of his clothed body proclaiming “this is against the rules”.
Vanya wastes no time asking if he can see her outside of the club. She goes to his address and and is impressed to find him living in an ultra modern mansion. He motions that the bedroom is upstairs and in leaps and bounds he is at the top of the stairs waiting for her. Red silk sheets await them. Red for Russia, red for seduction, red for passion and desire, vitality, anger, danger… After they have sex, presumably for five minutes, they stay in bed enveloped by the red silk sheets and smoke a bong hit while he plays video games. He stops momentarily to talk when she asks him how he has all of this, referring to the house. He is always joking and cracks himself up by saying he is big drug dealer then, more seriously he says guns, before bursting into hysterics again. Finally, he says he is the son of so-and-so. The name is unbeknownst to her, so he suggests Googling it and she discovers his father is a famous and very powerful Russian.
One "date" turns into another and she encourages him to slow down or even let her show him how to last longer during sex. The scenes improve. He invites her to his New Years Eve party and we see him in full tilt. The host with the most, super sexy, he is more charming than ever when he meets Anora’s gal friend she has brought along. The party is packed with Russians and everything is flowing and blowing from alcohol to cocaine and anything else. The next morning he asks her to stay for a week and they quickly agree on 15K and we are reminded that it has all been transactional.
Another montage of scenes carries us through the days of the couple having fun together, wearing different sexy outfits, having sex, partying with drugs. They are mostly with his friends where he proudly shows off his “girlfriend”. They all get a long in the group and spontaneously decide to go to Vegas. In Vegas, Anora and Vanya spontaneously, yet seriously, decide to get married.
The plot twist that follows is no surprise, it’s in all of the trailers. The elated couple return to New York and the rumor has gotten to the family dynasty and a chain of new characters appear. Through their texts and calls we learn Vanya is a first-class fuck-up, spoiled rich kid brat that has come to America to sow his oats one last time before being forced to settle down and work in the family business. His penchant for sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, all bank rolled by daddy, has seen it’s last hurrah!
First to arrive are two men, Vanya knows one of them named Gorek and other, Igor, is introduced as the "handler". They quickly, but gently force their way into the mansion and get Vanya to show the marriage license. Gorek takes a picture of the license and sends it by text to his boss, Toros. The pressure and stress are mounting as Vanya realizes the implications of what is happening. Tensions escalate when Anora joins Vanya in yelling at the men to leave, questioning what is going on, and proclaiming their marriage. When Vanya overhears that Toros, his dad’s right hand man in NYC, is on the phone and on his way over he starts to get nervous. Then he hears that his parents are already in flight from Russia to the United States, and that they are demanding the marriage to be annulled and get rid of the “prostitute”. He flees the house. He implores Anora to follow as he crosses the threshold, but he does not wait for her and the two men keep her captive. Things have definitively changed.
The second half of the movie brings down a Russian fist of might and perseverance trying to find Vanya and Anora slowly loosing confidence in Vanya and thier love. He does not return for her, nor answer her calls. After searching and interrogating all of the places they ever went together in Brighton Beach, they start to fall one drink behind him when a call comes in from Anora’s friend at HQ. Vanya has showed up at the club and he is wasted. During this chase we are privy to all of the shenanigans and banter between Toros, his two would-be thugs Garnik and Igor, and Anora. Mostly they are in the SUV, going in and out of various establishments questioning the staff and patrons, eating at a diner, Vanya’s bad boy reputation coming to light for Anora. Toros is under frantic pressure to find Vanya and get the marriage annulled.
However, another plot twist is taking place right under are very noses. One that actually defines the story. For, the quiet would-be thug Igor, who doesn’t say much and comes off as a simpleton while doing what he is told, becomes a presence of understanding to Anora, an ally of sorts. His first words were to say hello to Anora while the two waited for Vanya to show Gorik the marriage license back at the mansion. Really, most of his minimal dialogue and action is directed towards her. She rebukes him the entire time until finally all of the chaos, rejection, cruelty and pain dissolve into raw compassion and she finally “sees” him as he has seen and understood her the whole time. Anora is a 23 year old woman trying to make it in a man’s world- as all women are. Her greatest commodity is man’s greatest desire. How else is she to make the money she desires? She seems to enjoy the work. She lives with her unscrupulous sister disenfranchised from her parents. No higher education. Street smart she is pretty but tough, yet gullible when it comes to love. He was so sincere, even I believed him.
Anora as a film is brilliant slow burn. Upfront, it is so in-your-face, unabashed, raw, and real with the under current themes pacing beautifully with what seems until they become the torrent of reality.
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