Resilience from unlikely people in unlikely situations, the theme in writer/director Sean Baker’s best-known previous film, THE FLORIDA PROJECT/’17; and here again in an even more unlikely situation. Preposterous, raunchy (make that preposterously raunchy), galvanizingly funny & farcically plotted without losing its line of action, ANORA the working name of a ‘working gal’ pursuing her lucrative trade at a strip club as Brighton Beach’s top lap dancer. (Competitors grinding right by her, taking on customers lined up as if they were waiting for the next available chair at the barbershop. Something of a happy-go-lucky hooker (but don’t dare call her that), she gets a special request for a Russian speaker from the 21-yr-old son of a Moscow oligarch, a horny naïf for whom nothing’s off limit, including his sense of entitlement. But a week’s exclusivity whisks them off to a Las Vegas marriage and instant crisis back home for his guardian-protectors, terrified/mortified by his in-coming parents. Baker going for a BORN YESTERDAY meets MARRIED TO THE MOB* vibe, finds his own twist on the material, jazzing things up with wavering loyalties so you can’t be sure what comes next or who winds up with whom. Yet never forcing the material. (Actually, I wish he would force, tightening the running time by ten or fifteen minutes.) Great perfs all ‘round, many either debuting or having their first big role. And given a neat physical look that’s something of a throwback to the ‘80s. Lots of award action, too, well deserved.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *While the obvious Jonathan Demme shout out goes to MARRIED TO THE MOB, the tone of the film harks further back, to Demme’s earlier, most non-judgemental work, particularly the miraculous MELVIN AND HOWARD/’80. OR: For more Baker, THE FLORIDA PROJECT. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2015/12/melvin-and-howard-1980.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-florida-project-2017.html
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