Director Sean Baker has made a name for himself telling unvarnished stories of poverty in America. His films, like Tangerine and The Florida Project, typically follow characters who are in desperate situations but are also selfish, nasty, or cruel, encouraging the viewer to see them as individuals rather than avatars for some social problem. They’re exciting like a bar fight—anything goes and you root for whoever happens to be closest to you—but also sobering and tragic like the long ride to the jailhouse afterwards. Anora—Baker’s latest, which brought home the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival—adds a little glitz and glamor into his recipe. Like Mikey Madison’s title character, Anora is pretty, messy, witty, wild, and highly competent, one of the funniest, saddest, and best films of the year.

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ANORA ★★★1/2 (3.5/4 stars)
Directed by: Sean Baker
Written by: Sean Baker
Starring: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura........

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