Though her name means “light and bright,” those two adjectives are hardly how anyone would describe Ani, Mikey Madison’s titular sex worker with a heart of gold in Sean Baker’s magnificent love story “Anora.” Not because those words aren’t fitting descriptors for Ani, but because she’s far more complex than a couple of attributes you can pull from the etymology section of a mommy blog.

As a writer and director, Baker has dedicated much of his career to elucidating the subtleties of figures like Ani who are often relegated to the background. He’s allowed us to peer inside the fictional lives of trans sex workers on Hollywood Boulevard in his 2015 breakout “Tangerine,” and given us an up-close-and-personal look at a washed-up porn star’s attempt at rebuilding his old life in 2021’s “Red Rocket.” But nothing Baker has made thus far comes close to “Anora,” his Palme d’Or-winning masterpiece primed to make Madison a household name. The dazzling shine of red tinsel woven into Ani’s hair lures you into the film’s whirlwind from the opening sequence. And once you’re in the vortex, enraptured by Madison’s exceptional presence (and the first use of an EDM remix of Take That’s “Greatest Day”), Baker holds you in the film’s joyous grasp for its remaining 139 minutes. Joy rather than euphoria, because as its powerhouse ending shows, the highs of Anora are no ephemeral feeling.

Related

Baker remains at Headquarters, the club Ani works at, as the film sinks into its rhythm. We’re slowly inducted into Ani’s world, watching as she spends the night grinding for tips, schmoozing big spenders, and cutting up with her fellow dancers about the lousy playlists the DJ is cranking. It’s a night just like any other until she meets Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the 19-year-old playboy son of a Russian oligarch, looking to have some fun. Ani is the only girl at Headquarters who speaks Russian, and her rusty language skills picked up from her grandmother perfectly complement Ivan’s sexual naivete and boyish charm. Ani leaves the club at dawn with a few extra hundreds in her purse and Ivan’s number in her phone, but thinks little of it until she gets a text from him asking to come over later that day.

Ani is as enchanted by Ivan’s hyperactive obsession with her as she is his massive home, which soon becomes her big, ugly Brighton Beach ivory tower when Ivan offers to pay for an entire week of the girlfriend experience. Ani enjoys the spoils of........

© Salon