What is Sean Baker's movie, Anora, about? Plot, review, and more explored

American writer-director Sean Baker’s latest film, Anora, has received a solid score of 3.3 from the Screen jury during its worldwide premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

The film tackles the harsh realities of modern labor, portraying class exploitation with a darkly comedic tone. Much like Baker’s previous features, like the Oscar-nominated The Florida Project’s unseen stories of the impoverished and Red Rocket’s tale of manipulation and deception, this new film continues to look at the cold realities of the world.

With a breakout performance from Mikey Madison, whose credits include Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Scream, and Better Things, the film revolves around Anora (Madison), a Brooklyn lap dancer who got entangled with a brattish oligarch’s son and his ‘party like there’s no tomorrow’ lifestyle.

Disclaimer: This article contains significant spoilers for Anora. Readers' discretion is advised.

What is the plot of Sean Baker’s Anora movie?

Sean Baker’s latest feature tells the story of an exotic dancer, Anora, or Ani, as she prefers to be called. Working in a Manhattan strip club and barely scraping by, she gets her seemingly Pretty Woman story when she meets Ivan, the son of a Russian oligarch who paid her to become his girlfriend for the week.

The two get on famously, and with Ivan’s desire to continue living in the fast-paced nightlife of New York instead of returning home to Russia, he proposes. Hopping over to Vegas, the two impulsively marry, but trouble erupts when the news of their nuptials reaches Ivan’s parents on the opposite side of the world.

Forced by Ivan’s father’s goons into an annulment and with Ivan trying to flee from his father’s people, Ani’s what would have been a fairytale ending is in danger of turning into chaos and tragedy.

The official plot synopsis reads:

“Anora, a young s*x worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.”

Anora film review: Exploring the highest-rated film at 2024 Cannes

Anora cast at Cannes Film Festival (Image via Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

After receiving over seven seconds of standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival 2024, Sean Baker's US comedy-drama received six 4-star ratings (excellent) and four three-star ratings (good) from various critics.

While the storyline has a Pretty Woman-esque tinge to it, the film touches deeper on the subject of s*x work and stripping as a job, a theme that most other movies only use as background noise. Ani is the face of modern labor in America, one who struggles to escape a life of inequality, both in her workplace and beyond.

Despite the hard work and the value of her labor to people, Ani’s efforts seem to be lacking. She has no stability and struggles with things that most people only scrape by in real life, like the lack of healthcare. Seemingly having caught a break when she meets the rich and big-spender Ivan in the strip club where she works, she grabs the chance to turn her life around.

Mikey Madison plays Anora (Image via Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

After a whirlwind trip to Vegas to get married later, everything starts to fall apart, putting Ani’s life into chaos even worse than the chaotic life she thought she’d left behind when she married Ivan.

She is forced to annul her marriage to Ivan, but Ivan has made a runner before they can, leaving Ani to face his father’s men. Without seeing anywhere out, Ani struck a bargain with Ivan’s father’s men tasked to fix the family’s problems, agreeing to help them find Ivan in exchange for $10,000.

At its heart, the film featured the gulf between the haves and have-nots, along with the self-entitlement and desperation that comes with the opposing classes.

Mark Eydelshteyn stars as Ivan in Anora (Image via Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

But while it touches on deeper themes and the real story of a working life, Anora is a laugh-out-loud, hilarious, high-energy panic comedy. Much like previous features by Sean Baker, the latest film relies on authenticity and immersion with “slice of real life” drama blended with a comedic tone.

With an average of 3.3 stars (out of 5), the film stormed to the top of the Screen jury grid, the first film this year to score over three stars. It also scored higher than the previous grid winner, Fallen Leaves, by Aki Kaurismaki (3.2).

Mikey Madison and others star in Sean Baker’s Anora film

Californian actress Mikey Madison, who first caught the audience’s attention for her portrayal of Max on the comedy-drama series Better Things, stars as the titular character of the latest Sean Baker feature.

Joining the 25-year-old actress are:

Mark Eydelshteyn as Ivan (Anora’s husband)
Karren Karagulian as Toros (Ivan’s father’s fixer)
Yuriy Borosiv as Igor (Ivan’s father’s goon)
Vache Tovmasyan as Garnick (Ivan’s father’s goon)
Ivy Wolk as Crystal
Luna Sofia Miranda as Lulu
Lindsey Normington as Diamond
Darya Ekamasova as Galina
Emily Weider as Nikki
Alena Gurevich as Clara
Paul Weissman as Nick

Charlton Lamar, Marsha Zhak, and Ross Brodar are also supporting cast members in the movie.

When is Anora coming to theaters?

While the movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, May 21, its theatrical release has yet to be announced. NEON bought the film’s distribution rights in November 2023, and while there is no fixed release date yet, it’s expected to come to theaters sometime in mid-2024.

Ahead of Anora’s theatrical release, Sean Baker’s previous features, The Florida Project and Red Rocket, can be watched on streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV, and more.