“And the Best Actress Award goes to… Mikey Madison for “Anora”!”
When everything feels like the movies
Yeah, you bleed just to know, you’re alive
~ “Iris,” The Goo Goo Dolls
Meryl Streep could reprise Daniel Day-Lewis’s role in “My Left Foot” and she would still lose the best actress award this year to Mikey Madison in “Anora”.
Let’s analyze why.
As a Lacanian psychotherapist, when a patient comes to see me I initially play the role of sujet supposé savior — the “subject” who is supposed to know more about the patient’s unconscious than they do. From the POV of the patient, at the onset of therapy I have my own subjective experience and understanding of their blindspots. As I gently guide them into the deeper recesses of their minds, I am transmuted by them into an object and ultimately discarded like all objects are. Subjects have their own emotional experiences; objects — like rocks — are not regarded as having their own emotional experiences and are thus disposible.
“Anora’s” protagonist Ani is a subject to the audience, thanks to the humanization of her doing mundane things such as eating out of a Tupperware container. However, unbeknownst to both her and the audience, she is an object to Ivan. A play-thing, a toy, a trifle. Objectified.
Is this different from many transactional real-life relationships or merely a magnification? Is a trophy wife or husband a subject or an object?
“Anora” presents a complex and nuanced portrayal of sex work that challenges many traditional cinematic depictions of relationships such as the one portrayed in “Pretty Woman;” “Anora” avoids the common trope of a sex worker “rescued” by a Prince Charming. Bravo!
Mikey Madison will win many male votes for her performance in Act I wherein she deftly incarnates the adolescent male fantasy of a hyper-sexualized young woman aiming to please.
Ms. Madison will win many females votes for her performance in Act II wherein she ferociously incarnates the current female fantasy of “empowerment” — especially because her fierceness is putatively in the name of love.
But is Ani empowered or has she been duped into believing that sex and violence are symbols of empowerment? Does she have any agency in relation to Ivan’s family or does she realize in the last scene that she has only been an object all along, a pawn in someone else’s game?
Let’s take a 40,000 foot view of the aforementioned fantasies in Acts I and II and then discuss Act III.
(And if you grew up in New Canaan, rode horses in Greenwich, summered in the Hamptons, were legacy early-admission at Yale, and gave it all up to become a stripper in Brighton Beach, please gainsay my arguments in the comments section below.)
On one hand “Anora” humanizes an array of dancing bears who believe that money will un-traumatize them. Financial motivation is a rough beast of spite and compensation. All of us good capitalists submit to and suffer from that delusion.
On the other hand, this dystopia must end tragically. Pimps up, hoes down. But what a wild ride is “Anora” thanks to Ms. Madison’s performance! Not since “Uncut Gems” was my pathos so expertly misdirected towards the suckers. And “Anora” is also one of the funniest films I have ever seen, replete with much Chaplinesque physical comedy!
But is this the narrative of a best picture award?
If I were an asshole studio executive, I would have given the following notes to Sean Baker to give the film wider appeal:
Act I
Pages 1–10: Ani and Ivan meet and fall in love.
Pages 10–26: They go to Vegas to party and end up getting married.
First plot twist: Ivan’s parents find out that their son may have married a prostitute and send Toros and his goons to investigate.
And here’s where the stakes could be raised: instead of Ani simply breaking Garnik’s nose, it would raise the stakes (but also alter the tone) if she inadvertently kills Garnik à la “Very Bad Things.”
Disposal of the body ensues and then for the rest of Act II Toros and Igor chase Ani and Ivan through the soft dark underbelly of New York.
I thought the chemistry between Ani and Ivan was electric and I was disappointed that Ivan drops out of the film for most of Act II. But then again, the title of this film is “Anora,” not “Anora and Ivan.”
Then on page 55 (the point of no return) Ivan’s parents arrive in New York and learn that he is an accomplice to murder. They will do anything to retrieve their son, get his marriage annulled (if necessary, if possible) and repatriate him safely back to Russia.
Chase chase chase for the rest of Act II.
Act III
Then on page 87 right as they are about to get caught, something happens that reveals to Ani that she has been lied to: IVAN IS ONLY 16 YEARS OLD! He’s a minor. Now Ani is doubly fucked. What are her options? What will she do? How will she escape? How will she get out of this mess?
Writing as a psychotherapist, I must say that I loved and hated Sean Baker’s ending: I cringed when Ani got on top of Igor in the car like the dancing bear she has been trained to be. But when she stops having sex and breaks down, she seems to realize her delusion and is transformed.
And this is why this wildly tragic dystopian ride is a truly brilliant film that holds a mirror up to nature, better than anything a studio exec could ever have imagined.
Although there could never be a “Pretty Woman II,” we could well imagine the overabundant character of Ani as a phoenix rising from yet another set of ashes.
