Sean Baker
Anora

Film awarded the Palme d'Or at the latest Cannes Film Festival.

I read enthusiastic reviews of all kinds, "Wired: The most beautiful comedy of the year," "Rolling Stones Italia: Viva 'Anora' and Sean Baker, who doesn't miss a film," "Sentieri Selvaggi: Another film about the drift of the present," "Cineforum: What we should always demand from films in competition at Cannes," etc. etc.

So I enter the cinema with rather high expectations for this film, which is described by everyone as a comedy that begins in the vein of Pretty Woman, but then takes a path as threatening as it is funny; you laugh out loud until the tender and moving finale.

In the first part of the film, we witness the day and night follies of the protagonist, Anora, a sex worker, and him, Vanja, the young and very spoiled offspring of a Russian oligarch (no reference to the famous Chekhov character) and his scattered, albeit humbler-origin, group of friends. When, after a week of revelry, the two marry in Las Vegas, the boy's mother and wife of the billionaire does not take it well, thus begins the second part of the film, which sees the entry of a somewhat unusual trio of characters—a priest, his brother, and a "gorilla," who worked for the oligarch to keep the boy in check and now have to remedy the situation that slipped out of their hands. The "all in one night" (the reference to Landis is a bit far-fetched) before mom and dad arrive the following day.

What to say?

The first part lasts at least 40 minutes (but personally perceived as 2 hours) and at the umpteenth scene of striptease, erotic lap dance, sex, cocaine and spirits consumption, discos, casinos, and other pleasant entertainments for depraved youths, I seriously started getting bored. A quarter of an hour would have been more than enough to give an idea of what was happening without endlessly repeating situations that did not lead to further developments.

Okay, I thought, now comes the fun part; I do a little jaw stretching to prepare for the upcoming hearty laughs, and I witness, unfortunately without any facial alteration and with a beginning of mummification towards the end, the rest of the film.

Probably it's me who doesn't understand a damn thing about cinema, but I have the impression that the reviews I read are a little exaggerated and that the award at Cannes was a bit too generous.

I knew partly Sean Baker, because I had seen and appreciated his two previous films "The Florida Project" and "Red Rocket." He's an independent director, and those two films told very American stories, set at the margins of the welfare society, with somewhat borderline characters, but well-constructed, that in the end, if nothing else, gave you a realistic and concrete representation of social disparities, true or fake opportunities, the widespread malaise, and the shattered hopes of what was the American dream.

Here, in this film, he tried to stay balanced between the brilliant, somewhat vulgar comedy and the semi-drama, but, aside from the initial erotic sheen and the night spins, there remain only barely sketched characters and a sequence of situations that rarely manage to convey emotions or increase adrenaline. Only the acting performance of the protagonist and the trio that accompanies her for much of the film is saved, too little for a film so highly praised.