If folks are saying Anora, like Pretty Woman it is promoting prostitution, they are wrong.
Anora is about broken lives and the reality some find themselves when life has failed them. No one wants their child to grow up to be a stripper. No matter the movie about women that use their nakedness to get by in the world there are always tradeoffs and sad realities.
Wasn’t Jennifer Lopez in a movie about stripping?
But, as to Anora, there is not one character that lives a good life. Not one.
The film takes place with a twenty something that strips and allows men to touch her body in private booths otherwise known as lap dances. She makes money with the tips she receives. Of course, the men give her tips to encourage her nakedness and erotic movements.
With that understanding the film turns into a roller coaster ride with a young Russian man suffering from multiple substance abuses. The facilitator to the roller coaster ride is Russian Oligarch money.
The portrayal of the young son of a million-billionaire Russian is accurate. The property, the wealth, and the wild lifestyles some of the oligarchs live. If that seems unbelievable, then look up all the Russian real estate in the world while realizing governments like the UK would take them back as sovereign property in a heartbeat.
Ask young women who were taken for pleasure the kind of lives these Russian men live. Then when the oligarchs are finished with these young women recreationally they are turned loose to return to a life of poverty.
In Anora, the mother to the young Russian man is spot on. Beautiful women that rely on power to carry out their lavish lives.
Anora actually believes she has found something wonderful and special in the young Russian when she consents to marry him. After the marriage a power struggle ensues and of course the wealthy parents win in the end spending money like water to return their arrogant social standards.
But, then what of Anora? The money she is paid in the end leaves her raw and vulnerable. The Russian man looking
after her safe return home, is not her usual client. He actually cared about her and the last scene where she cries in his arms with a broken heart clearly illustrates the pain of young women who find themselves simply a toy to wealth and power.
Anora is a great film if the viewer knows what they are looking at and seek the human side of the film rather than plugging into titillating sex scenes.
If one saw the film and “didn’t get it.” Then go back to see it again with new insights and judgement.
