ANORA [SOLD OUT]

Stylistically thrilling, hugely entertaining, and emotionally genuine, ANORA is a unique take on a Cinderella story from the immensely talented and inventive director/writer Sean Baker (Red Rocket, The Florida Project, Tangerine). Set in 2018, it follows the wild odyssey of Anora (or “Ani,” as she prefers to be called), a young Russian American sex worker who is swept out of her everyday life as an erotic dancer by the impetuous, free-spending son of a Russian oligarch. The narrative zigs and zags, first immersing us in spaces – a plush Manhattan gentlemen’s club, a gargantuan seaside Brooklyn compound, the bling-y wonderland of Las Vegas – that feel detached from the ordinary world outside. Just as the film seems to be settling into the rhythms of a love story, it leaps genre lanes by bounds to become a propulsive, darkly funny chase movie careening through the streets of Brighton Beach, Coney Island and Mahattan. Then, the tone changes once more, bringing the story to a nuanced and poignant conclusion as Anora returns to the home she thought she’d left behind. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize, the Palme D’or.