Anoraseems to be themagnum opusof director Sean Baker’s career, which features a comment that nods to his past movies' use of specific scenery.Anorais now seemingly the frontrunner for Best Picture, following its surprise win at the Critics' Choice Awards, which builds upon Baker’s previous discourses through the story ofAnora “Ani” (Mikey Madison)having a runaway romance and marriage to an extremely wealthy client. Specifically,Anoratakes afterTangerineandThe Florida Projectin its grounded depiction of sex workers and indictment of capitalistic society and the class divides it creates.
Ani enjoys a luxurious lifestyle with Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn) for the brief time she lives it before his parents' inevitable objections to the marriage disrupt the fantasy, and Ani is pulled into a nightmare of having to track down her husband with the family’s hired hands.Anorahas been repeatedly held up as a subverted, harshly realistic take on the Cinderella story,in which Ani briefly believes that everything has worked out splendidly for her with a young man she truly loves — and one subtle line in particular hints at her false princess setup.
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Ivan pays Ani to be his girlfriend for a week, the climax of which is a trip to Vegas where they impulsively get married. Ani returns to clear out her things at the club where she worked and go live her happy new life. During the scene where she is bidding farewell to her co-workers, she mentions to her friend that she hopes Ivan will take them to Disney World for their honeymoon. Specifically, this is a girlhood dream of hers, and she wants to stay in one of theveryexclusive princess suites.
She’s presumably referring to the Cinderella castle suite, inside the signature set piece of the park itself, and only used by specially invited VIP guests and occasional sweepstakes winners (viaTravel + Leisure). Disney World itself touts being the “happiest place on Earth,” where dreams come true, and the suite is essentially impossible to book.Ani casually, happily saying this is a wish of hers as though it could actually happen truly reflects her state of mind at this point,expecting to be spoiled by Ivan for the rest of her life, combined with the whimsical mythos of Disney parks.
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However,Baker has been known to use theme parks like Disney World as a negative symbol in his works,the ultimate representation of excessive consumerism dressed up in fairy tale trappings, with the truth being that such places are selling their magic for an exorbitant price. Typically, this is contrasted with the reality of Baker’s movies' main characters. Most notably, the financially struggling motel residents ofThe Florida Projectlive in the literal shadow of Disney World. This leads toThe Florida Project’s strange ending, with two children seemingly getting to escape their circumstances and experience the wonder for real.
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Tangerine, meanwhile, is set in Los Angeles, a locale inextricably linked with Disney.Anorafeatures a striking vignette when Ani, Igor (Yura Borisov), Torros (Karren Karagulian), and Garnik (Vache Tovmasyan) walk past the Coney Island Cyclone while searching for Ivan, more generally trying to locate him in South Brooklyn. Coney Island is significantly cheaper than Disney, creating something of a contrast and a mix between its consumerism but also the greater accessibility and its place in the culture of Brooklyn, and thus the lives of people like Ani.
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Disney World and the Cinderella suite are conglomerated representations of the Cinderella narrative, which are false and harmful in the bigger picture of society, foreshadowing how Cinderella’s story will fall apart in this movie.Anorashows what happens past the façade of this fairy tale, asIvan’s parents and the people who work for them will always look down upon Ani,and there is a fundamental disconnect between the prince and Cinderella when she understands what it is to work hard and hold her head high while he is deeply spoiled and immature.
What makes it so heartrending are the moments of innocence reflected in Ani herself associating her life with that of Cinderella.
However, for at least a while,Ani can look past Ivan’s clear flaws when, seemingly, everything is going great.She feels genuine affection for him and believes in him long past his true self being exposed to the audience, in the hopes of not being made a fool of for thinking all this was real. What everything comes to is the devastating realization that Ani is not getting this dream life, andAnora’s brilliant ending sceneillustrates the cruelty of careless people having toyed with this woman’s emotions, shown her disrespect, and broken her heart.
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What makes it so heartrending are the moments of innocence reflected in Ani herself associating her life with that of Cinderella. However, her comments are inherently tied to what Sean Baker has said before about Disney, and how such an industry allows people to treat Ani like she is nothing and steal dreams away from her.Anora’s Disney World reference shows a deeper, metatextual moment of Ani being caught up in the entire charade, pondering a specific luxury that will always be out of reach.
