AnoraReview: Mikey Madison Gives Breakthrough Performance in Funny, Heartbreaking Tale of Mad Romance

Mar. 15, 2025

Gambling on love: Mark Eydelshteyn and Mikey Madison.Photo:NEON

NEON

The performance, which will undoubtedly be scrutinized and discussed in the awards season, is a blend of tough, profane humor, feral intelligence and cynical calculation, with pathos and heartbreak added in at the end.

Ani could be one of those tantalizing women, both marginalized and sexualized, who turn up in literature — someone like Caroline Meeber in Theodore Dreiser’sSister Carrie. Yes, a film performance can merit that level of comparison.

That occurs when the club manager asks her to engage with Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), who speaks more Russian than English. Ani, it turns out, can hold her own in a foreign language even while satisfying Ivan in a private room. Highly gratified, Ivan takes her on as his personal escort ($15,000 a week) and brings her out to the luxurious gated home where he lives alone.

Although Ivan is 21, two years younger than Ani, he seems to still be lost in adolescence, with the mindless, bouncing energy of a golden-retriever puppy. He’s adorable, in a way, and physically suggests a combination of Jack Schlossberg and Andy Samberg. But it’s not clear that what he feels for Ani is really love, whether anything he articulates is reliable.

The two fly off to Las Vegas because Ivan feels like it — he has his own suite in a casino hotel — and impulsively marry. However, what happens in Vegas doesn’t necessarily stay in Vegas. News of the marriage reaches Ivan’s rich Russian parents — they run a “business” of an undisclosed, possibly criminal nature — and they immediately fly over on their jet.

Madison on the dance floor.Courtesy of TIFF

Courtesy of TIFF

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

They have no intention of letting their dopey, immature son (because, when all is said is done, that’s what Ivan is) marry a girl they consider a prostitutka. Ivan disappears in a panic, leaving no more trace than an acrid wisp of tire-burn smoke.

Ani, clearly in over her head, is the one stuck defending their relationship to Ivan’s formidable mother (Darya Ekamasova), a heavily lacquered example of femininity post-perestroika. She also happens to have an entourage of henchmen. Ari at last finds herself articulating her feelings about love, relationships, marriage and respect, but the only person who responds to her is an unexpectedly kind Russian thug (Yura Borisov).

In other words,Anorais noPretty Woman. It concludes on a slight, highly ambivalent note of hope, but, to use sex-trade parlance, there’s no happy ending.

Anorais in theaters now.

source: people.com