Anora is Dressing for the Job She Wants
In the Oscar-nominated film, Ani’s looks tell us everything we need to know.
Note: Anora spoilers ahead!
In the opening scene of Anora, the camera pans as a row of strippers enthusiastically grind on their clients. The women are focused, clad in prodigious hoops and not much else, each performing for their audience of one. When the camera finally lands on the titular Anora (Mikey Madison), who prefers Ani, there’s a flicker in her hair. It took me a minute to realize that it wasn’t just a trick of the neon lights, but pink hair tinsel, the first of many aesthetic choices that told me this was a film that took details seriously.
As Anora progresses, we find out Ani is a resident of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, who works a strip club gig at HQ Gentleman’s Club in Midtown. At the beginning of the movie, we see her dance and interact with club guests. She talks back to her boss with a self-assured playfulness that tells us she’s aware of how much he relies on her. It’s a treat to see a young woman who’s good at her job know she’s good at her job.
It’s Ani’s boss who introduces her to Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), a young patron who’s requested a dancer who can speak Russian. Lucky for him, Ani’s his girl. That night goes on to propel the rest of the plot: Ivan is the son of an oligarch, enabling him to pay Ani a casual $15K to be his girlfriend for the week. Despite Ivan’s murky past, he comes across as endearing, innocent, and sexually inexperienced, which director Sean Baker exploits for comedic effect.
As an aesthetically attuned movie-goer, Anora had me from the jump and kept me rooting for Ani until the credits rolled. It didn’t have the same effect on a guy my friend had been seeing. She recalled one of his critiques being: “Ani didn’t have enough backstory.” Debriefing over drinks and tostaditas in Gowanus, I countered, “Wearing a bandage dress in 2024 is the backstory.”
At a glance, I assumed the bright blue, skin-tight dress in question — which Ani wore on her first house call to Ivan’s mansion — was Hervé Léger, a ‘90s classic that will still run you into the upper hundreds for a mini. When I got home, I learned that it’s a $50 Amazon knock-off. The bandage dress dupe crystallized the whole thing for me: Every detail of Ani’s external presentation, from the tinsel in her hair to the sky-high Pleasers on her feet, is an extension of her ambition. She’s keenly aware of her position, but her clothes signify a knowledge of a world beyond what she can access. They suggest she wants a piece of it.
Of the Hervé Léger dupe, Anora costume designer Jocelyn Pierce says, “[it] feels like a symbol of aspirational dressing — dress for the job you want — and ultimately of the American dream.” In his bedroom, Ani and Ivan, in rapid succession, have sex for the first time, discuss his status as an oligarch's spawn, and negotiate terms for her to be his exclusive girlfriend for seven days. Ani puts the dress back on to leave.
“There are actually very few saturated colors in the costumes,” Pierce goes on. “There are a lot of blacks and neutrals and metallics, but the colors we did choose to really pop are red and blue.” In this scene, the red (Ivan’s luxe satin sheets), white (the bleak New York winter and hotel-generic decor), and blue (the aforementioned dress) tell a straightforward color story. As the film progresses, we come to understand this scene and its symbols for what they are — facades, dupes — the American dream appearing to reward hustle, wit, and striving, only for circumstances to come along and brutalize the strivers (that part comes later).
The bandage dress isn’t the only knock-off in Anora. When Ani and Ivan first meet at the club, she’s wearing a fake Versace buckle-strap dress. Later, Ivan takes her shopping in Vegas; Ani’s giddy when he buys her a long black fur coat. When she and Ivan arrive back in Brooklyn, she wears a hot pink Versace robe alongside him, in navy, on the balcony. For a moment, Ani transcends. Not only does she have the real thing, but she looks comfortable, wearing it at home where no one can see her in it.
This assurance doesn’t last long. Ivan’s parents find out about the slapdash nuptials and send their henchmen to have it annulled and bring their son home.
When the three bumbling heavies arrive — one of them being Igor (Yura Borisov), who quickly takes to Ani’s irreverent demeanor — Ivan flees the scene, leaving his wife behind to physically fight these guys off on her own. She doesn’t succeed, and the tone shifts. With Ani clad in her new fur coat, they head out to find Ivan.
As it becomes increasingly clear to us and every other character that Ivan has abandoned her, strong-willed Ani clings more fervently to her coat and any desperate hope of preserving her marriage and new status. “It was a moment where we felt like she was trying to take her power back,” Pierce said. Of course, the marriage unravels and is officially annulled. Ani discards the coat, throwing it at Ivan’s cruel, disapproving mother.
Baker has made a plethora of smart films such as The Florida Project (2017) and Tangerine (2015). Notably, he’s received emphatic and continued praise from the communities his films are based on. “You’re gonna be hard fucking pressed to find another movie where they gave real strippers that many jobs,” Lindsey Normington, the actor, stripper, and organizer who plays Diamond, told Vulture.
But not all sex workers agree. In Autostraddle, Olivia Hunter Willke wrote, “Ivan views Ani as a commodity, a plaything. In a film so charged with Ani’s misadventure, I’m unsure if Sean Baker views her any differently.”
Being a plaything is time consuming work, as evidenced by Ani’s beauty choices. Hair tinsel, for one, takes hours to install. Same with acrylic nails when they’re as detailed as her’s. Ani’s extended square tips lend her a sense of authority, albeit fragile. They’re adorned with feminine butterflies, “classy” according to her friend and colleague, Lulu. Lulu’s are decked out with dollar signs “like a real ho.” Ani is quick to reassure her, “you’re manifesting with those.” It’s one of the few tender moments in Anora. Two young women connecting over something so small and precious that, to them, means so much.
Likewise, Madison doesn't take Ani’s wardrobe lightly. She told W Magazine, “I wanted Ani to always be on her toes in some kind of way… Her being up on her toes is so vulnerable, but it also makes her so tall.” For all of Ani’s prowess, it’s undeniable that her dignity gets shaken when forced up against the class barriers she thought she might side step. “It’s an interesting juxtaposition,” Madison added, “To have that kind of height but also to be sort of wobbling around.”
For all of my love of Anora, maybe Willke is right to acknowledge that Baker doesn’t lend much space to what’s beneath Ani’s surface. But it’s her own denial of her vulnerabilities that makes the final scene so impactful. It’s also why I can’t stop thinking about the clothes, the hair, the nails. Small daily adornments that have a way of bringing things to the fore, even if we can’t always bring ourselves to admit it.
In the final scene, Ani is sitting in the passenger seat as Igor drops her off at her multi-family home. She’s bare-faced, wearing a black parka over a cropped grey-green hoodie that looks well worn. It’s not the first time we see her at home, but it’s the first time since she thought she might never have to live there again.
Before Ani can get out of the car, Igor stops her. He opens his palm to reveal the engagement ring Ivan bought her, which he stole. Presumably in an act of gratitude, Ani climbs on top of him in the driver’s seat. What starts off like many of the other sex scenes in Anora, perfunctory, to the point, quickly becomes more intense as Ani resists Igor’s attempts to kiss her. He pulls her down onto his shoulder, and she finally breaks down crying. The screen goes black.
If this movie is about the American dream, it’s about how it wields its appeal. How the barriers inherent to power and prestige are made to look like shiny jewels, hard achievements won. It’s a glamorous trick, one that dupes Ani only for her false hope to come back and hit her in the face. That’s why it’s a surprise to Ani and the viewer when — for a brief moment — she feels cared for.
this was such a good look at this movie!