At Cannes earlier this year, Sean Baker became the first American filmmaker in 13 years to win the prestigious Palme d’Or for his grounded comedy-drama “Anora.” The story centers on the whirlwind marriage between Ani (Mikey Madison), an exotic dancer from Brooklyn, and Ivan (Mark Eidelshtein), the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch. The movie hits select theaters on Oct. 18.
Although Baker is a purveyor of social realism, his films don’t often take the shape or color one might expect. As heavy as his work can be, it’s buoyed by an aspirational undercurrent and a tone as funny as it is touching.
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In 2017’s “The Florida Project,” the filmmaker explored the life of an impoverished family living in a cotton candy–colored motel near Disney World as seen through the eyes of a hopeful 6-year-old. In 2021’s “Red Rocket,” a washed-up porn star returns to his Texas City hometown to get back on his feet—a city whose oil refinery smokestacks have the allure of a vast magical kingdom.
In “Anora,” Ani is swept into the world of obnoxious opulence and corrosive apathy she discovers at Ivan’s Vegas penthouse and New York mansion. But she also finds genuine moments of impassioned romance with her spoiled Prince Charming in a neon-lit nightclub and against a backdrop of dazzling fireworks.
Baker rejects the traditional tendency to turn down the saturation and bring gloomy gray hues to spaces defined by poverty. “I think it can actually be very manipulative and condescending to apply this drab look on other people’s lives,” he says. “We wanted to try something different. We wanted to, perhaps, see the world through the eyes of the people who live there.”
Over the years, many film critics have suggested that Baker’s movies have a fairy-tale quality. Though he didn’t initially agree, he now connects with the idea that his characters are chasing a “happily ever after.” In his work, the American dream of succeeding against all odds can make any setting seem ideal and picturesque.
“Anora” cinematographer Drew Daniels, who also worked on “Red Rocket,” remembers early conversations with Baker about beautifying the Texas City landscape—a backdrop viewers might consider unpleasant. “A world surrounded by refineries is, to some people, quite ugly and industrial and gritty. But I remember [Baker] wanting to shoot it with anamorphic lenses and this really rich color palette,” Daniels says.
Though they’re small in scale, Baker’s films bring a sense of grandeur to environments usually depicted as pitiable or claustrophobic. This is true of Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach in “Anora,” which becomes the setting for a sprawling adventure. “I think our mutual sensibility is to not overemphasize the grittiness, but to bring a little magic to it—the magic of cinema, the magic of celluloid,” Daniels explains.
“Anora” begins as a dreamlike escape for Ani. (Like Baker’s other movies, this one never casts judgment on the world of sex work.) But after she gets a harsh dose of reality, the film builds to an extended crescendo with unyielding visual energy. Baker’s ability to hold an audience’s attention for so long in the crawlspace between thriller and comedy is a dazzling cinematic high-wire act—one that’s in his creative DNA.
“Everything has to be able to be seen through a comedic lens,” the filmmaker says. “Upon second or third viewing, hopefully, moments that were gut-wrenching can also be seen as humorous, simply because we recognize human behavior—because we recognize ourselves in it.”
This story originally appeared in the Sept. 5 issue of Backstage Magazine.
