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Anora, a young prostitute from Brooklyn, impulsively meets and marries the son of an oligarch. When word reaches Russia, their fairytale is put in jeopardy when her parents leave for New York to… Read more. IMDb editor Arno Kazarian offers a quick rundown of 12 films he screened at the 2024 New York Film Festival, including Anora and the dangerous and curiously erotic Mercy. At the Cannes Film Festival press conference, Mikey Madison said that director Sean Baker would play out different sexual positions with his wife, producer Samantha Quan, to demonstrate to the actors what he wanted them to do. Unpredictability can be a wonderful cinematic tool, and the greats can sometimes use it like a magic wand. But the flow of a film also plays a role, and while the latest "Anora" If Sean Baker does get lost in some serious plot twists, it’s the baffling lack of a single, cohesive vision that makes this release a car crash. The first half is more dramatic, dealing with the relationship between two unlikeable characters, Mikey Madison’s streetwise stripper and spoiled rich kid Mark Eydelshteyn. Eventually things go awry, and the film devolves into a bland Three Stooges episode that feels about as welcome as poop in a swimming pool. (Seamlessly blending genres for maximum satisfaction is not this film’s strong point.) Not that Baker’s theatrical formulas, even early on, were anything to write home about (nor was his dark, unnatural, unwanted ending), but with gems like “Tangerine” and “The Florida Project” on his resume, I had hope. (This film won the Palme d’Or and ranks alongside films like “Sex, Lies and Videotape,” “Barton Fink,” “Wild at Heart” and “Pulp Fiction.”) No such luck: Anora’s cinematic fairy tale feels more like a cinematic nightmare. Check out our list of exciting new films from this year’s film festivals, including Venice, TIFF, the New York Film Festival, and more.