How To Watch Anora, One Of The Best Movies Of 2024, At Home

Neon

Just in case you missed one of the very best movies of the year, you're in luck: Sean Baker's critical darling "Anora" is finally coming to VOD.

If the name "Anora" sounds familiar, it's probably because Baker's twisted Cinderella story won the coveted Palme d'Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, has been racking up rave reviews since it officially got a wide release in October, and scored a number of Golden Globe nomination when those were announced in early December. (At the risk of editorializing, I feel comfortable saying that this movie will be in the Best Picture race when the Oscar nominations are announced early next year.)

With Mikey Madison as the titular Anora — who goes by Ani — and a supporting cast that includes newcomer Mark Eydelshteyn, standout Yura Borisov, and Baker's frequent collaborator Karren Karaguilan (who has appeared in the writer-director's movies throughout the years), "Anora" is a stunning, funny, dark, sexy, broken fairytale that is absolutely worth watching, and if you follow awards season as closely as, say, the folks over here at /Film, you'll absolutely want to add it to your queue. You'll be able to rent or buy "Anora" on major platforms like Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video starting December 17, 2024. But before you watch it — what's it about, and what did critics specifically love about this unexpected romantic comedy? (Yes, "Anora" is a romantic comedy.)

Neon

Throughout his career thus far, Sean Baker has prominently featured real and fictional sex workers in his films. "Anora," which teaches Hollywood a lesson it's been ignoring for years in this respect, puts the spotlight on Anora "Ani" Mikheeva (Mikey Madison), a young dancer who, during a normal night working at a strip club, is asked to cater to specific patron because he happens to speak Russian. The patron in question is Ivan "Vanya" Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn), an impetuous young man with an extremely wealthy and powerful Russian family who takes a shine to Ani, inviting to her house for private encounters, offering to pay for her company, and flying her to Las Vegas in a private jet ... at which point Vanya oh-so-casually reveals that he needs a green card so that his parents can't force him to return to Russia. Ani, entranced by Vanya's money, spontaneity, and the enormous diamond he offers her, accepts, and pretty much immediately after they marry at a Vegas chapel, Vanya's family gets wind of the whole thing. 

Vanya, who is nothing if not a child, basically runs into the night, forcing Ani and the Zakharov family's goons Igor (Yura Borisov), Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), and Toros (Karren Karagulian) to hunt him down over the course of a long and exhausting evening; when they find him, Vanya refuses to meaningfully interact with Ani and basically throws her to the wolves (in this case, "the wolves" refer to Vanya's imperious family, who hate Ani immediately and believe that she tricked Vanya into the union in the first place). Because I'm here to inspire you to watch "Anora," I'm not going to spoil the ending here, but rest assured that it wraps everything up in a way that's at once satisfying and devastating ... and the last shot is one of the best things Baker has ever filmed.

Neon

It's an understatement to say that "Anora" has received glowing reviews from critics. In /Film's review of the movie, Jacob Hall said that 'nothing feels quite like "Anora,' and it's probably the best movie I'll see in 2024" before continuing, "I'm not saying all movies need to feel this effortless, and deliver such big emotions wrapped in such thoughtful complexity. But I am saying movies like this remind me why I like movies so much in the first place."

Over on Rotten Tomatoes, the film is currently sitting pretty with a critical consensus of 96%, and when you peruse the reviews, it becomes clear that pretty much every critic really, really liked "Anora." Dana Stevens at Slate soundly praised the movie, writing, "It's a crowd-pleaser, funny and sexy and raucous, while also being startlingly wise and tender," while many other critics, including Peter Travers at ABC News, turned their attention to Mikey Madison's astounding performance. "Mikey Madison, Oscar's new Cinderella, leads a cast of crazies as a sex worker who finds her prince in the son of a dangerous Russian oligarch," Travers wrote. "No list of the year's best films would be complete without Sean Baker's whirwind of fun and social provocation." Over at Rolling Stone, David Fear echoed that sentiment: "[Mikey Madison] exits stage left as an above-the-title star. Then, just when you've think you've seen the full multitudes of this working-class martyr, the actor downshifts and manages to crack you in two." It was, perhaps, Bilge Ebiri for New York Magazine that summed it all up best; as he put it, "For all its charm, 'Anora' is a movie in which just about everybody's fighting for survival, and they only ever manage to succeed when they start working together."

"Anora" will be available to rent on VOD starting December 17, 2025.