As we hurtle ever-closer to the 2025 Oscars, one movie that should definitely be on your awards to-watch list is Anora. Lucky for you, Anora is now available to buy on digital platforms.
Written and directed by Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket), Anora has been one of the buzziest films of 2024 since it premiered at Cannes in May, to near-universal critical acclaim. Baker is known for shining a light on pockets of working-class America, and Anora is no exception. This comedy takes viewers to the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brighton Beach, home to a large community of Russian-speaking immigrants. The movie is expected to earn nominations both for star Mikey Madsion and for Best Picture, at the very least.
Anora is a delightful screwball comedy is full of laughs, but also plenty of raw, authentic drama. By the end of the film, you won’t regret watching it. That said, you might find yourself confused. The Anora ending leaves it up to the audience to interpret the film’s meaning. But if you need a little help, we’re here for you. Read on for an analysis of the Anora plot summary and the Anora ending meaning, including why Ani cries.
Anora plot summary:
Mikey Madison stars as Anora—or Ani, as she goes by—an exotic dancer who lives in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brighton Beach, home to a large community of Russian-speaking immigrants. Ani knows some Russian, thanks to her Russian grandmother. When a VIP Russian client named Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn)—the son of a wealthy oligarch—visits Ani’s strip club, she’s tasked with taking care of him.
The couple hits it off. Vanya likes Ani very much, and she likes him, too. When he offers to pay her to be his private escort for the week, she agrees. When he impulsively proposes they marry in Vegas, so he can legally live in the U.S., she agrees to that, too. Why wouldn’t she? A rich prince showed up and offered her a glass slipper! She quits her job as a stripper, and goes to live with Vanya in his parents’ big Brooklyn mansion.
Then Ani’s fairytale ending implodes. Vanya’s parents find out he married a stripper/sex worker, and go ballistic. They order his Armenian godfather, Toros (Karren Karagulian), to find the couple and annul the marriage.
Toros sends two goons, Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov), to the Brooklyn mansion to kidnap Ani and Vanya, and force them to annul the marriage. They refuse to cooperate. But when Vanya hears that his parents are flying in from Russia to pick him up, he flees, abandoning Ani at the house. Ani faces off with the henchmen, and though she puts up a good fight, they manage to restrain her. When Toros arrives, he informs Ani that Vanya is an immature child, and that their marriage is a sham. He takes her wedding ring, and offers her $10,000 if she agrees to go along with the annulment.
Ani insists their love and marriage is real. That said, she does want to find Vanya. She believes her new husband will stand up for her. She agrees to help Toros and his men hunt him down. The four of them drive around the city looking for Vanya. One of the henchmen, Igor, sympathizes with Ani, and attempts to apologize for the earlier confrontation.
After a long night of searching, they finally find Vanya at the strip club where Ani used to work. He’s absolutely wasted, having partied all night long. Ani tries to get Vanya to tell her that they will stay married, but all Vanya cares about is the arrival of his parents. Toros drives them to the courthouse, where they wait all night for it open. In the court, they are not able to go through with an annulment, because they were married in Vegas. The only way to end the marriage is to get an annulment in Nevada.
Ani still believes that Vanya might take her side when he sobers up. When Vanya’s parents show up, Ani tries to introduce herself, but they completely dismiss her. Vanya, now more or less sober, dutifully gets on the plane with his parents, ignoring Ani’s pleas to talk. Finally, he coldly informs they have to do what his parents say. When Ani asks if they are getting a divorve, Vanya replies, “Of course. Are you stupid?”
He thanks her for making his last trip to America “so fun.” Ani realizes that Vanya never loved her, and only saw her as another way to party in the U.S. Ani threatens to lawyer up and sue Vanya and his family for half of his fortune, because she didn’t sign a prenup. But Vanya’s mother threatens her right back, saying she will destroy her and her family’s life if she does that. So Ani boards the plane, goes to Vegas, and gets the annulment.
Anora ending explained:
After all the papers are signed for the annulment, Igor suggests that Vanya owes Ani and apology. Ani tells off Vanya’s family, and his mom calls her a “disgusting hooker.” Ani responds, “Yeah, and your son hates you so much that he fucking married one to piss you off.” It’s the first time in the movie that Ani doesn’t deny being a sex worker.
Igor takes Ani back to the Brooklyn mansion, where she is allowed to spend the night. They spend the night smoking weed together, and seem to genuinely enjoy each other’s company. In the morning, Igor gives Ani her $10,000 cash payment from Toros, and drives her home. Parked outside her family’s house, he gives her back the wedding ring that Toros took from her. Ani is touched, and grateful, and starts to initiate sex with Igor, presumably as a way to say thank you.
But when Igor tries to kiss her, Ani pushes him away. Then she begins to sob. Igor comforts her, and the movie ends.
Why does Ani cry at the end of Anora?
The movie leaves it up to you to interpret Ani’s emotions at this moment. In an interview with writer/director Sean Baker for Mashable, the filmmaker said he didn’t want to explain Ani’s emotions in that final scene. “I’m worried about giving my opinion on it in any way, shape, or form because then it’s taking away from…what my intention of the ending was,” Baker said.
That said, Baker did say that the final scene used to include some small talk, after the failed attempt to hook-up. But in the end, Baker removed the dialogue.
“It just took away from the moment,” Baker explained in that same interivew. “And then we realized, I think especially Mikey and I realized, that this was one of the first times that she’s actually communicating with somebody else in the film and being heard. And we thought it would be much more interesting if that was a non-verbal communication, and so we cut all the dialogue out of that last shot.”
My interpretation? Ani starts crying because realizes she was trying to use sex as a currency to thank Igor. She is treating herself the same way that Vanya treated her, and acting as the “prostitute” she was accused of being. In fact, all of her life she has used sex as product, rather than as a means of human connection. She thought she had found love with Vanya, but it turns out he was just using her, too. So, Igor looking for connection via a kiss, rather than just sex, broke her.
But hey, that’s just what I think. If you have a different view, let me know in the comments.
