Anora

Sean Baker's film Anora turns out to be unexpectedly relevant to psychoanalysis, discussed in the third section of this review. Psychoanalysts may claim to be experts in sexuality, but they need to watch Anora if they want to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of sex workers. Psychoanalysts have published no papers on this topic. Anora's deeper understanding of these dynamics is discussed below.

The next section presents a brief sketch of the manifest film. A fuller sketch can be found in virtually any other review, such as Justin Chang's “Twerkers' Comp,” published in The New Yorker, October 21, 2024.

A woman in her 20s who works in a strip club, Ani (Mikey Madison) is resigned to a daily grind that seems to be going nowhere. Then Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of Russian oligarchs, shows up at her club and asks for someone who can speak Russian. Ani speaks a little. She is assigned to Ivan for lap dances—and more. Ivan is enthralled by her. He offers her $10,000 to spend a week with him at his parents' mansion in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, a week of partying, sex, and drugs, during which Ivan arranges a trip to Las Vegas and, in Vegas, proposes that he and Ani get married. They marry and return to New York.

Ivan's mother is outraged and sends three thugs to rein in Ivan's excesses and annul the marriage. These three, including Igor (Yura Borisov), invade the mansion where Ani and Ivan seem to be enjoying marital bliss; Ivan runs away, and the three thugs tie and gag Ani for information as to where Ivan went. She has no idea. She and the three thugs engage in a fight that trashes the mansion until everyone realizes that no one knows where Ivan is. They embark together on a cross-country chase that ends with all parties packed into a courtroom, where Ani and Ivan eventually

sign divorce papers. After the divorce, everyone disappears, except Ani and Igor, who remain together, share stories about what happened, and become close. In the final scene, An