Film

Anora

Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winner starts as a breathless screwball romance — a Brooklyn stripper marries a Russian oligarch's son on a whim in Vegas — and spends its second half unspooling that joke into something much rawer. It's very funny, then suddenly isn't, and Mikey Madison is extraordinary throughout. For anyone who likes their comedies with real stakes and a bruise underneath.

TMDb rating7.1

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Good Time2017

The Safdies' overnight odyssey through New York's underworld shares Anora's velocity — comedy and dread braided together so tightly you can't tell which one you're feeling until it's too late.

But Anxiety-inducing by design; the camera never lets you settle, which some viewers find exhausting rather than exhilarating.

Good Time poster

The Florida Project2017

Sean Baker again, and the clearest DNA match — the same tenderness toward people the world writes off, the same knack for finding comedy right up against real precarity.

But Slower and more meandering, seen mostly through a child's eyes; the ending lands as a gut-punch rather than a release.

The Florida Project poster

Pretty Woman1990

The glossy Cinderella fantasy Anora is quietly arguing with — watch it first, or after, to see exactly which fairy-tale beats get kept and which get shattered.

But Deliberately soft where Anora is sharp; if you already know the sanitised version, this can feel thin by comparison.

Pretty Woman poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Palm Beach Story1942

Same screwball chassis: a whirlwind marriage, a family trying to undo it, comedy as the only tool a broke woman has against wealth. Sturges did it first, and played it lighter.

Preston Sturges basically invented Anora's engine eighty years early — a marriage entered on impulse, a fortune at stake, dialogue fired like machine-gun rounds, and a heroine using charm as her only weapon against money.

But Black-and-white, stagey, and fast in a very different register — 1940s screwball rhythm takes some adjusting to if you've never watched one before.

The Palm Beach Story poster
More like this (8)

Tangerine2015no page yet

Baker's breakout, shot on iPhones — two trans sex workers tear through LA on Christmas Eve with the same manic comic energy and sudden tenderness Anora runs on.

But Rougher and scrappier looking, with a plot that's more chase than story; not for anyone wanting polish.

Uncut Gems2019

Same principle of comedy as panic attack — a hustler in over his head, a city that never stops talking, a plot that tightens like a fist until you're laughing from stress.

But Adam Sandler's performance and the sheer sensory assault of it aren't for everyone; it's an endurance test as much as a movie.

Uncut Gems poster

Red Rocket2021no page yet

Baker's other great hustler comedy, built around a charming, terrible man rather than a sympathetic woman — same rhythm of charisma curdling into consequence.

But The protagonist is far less likeable than Ani, deliberately so, which makes the comedy queasier and harder to root for.

American Honey2016

A different kind of romance forged in economic desperation, following young drifters selling magazines door to door — the same sense of youth improvising a life out of nothing.

But Nearly three hours of loose, wandering road movie; plot takes a back seat to mood and texture.

American Honey poster

Licorice Pizza2021no page yet

A mismatched romance told with the same comic timing and affection for hustlers and chancers, set in a sun-bleached 1970s San Fernando Valley instead of a snowy Brooklyn winter.

But Much gentler and nostalgic; the age gap between its leads has drawn real, valid discomfort.

The Wolf of Wall Street2013

For the money-and-excess side of Anora's world — three hours of comic mania built on wealth, bad decisions, and a marriage that can't survive contact with reality.

But Much longer, glossier, and more self-consciously excessive; Scorsese's satire reads as celebration to some viewers.

The Wolf of Wall Street poster

Zola2021no page yet

Same terrain — a sex worker heroine, comic momentum tipping into real danger — but pitched at full trash volume instead of tender realism. Same nerve, different costume.

Based on a real viral Twitter thread, this is Anora's trashier, louder cousin — a road-trip descent into sex work chaos told in split-screen, notification pings and full tabloid glee.

But Deliberately garish and stylised where Anora is grounded; some will find its self-aware internet-age gimmicks grating rather than fun.

Leviathan2013

Same oligarchic Russian power structure Anora treats as farce, played here completely straight — the money and menace behind Ivan's family made explicit and devastating.

Andrey Zvyagintsev's Russian drama shows the machinery Ivan's family belongs to from the other side — an ordinary man crushed by wealth and corrupt power, with no comedy to soften the fall.

But Bleak, slow, and unrelentingly serious — this is Anora's world with every joke surgically removed, and it's a genuinely heavy watch.

Leviathan poster

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