#garnik

[theconceptsofastan]

Anora (2024) dir. Sean Baker

Mikey Madison as Ani

Yura Borisov as Igor

Vache Tovmasyan as Garnik

[lafiametta]

I'm glad I'm not the only one sending you anons lol. I'm gonna switch it up with a question:

We have 5 awesome lead actors in Anora. What do you think is the best thing they bring to their respective roles, and what is your favourite acting moment from each of them?

See, I have no idea who's sending me these asks, so for all I know you could all be the same person. It's cool to realize you're not, though! :)

Anyway, this is super fun! Let's get started:

Vache Tovmasyan brings such a weirdly endearing sad-sack quality to Garnik. On paper, this guy's a meathead henchman but Tovmasyan is able to play him in such a way that you honestly do feel bad for all the terrible things that are happening to him (even as you laugh). I don't know that I would go so far as to call him my poor little meow meow, but there's something so pathetic about the way he keeps getting shit on by life and somehow still retains the ability to fall asleep just about anywhere. There are a lot of good moments to choose from, but my favorite is right after Ani kicks him into the coffee table and he's searching for ice in the kitchen and finding only a bag of dumplings (“rich people don't have ice?”). He comes back to the couch and collapses on it, just as Ani proclaims that she's not going to run if they untie her. “You are not going anywhere,” he sneers, and even though it's meant to sound harsh and menacing, it's in this hilarious nasal whine, courtesy of the broken nose she just gave him.

Karren Karagulian is likewise able to make us feel sympathy for a character who otherwise would seem like a rude and uncompromising jerk. Karagulian has this world-weariness (and frankly such a hangdog look) that you really do believe that he's wasted the last fourteen years of his life babysitting this spoiled rich kid and getting called at the worst possible times to fix whatever mess the brat has managed to create that day. He's also fed up with just about everything else, including the youth of today with their “TikTok, Instagram, TikTok, Instagram!” and the New York City parking authority who keeps ticketing him and trying to tow his car. I love the scene at the christening, when he checks his phone and audibly groans while holding the baby, but I think my favorite moment is when he's yelling at Garnik on speaker phone as he's driving to the mansion. All we really hear is this disembodied voice, mostly over the struggle in the living room between Ani, Igor, and Garnik, but then it cuts to him just absolutely losing it in the car as he races to the mansion (“I swear to fucking God! Garnik, you stupid fucking idiot!”). And you feel kind of bad for him, because, yeah, he really did choose some terrible henchmen to employ.

Mark Eydelshteyn is really fantastic as Ivan. My understanding is that the makers of the movie weren't really expecting that he would bring such a sweet goofiness to Ivan (in the script, he's more just a garden-variety entitled rich kid) and that it really helped to make the audience believe that Ani could fall for him — or at least fall for the fantasy he represented. Eydelshteyn is also really good at letting these little hints of Ivan's selfish, spoiled nature shine through, even in the first act of the movie, like the way he fully ignores Ani while playing his video games or how he fake-berates the manager at Caesars Palace (his anger wasn't real, but the joke was unnecessary and kind of mean). There are a lot of great acting moments (the naked somersault into bed, the stoned rapping to the candy shop owner), but I really like the one on the tarmac with Ani. He's finally sobered up, not just from the night of drinking but also from the dream that he can escape the disappointment of his parents, and all that sweet goofiness is just gone, revealing the self-centered and casually cruel person he really is. (“What do you want me to say?” he tells he girl he proposed to just a few weeks earlier. “Do you understand that now we must go in the fucking plane and fly in fucking Vegas? Get it?” His eyes are just dead; there's no sign he recognizes any of her pain or disappointment.)

Yura Borisov, who is rightly being nominated for all sorts of awards (and is on a lot of short lists for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar), brings such soulfulness to Igor. He's “the Russian,” just some guy brought along for back-up in case they need muscle, but he's drawn into the orbit of the story, closer and closer to the whirlwind that is Ani, and we uncover him piece by piece as the film progresses. It's the way that Borisov slowly reveals Igor's true depths and ultimately his role as the movie's moral center that makes the performance so good and so enjoyable to watch. And the silent acting is amazing; just watch the journey he goes on with his eyes alone while he's struggling on the couch with Ani pinned on top of him. In terms of favorite moments, the candy shop scene is definitely up there, just because it reveals — in a way that we already sensed but hadn't really seen — Igor's clear capacity for destructive violence. I also love the delighted little grin and giggle after “Touché, motherfucker?” But I don't really know how anything can compare to the final scene in the car. Because he just flips through layer after layer — resignation, confusion, shock, desire, hope, bewilderment, understanding, and compassion — and he does it without saying a single word.

Mikey Madison inhabits the role of Ani in a way that's just so unbelievably impressive. And she really does take a character who could be seen as just a brash, trashy, foul-mouthed hustler and make her into someone you really want to succeed. Ani is brash and kind of trashy and foul-mouthed and she definitely hustles, but Madison brings such buoyancy and charm to the role that she's able to transform those attributes into a really sympathetic and relatable person. (And apparently she did do a huge amount of training to learn how to pole dance, even though she's only on the pole for about 20 seconds in the movie.) God, I don't even know how I would pick my favorite acting moment in the movie, just because there are so many. The opening scenes in the club are so good, just because it establishes the pure hustle of her job and the persona she cultivates for the male clients (and also for Ivan, during their relationship), and there's the physicality of the fight scene with Igor in the living room, which feels so real both in its terror and slapstick comedy. I would talk about the car scene, which is equally as impressive on Madison's part as it is on Borisov's, but I really love the scene at the club as she's leaving for the last time (or so she thinks) and she's saying goodbye to everyone and talking about how she's going to have her honeymoon at Disney World and stay in a Disney princess suite. Because at this point you just love Ani so much and you can feel her excitement and belief in this idea that she's found her prince and she's going to live happily ever after — and you really want it for her too! (Cue the walls about to come crashing down.)

[lafiametta]

Kind of random (and I know she definitely wouldn’t care) but I’ve always wondered what garnik, toros and even Ivan would think of the fact that ani and Igor are together

Honestly, I think Ivan has not seriously thought about either of them since the minute they left the marriage services office and if told Ani and Igor were now a couple, would say “Cool” and shrug his shoulders and then go back to playing his first-person shooter video game. Ani was a couple weeks' worth of fun to him, but she's mostly forgotten, and I don't think he ever even learned Igor's name.

Toros would like to forget about the two of them — he'd like to forget about the whole fiasco altogether — and when he hears they're a now a couple, he's mostly like, “Whatever, maybe they deserve each other.” Ani was a pain in his ass, and Igor was less of a pain in his ass, but he up and quit right after they got back from Vegas, so that's annoying, too. (He's also pissed about the ring going missing and suspects one of them had a hand in it, although he can't prove it. Luckily, he never told the Zakharovs about it, so he's not on the hook for having lost it.)

Of the three of them, Garnik is probably the one who reacts the most positively when he hears about Igor and Ani. He was the closest to Igor, so he knows the guy was kind of lonely, and even though he's still a little angry about his broken nose (which required a plastic surgeon to fix), he doesn't begrudge either of them some happiness. (He finds out about them one night when he goes back to HQ. He sees her there and she gives him a narrow glare, and mostly they both ignore each other until the night gets late. Garnik's had a fair amount to drink, and he ends up buying her a drink and talking to her for a little bit. She eventually tells him she's with Igor, and he's all, “Good for you. Igor's a good guy and he'll watch out for you.” Ani just smiles and calls him an asshole in her head. Igor's watched out for me way more than any of you fucking morons ever did, she thinks.)

[ashotash]

#mk#garnik#sargis @garnik_mirzoyan @sargis997