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Ed Ruscha, The End (1991). Photo: artnet auctions.

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I think we need to thank Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov for giving such great performances that were still talking about their characters months later. Obviously all the actors in the movie are fantastic, but I think those two did something special

Totally agree, Anon.

Every time I see interviews with Mikey Madison my jaw just drops because she is so different from her character. You really do realize what an astonishing job she did to embody Ani/Anora and turn her into such a sympathetic, engaging, and relatable character that seems so actualized and real. Every moment of the movie she has you rooting for Ani to succeed, from when she's breaking men's noses and smashing them into coffee tables to when she's holding court (literally!) in front of a judge to defend her marriage to when she's dumping her fur coat on her soon-to-be former husband's head and calling him a “fucking pussy.” And, yeah, Yura Borisov totally holds his own against her, but in a completely different way, in that he takes a while to fully appear on our radar. But once he does, you realize how he's embodied Igor with a quiet kind of decency and a desire to right the wrongs that have been visited upon Ani by wealthier and more powerful people. In the scenes they share, they play off each other so well — in the home invasion scene, for example, Ani is furious and combative, just as Igor is bewildered and slightly impressed — and, god, during that final scene in the car they just make my heart break to pieces. It's such a testament to their abilities as actors that you believe them both completely one hundred percent of the way.

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Since Ani is the Disney Princess, Igor would be the real Prince Charming. What are some of the Disney Prince qualities do you see in Igor?

He reminds me of Shang, Kristoff, and Hercules combined. Like Shang defended Mulan from Chi-Fu, Igor defended Anora although much differently. And Kristoff looked like he was about to give Hans a piece of his mind and it made me think of Igor telling Vanya’s parents that their son should apologize to his now ex-wife for what he put her through. While Hercules was proof for Megara that not all men are like the one that abandoned her, Igor giving Ani the ring and then the sex between them showed her that it wasn’t transactional.

There could more and I’m probably stretching things but that’s what I’m thinking.

Seriously, Anon, I am going to have to defer to your expertise on this one! You clearly have a top-tier knowledge of the Disney characters that I can't even begin to approach... :)

When I referred to Ani as the “Disney princess,” I mostly meant it in a broader sense that she got wrapped up in a fairy tale — no doubt fed to her by the Disney princess movies she grew up on — about getting plucked out of her life by a handsome (rich) prince (oligarch's son). Clearly she saw her marriage to Ivan as something of a Cinderella story, which is what Lulu picks up on during their conversation about Ani's prospective Disney World honeymoon.

As for Igor, I don't know that he's Prince Charming; I think that the whole idea of the movie is that there will never be a Prince Charming that steps out of a fairy tale to choose us and save us from our everyday lives. And Igor's no stock character: he's slowly revealed to us over the course of the film to be a far more interesting and complex individual than we might have thought.

Ani turns out not to be a princess in the end — she's just a regular girl from Brighton Beach — and her prince, such as he was, is revealed to be a worthless, entitled asshole. She doesn't get her fairy tale ending with untold riches and a palace to live in forever. But I think she gets something much more real and, I would argue, better: someone who sees her as she is and accepts her with both arms.

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johnny cash photographed at melody ranch movie studio in los angeles, (1961) 🪵♡

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I love how Igor saying that Ivan should apologise comes directly after Ivan has one final chance to even be somewhat decent and doesn't even consider it. No defence, no apology, nothing. Ani just wanted him to defend her, fight for her, show her she meant something to him.

Also, Igor doesn't know How Galina will react to him requesting an apology. She's already threatened Ani (and him with a wink, though the meaning is ambiguous). Yes nothing ends up happening but he doesn't know that for sure, and though he's polite when he says it it's clear from his tone that it's a firm 'Ivan SHOULD apologise'. He's doing it ask risk to himself, Ivan can't even do that. he feels no remose

Yeah, that whole exchange in the marriage services office is so interesting (and entertaining, especially when Ivan's dad starts laughing so much), just for the tiny ways that it reveals character.

(I will say one thing really quickly about Galina's wink; I interpreted it not as a threat against Igor, but as something more conspiratorial. She's like, yup, you heard what I could do to this stupid girl. And guess what, you work for me, you're mine, so you're part of it too.)

The beginning of this scene is Ani at her most powerless; she's literally with her back against the wall as she sits and watches her marriage unravel, knowing there's nothing she can do to stop it. Galina Zakharov is running the show, asking questions of the clerk, taking pictures of the documents, ordering everyone around. Everyone else looks bored: Ivan's dad is on his phone, Ivan is vaping while his mother shoves paperwork in front of him to sign, Garnik's actually asleep. It's such a sad, shabby ending to what Ani thought was going to be the amazing next chapter of her life.

Ani's called up to the clerk's desk to sign the annulment papers, but she pauses before she starts to look directly at Ivan. He looks at her too, but just for a moment before he puts on his sunglasses (seriously, what a dick move) and turns away. And that's it — he's jettisoned her completely, it's over. Ani puts the pen to paper and signs away everything she's been fighting for over the last half of the movie. The thing is, we know that Igor watched this little moment unfold, so he also got to witness the end of Ani's dream, and the way Ivan took the complete coward's way out by hiding behind his parents' demands (as well as his sunglasses).

At this point, Ani has no cards left to play; all she can do is show her contempt for this whole thing and then leave. But Igor wants more for her — he wants some accountability and an acknowledgement for what she's suffered. He can tell she's not going to fight any longer, so he'll fight for her. It's a super bold move, and like you said, he has no idea how it's going to go over. But I think it doesn't really matter to him. What matters is that someone is standing up for Ani and asking (albeit politely) really powerful people to take some responsibility for what she's had to go through. And you can tell everyone's really surprised, especially because this is coming from Igor, who's been so reserved and circumspect the whole time. Toros rushes to explain away his actions (claiming he's tired and had too much to drink), but Ani looks pretty shocked. No one has stood up for her at any point — she's been the only one defending herself — and now this psychopath who tied her up is asking for an apology on her behalf.

And of course (of course) Galina Zakharov disdainfully refuses that suggestion. They're so rich, with so much power over everyone else, and they don't even have the requisite noblesse oblige to smooth things over with what would have been a quick and (and undoubtedly) meaningless apology. Ivan continues to remain a passive observer to his own life, staring absently up at the ceiling.

I think Igor's defense of Ani emboldens her enough to take one last parting shot at Ivan and the Zakharovs. She doesn't go for Ivan directly, but aims her insult at Ivan through Galina (“your son is a fucking pussy”). Galina fires back by calling Ani a “disgusting hooker,” but it's not going to faze Ani, who's been called every variation of that term by a number of men in this very room. She goes straight for the psyop knockout (“And your son hates you so much, he married one to piss you off”) and seriously, Ani's so much better at this than Galina, who thinks she has something with the scarf, only to have Ani throw it on the ground for her to pick up (“Go get your little scarf, sweetie”). I mean, Ani no doubt hangs out with a lot of catty drama queens all the time at her job; she definitely knows how to get her claws in with a good dismissive, bitchy put-down.

You can tell she's back in control: she's got a little “fuck you” grin and she puts her sunglasses on (like Ivan, she's dismissing them all as no longer worth her time), and, as the final cherry on top, throws Ivan's gift back at him by dumping the fur coat on his head.

Ivan's father thinks this is hilarious — probably no one ever talks to his wife like that — but watch Igor's face. He's smiling a little, proud of Ani. She didn't get her apology, but she got her fighting spirit back and gave them all one last sucker-punch before walking out the door.

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okayyy now i need that marriage fic😭

For real, I think we all need that marriage fic, Anon! 🤣

I mean, the proposal headcanon/little baby fic already exists, but like, what are we envisioning? Because I think Ani would be totally burned on the idea of an actual wedding (given how badly things turned out with Ivan) and they would probably just end up going to the city clerk's office to file the paperwork. And as for the marriage itself, I can see Ani moving into the Brightwater condo with Igor (he inherited it), but she'd definitely have to keep her job. The real question is whether or not she'd wear a ring, considering all the baggage that came with that the last time. (I love the idea of Igor getting her a small silver band decorated with tiny butterflies.) The best (by which I mean most entertaining) fic scenario, though, would be Ani at the marriage green card interview where she would have to figure out how to explain where the two of them met that didn't sound completely insane.

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– Emily Dickinson, from Manuscript #842

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I saw a posting here a while ago saying "Igor has 1 brain cell and its mostly in the right place " lol. He's far from perfect but he's trying I think. He's quite awkward (whether that's just because he's ESL I'm not sure) in an endearingly way and I think he also functions as a foil for Vanya in many ways (like their meetings, Vanya is well dressed charming, tips well and he abandons Ani the second things gets tough. Igor is in gopnik gear, typing Ani up, and he's the only person in the story to actually give any shots about her. I think the intended irony was lost on some Twitter users.)

I mean, if Igor has one brain cell, then Toros and Garnik and Ivan must all have one brain cell that they pass back and forth between them. Seriously, when in the film is Igor ever depicted as being dumb? One could argue that he made a bad/stupid choice by restraining Ani and tying her up, but it's not hard to see the logic of why he did it. (Perhaps his defense of his actions to her while they're watching TV isn't as enlightened as it might be, but that still isn't necessarily a reflection of his overall intelligence.) All of his other actions, though, indicate a person who's both observant and emotionally intelligent enough to recognize how others are reacting to and/or feeling about things that are happening to them. Maybe it's that people are mistaking quiet and reserved for stupid, which unfortunately is not a rare assumption, or that because he's muscle-for-hire he must not also possess a brain.

There's definitely some awkwardness, but it's almost entirely around Ani (as opposed to Toros, Garnik, or Ivan), mostly because he's never really encountered anyone like her and at first, doesn't know how to be around her. She's wary around him when he first comes into the house, and then, after the home invasion scene, when they're riding around in the SUV, she's actively hostile. It takes a while for him to figure out what's ultimately driving her and once he does — right around the time they meet Ivan's parents — he begins subtly responding to her needs in a way that no longer meets with hostility. (It's not a coincidence that those responses are non-verbal, which means he can sidestep the problem of language and mistranslation.)

And, yes, I think that he's meant to be slowly revealed as Ivan's opposite: quiet and menacing on the surface while observant and caring underneath, as opposed to Ivan, who was flashy and loud and generous but who ultimately only cared about himself. Igor offers small things — a drink, a jacket, a cigarette — that indicate he understands what Ani genuinely needs at that moment, whereas Ivan's large gestures — marriage, a diamond ring, a mansion — get taken away without a second's thought, proving how little they counted for in the first place.

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So after Igor’s grandmother passes, there’s the grief and all the awful business of the bureaucratic paperwork and having to go through her things—a whole lifetime of things, clothes and shoes and nice jewelry his grandfather bought her in the 70s and 80s. There’s also a big problem, which he doesn’t want to think about: he no longer has a residency sponsor, which means he will have to go back to Russia. He had planned on it happening eventually—her diagnosis had never been hopeful, just a few years at best—but now he realizes that he doesn’t want to go. There’s nothing he can do, though, which is what he tells her one afternoon, as they’re sitting in his living room, flipping through old photo books his grandmother had put together decades ago.

She looks a little stunned, as if this was a possibility she had never considered, and then asks him, in a far quieter voice than he’s used to hearing from her, if he wants to stay. He tells her yes, of course, but without a sponsor, he has no choice. What if you got married, she asks, to an American? You could stay? He nods, feeling more than a little stunned himself, because she couldn’t possibly be implying what he thinks she’s implying. How could she be, when it’s something he had never once allowed himself to imagine? Okay, then, she says, in that matter-of-fact New York way she has, let’s get married. Ani, be serious, he tells her. I am fuckin’ serious, she replies, with only a tiny waver creeping into her voice, I want you to be able to stay here, if you really want to stay here.

Igor doesn’t know what else to do except reach out and clasp the side of her face, fingertips nestling in her dark hair. I want to stay here, he tells her, but the words come out in Russian because he can barely think in his own language, much less a foreign one. With you.

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I love it when someone starts going through your blog and liking all your tagged posts on a topic. It’s like yes please come join me in this little party I’m having!

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ANORA, 2024 dir. Sean Baker

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I wonder what Igor would've said in his car apology if Ani hadn't cut him off. "How could I have imagined..." What, Igor, imagined what???? Also his look after she rejects it, what is that dues thinking

Seriously, what was he thinking?

I mean, it does come from a good place — and, to be fair, he's the only person who genuinely apologizes to her throughout the whole movie — but it was, perhaps, not the best moment to try to make amends.

From his quiet, abashed body language on the couch when Toros and Garnik are outside smoking and during Toros's “green card marriage fee” talk, it's clear Igor has realized that they've all treated Ani very badly. (I'm guessing it was at some point as they were gagging her when he goes, “Oh, shit, this is not what I want to be part of right now.”) Then, when she finds him standing outside the bathroom and there's the awkward shuffle as she tries to walk into the closet, he's clearly uncomfortable, in a way that indicates embarrassment (or even guilt) and not knowing how to handle that feeling aside from getting out of the way as quickly as possible.

Once they all go out to the SUV, he obviously wants to leave (asking Toros, “So I'm done?”), but once Toros tells him he has to stay, he goes to the only seat that hasn't been claimed yet: in the back, with her. This situation upsets Ani greatly — and rightly so, given that he was the one originally responsible for pinning her down and tying her up with the phone cord, along with physically restraining her against his body for a fair amount of time. She doesn't want to be near him or look at him and she makes this very clear to Toros the minute he gets in the car (“Why is he getting back here? I'm not sitting next to this fucking psychopath”). In response, Igor asks Toros (in Russian, although he knows Ani understands him), “Can I sit in the front?” He wants to avoid her (again, because he's embarrassed and uncomfortable and probably feels a little guilty), just as she wants to avoid him. But because Garnik refuses to sit next to Ani, still pissed at her for breaking his nose, no one moves and they all remain in place.

Once they start driving around, on their way to the candy store (with only a slight detour to Igor's building), he realizes that he can't avoid her any longer. They're stuck together in this backseat for as long as this odyssey may take, and so he wants to try to make it a little easier between them by apologizing for what happened. He shifts in his seat, turning himself so he can look her in the eye (even though she never once glances his way) and speaks to her in English at first, even though he's struggling with the wording (“I'm sorry for what... was happening... back there...”). Maybe the difficulty is that he's using the passive phrasing (“what was happening”), although that's also a bit of an indication that he's sidestepping the question of his own personal responsibility. But because it's so challenging to express, he switches to Russian (“How could I have imagined...”), but doesn't finish before she cuts him off. As to your question, if that statement had been completed, I would guess that it would be something along the lines of “How could I have imagined what was going to happen?” (indicating that he hadn't planned to do what he did to her) or “How could I have imagined how bad it would get?” (indicating that he recognizes the shitty way they all treated her).

Ani doesn't even respond to him: dismissing him as an underling, she only addresses Toros, telling him that she doesn't want Igor talking to her, and Toros agrees, yelling “Leave her the fuck alone, man!” So now Igor is stuck, literally, in the back seat of a car with a girl who he knows he's wronged (on some level), but who won't accept his apology and won't even look at him. You can see his weariness and frustration, like he just wants to make things better, even though there's nothing he can do.

(Interestingly enough, if you watch that moment right before Toros slams on the brakes to avoid hitting the pedestrian, you can see that Igor is looking out in the direction of the windshield, as if he sees the pedestrian first and realizes what's about to happen. But rather than put his hand out to brace himself for a possible collision, he turns quickly to look at Ani, like she's his first concern, which means that when Toros brakes, the side of his face slams right into the passenger seat. Ani, on the other hand, is focused enough on herself to put a hand out against Toros's headrest.)

He never does get his chance to apologize, but I think his actions from this point onward indicate his desire to look out for her and to make amends, albeit indirectly. He offers her the red scarf (which I assume Toros ordered him to hold onto in case they needed to restrain Ani again), pours her a drink on the private jet, covers her with his jacket on the plane back to New York, and lights a cigarette for her when they're watching TV back in the mansion. These are not grand gestures by any account, but I think they really indicate that he's trying to find some way to apologize and lessen her animosity towards him.

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Carl Mydans

Piccadilly Circus in Fog, London, 1952.

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love finds you in the middle of a field

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Cheating for the one word prompt but if you’ll allow it: I love you

I’m cheating a little too, Anon, by putting it in a different language, so I hope you don’t mind. (Translations are in the tags.) Also, fair warning: we’re getting into some close-to-E-rated territory here... ;)

By the time her shift finishes and she’s changed and tipped out, it’s almost five in the morning and Ani wants nothing more than to collapse into bed. Still, she can’t keep from smiling, just a little. In her bag, beneath her makeup case and her pleasers, is nearly nine hundred dollars in cash, folded up into a fat little pile. It’s not going to stay in her bag for long: this month’s ConEd bill is a day from being due and the water heater in the basement is on its very last legs, but for the moment she’s not immediately worried about how they’re going to pay for either. She feels so relieved that after he picks her up outside the club they stop at a bodega where she splurges and buys them both breakfast sandwiches.

They eat in the car on the drive home. Igor still does that thing where he chews his food and lets it fill his cheeks like a chipmunk before he finally swallows it. It’s gross, she knows, but kind of endearing in an ugly dog kind of way, his face all big and lumpy.

The sun is just coming up as they cross into Brooklyn, a wash of faint pink light reaching along the horizon.

And even though she’s tired after working all night, her feet aching and her eyes heavy, she brings him inside the house and has him chill on her bed while she takes a quick shower, just to wash off the smell of body spray and other men’s cologne.

He’s half-asleep on top of the blankets in his shirt and track pants, but rouses quickly when she crawls on top of him. It takes too much effort to be all that forceful, but with a knee on either side of his hips she grabs his wrists and holds them against the mattress, then leans down to find his mouth. She likes this submissive side of him, the way he willingly cedes her control. He’s bigger than her, and far stronger, and she knows he could turn the tables on her in a heartbeat if he wanted. But he doesn’t—not unless she wants him to.

She’s grinding on top of him as they kiss, so it doesn’t take long before she can tell he’s ready. Sometimes they go slow, with Igor patiently making his way down her body, drawing it out for her with his hands and his mouth. But tonight—this morning—she doesn’t want him to take his time. She just wants him.

She lets go of his wrists long enough to slip off her t-shirt and underwear and to help him with the rest of his clothes, and then she’s on top of him again, reaching down to take him inside her. She sets the pace, her palms braced on his shoulders, but he’s with her, grasping her hips, a steady anchor as she moves.

It’s amazing, how full she feels, the warm, deep ache in her body building with each rise and fall. But she’s not quite there—she needs something more—so she tugs him up and rolls them both over so she’s underneath him.

Here it’s tighter, more confined, his face only inches away. And even though he’s propping himself up on his elbows, she can feel his weight as he pushes her hips down into the mattress, the pressure enough to make her gasp. It’s so perfect, being held in the cage of his body, sparks catching along her spine. She wraps her legs around his waist and pulls him closer, wanting to capture it, wanting to let the fire burn until there’s nothing left.

When he comes he says her name, followed by a strangled blyat!, and collapses between her legs. It’s only for a second, long enough to catch his breath again, then he shifts onto his side to face her, forehead covered in pinpricks of sweat.

“You are good?” Igor asks. “You had what you need?”

She nods. It’s nice she doesn’t have to lie to him—and she wouldn’t really want to, anyway.

“I don’t need to ask you, do I?” she teases him, scrunching her face in an expression of mock ecstasy. “Fuckin’ blyat.”

In response, he only smiles, a small, self-satisfied thing, then reaches over to pull the blankets around them.

For a moment, it’s quiet, nothing but the sound of the radiator switching on and the rumble of the subway train as it passes along the elevated track. She’s so tired, her eyes threatening to close with each passing second. But she doesn’t want to let go and lose this moment with him, this tiny refuge where there’s nothing else beyond the confines of the bed they’re lying on, no other thoughts, no other worries. She’ll fall asleep and when she wakes up she’ll pay the ConEd bill and call a guy about the water heater, but for now there’s just him, looking at her in a way that excites her just as much as it terrifies her.

“Why don’t you like speaking Russian?” he asks. “You can speak it, I have heard you.”

She doesn’t know what to tell him at first, because it just sounds dumb, like a childish excuse. For years, after her grandmother died, she had refused to speak it, not realizing how much of her fluency she would end up losing. It’s not that she doesn’t understand: in her mind, the words string themselves together like a song, as if she’s a little girl again hearing them spoken aloud. But in her mouth, they just get misshapen, misplaced, enough to make her sound like a fucking moron to anyone who knows enough Russian to tell the difference. There are enough native speakers in her neighborhood—and in her bed at this moment—that it just makes her feel weird and self-conscious, so she doesn’t even try. And how is she supposed to forget what that bitch said about her Russian being embarrassing, even if it was the least of all the insults that got hurled her way?

“I can’t speak it very well and my accent is bad,” she says. “So what’s the point?”

He shrugs. “You could practice. Then you would be better.”

“You want me to go back to fuckin’ school to practice my Russian?”

“With me.”

She lets out a small, exasperated sigh, because it’s cute that he’s offering, but does he really think he’s going to run around and be her little Russian tutor all fucking day?

“Here, I can start. Dobroye utro.” He says it slow, like he might to a child, lengthening the vowels and letting the r’s vibrate along his tongue. “Now you.”

Ani just stares at him, hoping her silence is loud enough to convey how ridiculous she thinks this all is.

“Dobroye utro, Anora,” he repeats.

She narrows her gaze. “Dobroye utro, durak.” She can’t say it as well as he can, but she knows enough to have the last word by calling him an idiot.

He just grins. “Toosh.”

You fucker, she thinks, even as she’s trying to keep herself from smiling back.

“Okay, another. Kak dela segodnya?” He’s looking at her expectantly, blue eyes catching in the warmth of the morning light.

“I'm not a kindergardener, you know. I understand perfectly fuckin’ well what you’re saying.” She lets out a sigh. “Fine. Kak dela segodnya, Igor?” she asks, swallowing that last syllable before his name the same way he did, although she can’t keep her American accent from flattening the vowels.

“Ya zamechatel’nyy, spasibo. Kak dela segodnya, Anora?”

“Ya ustal,” she answers. “Mne nuzhno pospat’.”

He laughs a little and nods, then reaches out to curl a hand around her waist, his thumb gently brushing against the bottom of her ribs.

“Okay. One more. Ya tebya lyublyu.”

At first she doesn’t understand—the words make sense, but there’s absolutely no reason for them to be coming out of his mouth. Those are words you don’t say unless you mean them, and he can’t mean them, can he? And if he does, is he expecting her to repeat them back to him, as if she could possibly do that? They don’t talk about these things, what they’re doing with each other, what they feel. It makes everything so much easier, because she doesn’t have to think about it—or worry that it’ll get taken away somehow.

“What the fuck?” she sputters. “I’m not saying that.”

He’s looking at her warily, like he doesn’t want to make her upset.

“We are just practicing, Ani. It’s okay.”

“Yeah?” Because she’s not entirely convinced. But she doesn’t want to talk about this anymore because it’s getting harder to ignore the ache in her chest and the memory of the way he looked at her when he said those three words. “Okay.”

He slips his arm around her and pulls her closer, until she’s almost nestled there, against his chest.

“Idi spat’,” he murmurs against her hair. “Ya budu zdes’.”

She wants to sleep—she’s so tired. There’s her life and her job and the bills to pay, and then there’s him and whatever it is they have. And maybe he loves her, maybe he doesn’t—maybe it was just a little joke that meant nothing. She can’t explain what she feels, even now, as she’s lying in his arms, warm and protected. But maybe it’s enough to be here with him, so close to the edge of sleep, knowing that he’ll stay with her until she finally drifts away.

[send me a one-word Anora x Igor prompt]