ANORA 4K UHD Review: Sean Baker's Oscar Winner Gets A Stunning Home Video Release

After years of toiling away in the indie underground, Sean Baker finally has his Oscar(s). When Anora premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year it immediately shot to the top of the list of best picture contenders when it took home the Palme d’Or, and while the Academy Awards were still many months – and many high profile festivals – away, the film managed to maintain that buzz as it and Baker spent the winter months of 2024 collecting trophies from every ceremony possible.

The story of Anora (Mikey Madison), a sex worker who finds herself maritally entwined with a bratty Russian mob scion, the film is a breathlessly paced Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride of unpredictable/totally predictable consequences of fucking with Russian organized crime.

Baker’s trademarked ground level filmmaking makes the whole enterprise feel alive in every moment, engaging the viewer at the level of the characters. Imbuing both those on screen and in the audience with a sense of dignity rarely afforded to people in these positions. Even as their situations get crazier and more dangerous, neither Anora nor her antagonists ever lose their humanity, it’s a masterwork of empathetic filmmaking, and a stellar choice for The Criterion Collection.

Our Kurt Halfyard reviewed the film at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall and had this to say:

The experience of watching Anora is akin to a spontaneous and unexpected invite to an epic house-wrecking party… Oddly, Tomas, the perpetual spoiled child, has a piece of unaware insight to offer Ani at the exact moment of his own dread: “I don’t know where we are going. But we are going!” Cliche as it is, it is also truth: all parties (even the bangers) must end. Life is the journey, not the destination. The trick is not to die along the way.

The Disc:

As one might expect, the 4K UHD visuals here are beautiful. Baker made his bones shooting his earlier films on scrappier formats like iPhone and 16mm, but with Anora he’s utilizing real show-stopping tools and delivering the film from a 35mm negative and this transfer brings all of the inherent detail to light beautifully. The 4K disc utilizes HDR10 color grading to refine and enhance the image even further, especially during the low light opening sequences in the strip club. Whereas the standard Blu-ray can struggle a touch with shadow detail, the 4K disc handles those elements noticeably better, making the higher resolution the go-to format for those with compatible systems.

The DTS-HD 5.1 audio track utilizes the surround channels effectively to convey the frequent chaos in Anora’s world, first in the club, and then later when her life begins to get more complicated and violent. Dialogue is clear and audible throughout.

Baker is a home video aficionado, so it stands to reason that the supplemental material would be of significant interest in crafting this release, and that is definitely apparent in the package. Criterion gives us two audio commentaries, one with Baker, producers Alex Coco and Samantha Quan, and cinematographer Drew Daniels, then a second commentary with Baker and most of his primary cast. The former track predictably focuses on production details such as locations and set ups, while the latter is a bit more free flowing.

In addition to the commentaries, Anora boasts over three hours of additional supplements on the disc. The primary supplement is an hour long making-of documentary that follows the production of the film and features many talking head interviews with cast and crew. We also get a new interview with Baker and Madison in which they discuss their collaboration in creating the character and shooting the film, there is the initial Cannes press conference that followed the film’s world premiere in May 2024, a post-screening Q&A between Madison and Lindsey Normington that occurred at a screening presented for sex workers in September 2024, and finally a small selection of deleted scenes and audition clips. Everything you ever wanted to know about Anora can be found on this disc.

Finally, included in the release are a pair of extensive essays exploring the production and themes of the film. Dennis Lim’s Love’s Labors walks the reader through the events of the film, peppering his descriptions with anecdotes and connections to the further reaches of Baker’s filmography and behind the scenes collaborators. He digs into some of the film’s themes, but I found the essay more concerned with the what than the why. Rounding out the booklet is Kier-La Janisse’s Let’s Make a Deal, which eschews much of the plot details to investigate the thematic concept of transactional relationships, the fragile humanity afforded to sex workers both on screen and off, and the ways in which Anora both references and bucks the traditional views of sex workers held by both the film’s audiences and society at large. It’s a well-researched piece that draws from film, literature, external analysis and a powerfully empathetic view of these types of characters as they relate to the world outside of their jobs. In case you couldn’t tell, I preferred the latter.

Anora couldn’t have asked for a better presentation of her story than this Criterion release. Add to all of the wealth of material above a gorgeous rendered homage to Jess Franco – who is thanked in the film’s end credits – and a cleverly laid out booklet and this is a total winner. High recommendations here