The director who discovers the American dream

Sean Baker’s new movie, Anoracould be played by Tom Hardy and Ryan Gosling. At the beginning of the development of the project, a producer interested in Baker’s script wanted to bring in actors. In a coffee shop in West Hollywood a few weeks ago, the director recalled the man’s enthusiasm. “These are your Russians!” Baker told me what the producer said about the characters they’ll be playing: two tough guys tasked with breaking up the impulsive marriage between their rich Russian husband and his new wife, a sexy 23-year-old. laborer from Brooklyn. “I was like, ‘Oh, I was actually thinking about casting real Russians”. He laughed. “I like these guys, but that’s not how I make my movies.”

This is how Baker makes his films: with small budgets, no actors, a sharp eye for realism and a resolute rejection of Hollywood, even as his reputation in the industry has grown. Of course, he constantly feels the tension between sticking to his approach and deviating from it; he was “almost seduced,” he said, by the aforementioned producer when he floated the prospect of a $20 million price tag for Anora. But for now, he’s established himself as something of an oxymoron: the director of a mainstream indie film. His work, which focuses on people who don’t tend to be movie stars—undocumented immigrants, adult film stars—has brought him critical acclaim and major awards attention. Thanks to its unconventional production process, it has won a loyal following among moviegoers; he even rejects the typical practice of holding test screenings for audience participation. “This is supposed to be my vision, so why would I ask a bunch of opinions that would ruin my vision?” he said. “It doesn’t make sense. Like, if I screw up, that’s my business!”

Besides, the strategy works for him. All his films, including the cult one Tangerine and an Oscar nomination The Florida Projectfeel fully realized despite their fragmentedness. These are raw, intimate portraits of Americans often misrepresented or ignored in pop culture, especially sex workers. But Baker’s love of telling other people’s stories isn’t why he chooses to be one himself. “It’s not about the topic, because it’s there there are those movies made by the Hollywood studio system,” he said. “I just think it’s so scary because there are so many movies made by committee.”

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Never has his conviction paid off like it did with Anorahis most perfect work—and, as it continues its theatrical unfolding, the biggest box office success– more The film stars the electric Mikey Madison, better known as “Annie,” whose brassy exterior belies a sincere desire for an easier life. When she meets Ivan Zakharov, aka “Vanya” (played by Mark Eidelstein), a client who turns out to be the obscenely wealthy son of a Russian oligarch, she is drawn into a drug- and sex-fueled affair that leads to the couple getting married in Las Vegas. However, their union leads to an unpleasant collision with reality, when the henchmen of Vanya’s family come to break it up.

Anora it’s an incredible romantic comedy, a high-octane thriller and a poignant character study; for Baker, it is also a turning point in his filmmaking. After the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, it won the Palme d’Or, the most prestigious award. He recreated the scene: he pointed to where his producers were around him and where Madison was sitting. He showed his eyes widening when he realized — in part because the other top contenders had won other trophies, meaning they were out of contention for the top prize — that he could be declared the winner. And when his name was actually called, he said, “It was my dream.”

The win also led to “a bit of an existential crisis,” he told me. “It’s actually the first time I’ve seriously been like, What is it? due further action?which is very dangerous. I try to avoid it, but until now I haven’t had to think about it.”

From the beginning of his long career, Baker was drawn to stories about the pursuit of success and stability in unconventional ways. “To me, there’s something exciting about the pursuit of this American dream, but the people who have to pursue it, who aren’t given the normal route, who can’t follow the normal route because they’re not allowed to,” he said. His characters often see the ideal version of their lives just out of reach: In Tangerinetwo transsexuals spend Christmas Eve fending off rumors that threaten their friendship and clientele. in The Florida Projectthe kids living in the motel create their own magical kingdom just miles from Disney World, while their guardians do everything they can to protect the children’s youthful bliss. in Red rocketa broke porn star meets a teenager who he believes could be his ticket back to semi-stardom; in the process of nurturing her as his protégé, he takes advantage of the few relationships he has.

Baker feels a kinship with such characters, even as he notes that, raised comfortably in suburban New Jersey, he never had to rely on criminalized and stigmatized livelihoods. He told me that what resonated with him was “that attitude that you just don’t want to give up and the frustration, the feeling that sometimes it’s just never going to work out.” For most of his career, he took on side gigs to make ends meet, spending years making money editing wedding videos and actor demos; even today most of his income does not come from film work. “I feel like there’s more than a bit of a rogue in me,” he said.

That said, the kind of storytelling he’s interested in can easily be read as exploitative rather than compassionate in the wrong hands. “You really have to get the endorsement and the thumbs up,” Baker said, “of people who have had that experience… I don’t want sex workers to see this movie and just say,WHO wrote this It’s not us.” WITH Anoraas in his previous films, he was careful not to look at the difficulties. “This is the first for me. I care about What audience more than any other.” So when he decides to explore the world, he consults with the subcultures that inhabit it and moves to the places he plans to represent. It uses non-actors, locals and real sex workers to create an authentic feel. On set, he encourages his cast to change any dialogue that doesn’t sound right and to improvise so he has plenty of tonal options to consider. He carefully edits what he shoots; for final cutting The Florida Projectfor example, he ordered it differently than in the script. He imbues his films with rich color, bucking the Hollywood tendency to portray poverty in shades of gray, instead prioritizing the inner character of the characters—their humor, their pride, their wonder.

But while Baker has previously assuaged his fears of inauthenticity by focusing on realism and carefully incorporating his research, making the film as deliberately comedic as Anora required a different approach. Many of his sets are over-the-top to the point of absurdity—he called a late scene in which Ani, a hungover Vanya, and their exasperated guardians disturb the peace in a courtroom “almost sitcom”—and he wanted his actors to push the humor as far as possible. The meticulously staged home invasion sequence, in which Ani struggles with all her might to protect herself from friends of the Zakharov family, lasts almost half an hour, filled with physical gags and bombshells. Baker seemed to delight in this silliness. Samantha Quan, Baker’s wife and a producer on several of his films, told me, “You always know if a shot is good because you hear him giggle.”

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In other words, Baker broke his own rules: he risked making the story seem unreal, a little too fantastical. Still, he told me, even as the scenes got more and more blatant as he worked his way to their sober end, he thought it would come together. The director sees Anora as “open comedy”, but it contains as much sadness as joy. Throughout the film, it focuses on Ani as a bulwark even for the anxiety-stricken henchmen trying to break up her marriage, emphasizing the unusual, internal bond they begin to build in the face of Vani’s demanding family. Madison shows the light slowly fading from Anya’s eyes, exhausted from constantly defending her self-worth and what she thought was a loving relationship. Baker’s other films also create such emotional prowess, but in less gradual ways, abruptly blurring reality and fantasy in the final moments: The Florida ProjectChildren can only get to the happiest place on earth in their dreams. in Red rocketthe main character sheds a tear when he gives free rein to his imagination.

Perhaps this is the key to why the director’s work seems specific yet universal, rich yet impressive. His films are poised acts that reveal the so-called American dream as a moving target—a tantalizing tease. Ani accepted status and material wealth as an ideal; from the moment Vanya gives her a diamond ring, she begins to struggle with fears that her Cinderella story may be over. When I pointed out that a close examination of the American Dream is the most consistent theme of his films, Baker smiled. “Maybe,” he said. He sees his work as inherently political, but if there are statements he’s trying to make, he told me, “they’ll be glossed over.”

Baker also found himself out of the Hollywood spotlight. But as his films began to gain more attention, especially after winning the Palme d’Or, he knows he’s become a household name among his peers. However, remaining on the periphery of the industry, he created an accurate filmography, up to the same font it uses for every headingis Aguafina, for the record. “Sometimes I feel like I’m stuck between two worlds because I preach about independence and what that can mean and keeping your vision untainted,” he told me. “But at the same time…” He shrugged. “I do I love Hollywood.”