• by Barbara Lippert , Columnist, February 27, 2025

You’ve probably heard that beyond the $400 gold sneakers and $100,000 gold watches that President Trump hawks (golden Bibles, too), on Wednesday he announced a new route to citizenship as if it were a credit card for high rollers, one that comes with immense “privileges.” And it’s also gold-based.

“We’re going to be selling a gold card,” Trump said from the Oval Office this week. He explained that the gilded program would attract “very high-level people.”

 “You have a green card. This is a gold card. We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million, and that’s going to give you green card privileges, plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship. And wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card.”

Trump revealed his gold card plan to reporters in the Oval Office, where he was signing his latest round of executive orders. His commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, explained further, saying that “the Trump gold card,” as he called it, would replace the EB-5 visa program, a form of which other countries also offer.

The original program called for applicants to invest from $500,000 to more than $1 million to finance a business here that eventually employs at least 10 American workers in economically depressed areas.

It has brought in significant revenue but also acted as a back door for corruption and fraud.

Of course, this gold-lit announcement landed like a honeypot for late-night TV hosts to devour.

“Oh, green card privileges plus. See, I was still getting America with ads,” Desi Lydic said on Wednesday’s “Daily Show.”

She added: “Quick question: If I’m unhappy with America, can I cancel my subscription after seven days?”

But back to the Oval: Asked by a member of the press whether he would consider selling the cards to “Russian oligarchs,” Trump responded: “Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”

So how does a Gold Card for the right Russian oligarchs connect with the Oscars?

Well, as it happens, if you’d like some insight into this specific oligarchy, its lifestyle and brand of “very nice people,” look no further than “Anora,” a film that’s up for six Oscars at the Academy Awards ceremony this Sunday, including Best Picture.

Oscar-wise, some are predicting a sweep for “Anora.”  

Oligarch-wise, its timing could not be better.

The indie dramedy focuses on Ani (played by Mikey Madison), a young (23-year-old) Brooklyn-based, Russian-speaking, stripper/sex worker .

In the course of her work, she gets emotionally entangled with and impulsively runs off to Vegas and marries one of her clients: a charming but stunted, even younger (21-year-old) son of a Russian oligarch. We get some eye-popping exposure to his vapid existence.

The character Ivan, or Vanya, a giant nepo-baby-garch, is supposed to be attending college, but when not paying for sex at clubs, he’s padding around in his socks, vaping, and gaming in the mega-monster mansion his parents bought in Mill Basin, Brooklyn. The filmmakers shot in an actual mansion once owned by Vasily Anisimov, an actual Russian oligarch.

Described by Wikipedia as a “Soviet, Croatian and Russian billionaire businessman” who made his fortune in Russia in “aluminum, real estate and vodka production,” Anisimov renounced his Russian citizenship in 2022.

His former hacienda is a fascinating place, like a museum designed by an architect with very bad taste. The tall-baby Vanya is joined there by a brood of goofy security goons who act as family, and also spy on him for his parents.

This news of the quickie wedding sends his furious parents flying privately from Moscow to Brooklyn to quash the marriage. That sets off a wild goose chase involving Ani, their security thugs, various hangers-on, and the violent, criminal, and sometimes comedic shenanigans they get into.

Writer, director and producer Sean Baker creates a complex, astute character out of Ani, who’s fighting in survival mode, while her sometime-husband Vanya is a selfish, dependent teenager.

Baker smartly breaks down the economic power dynamics in transactional relationships like this -- essentially a Cinderella tale gone bad. 

That’s the main story, which I found heartbreaking, but just as gripping is Baker’s authentic tour of contemporary underground Brooklyn, with its actual pool halls, restaurants, stores, and quirky populations.

One of these oddball characters, Igor, is played by Russian artist Yura Borisov, who is nominated for a best supporting actor award. As such, Borisov became the first Russian to be nominated in an Oscar acting category since 1977, when Mikhail Baryshnikov got the same nom for "The Turning Point."

Borisov plays a rather silent but kindly mafia type, and the role seems effortless. In the end, he brings Ani hope.

But the actor’s nomination has become a political football, going as he does between the U.S. and Russia. The Moscow movie community has reportedly been celebrating “Yurimania.”

Not everyone is a fan. A Ukrainian news service, United 24, called the actor a “Putin-supporter, known for his pro-Kremlin propaganda roles,” and added that Sean Baker's film Anora “glorifies Soviet culture.” 

I don’t agree with that. But I do see that Baker opens a window to this distinct subculture.

And the film certainly shows that all that glitters is decidedly not gold.