Director: Sean Baker

Stars: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yuriy Borisov, Vache Tovamaysan

In pictures such as ‘Tangerine’ and ‘The Florida Project’ writer-director Sean Baker has chronicled in a non-judgemental and empathetic way characters trying every which way to live their lives in hardscrabble circumstances. ‘Anora’, his cheeky twist on Cinderella/Pretty Woman, is his most ambitious and funniest film to date. Ani (Madison) is an exotic dancer and sex worker from Brooklyn who plies her trade in a Brighton Beach club. She meets Vanya (Eydelshteyn), a spoilt but seemingly good-natured son of a Russian oligarch, who hires her as a girlfriend. A whirlwind romance ensues, and the couple get married in Vegas. Ani’s fairytale life is shattered however when Vanya’s parents find out and fly to New York to fix the situation. Spunky comic drama blossoms into beautifully orchestrated farce when Vanya’s parents’ henchmen arrive at his luxurious apartment and discover they have more on their hands than they reckoned with. Mikey Madison is a force of nature as the indefatigable Ani, and the supporting characters are all vividly fleshed out, with Yuriy Borisov, playing a variation on the sensitive brute he played in Finnish drama ‘Compartment No 6’, another highlight.

David Willoughby

Follow David on Twitter @DWill_Crackfilm