Anora

 Anora's a really fun sort-of-crime sort-of-comedy from Sean Baker, who's really been firing on all cylinders in the last few years. Ani (Mickey Madison), the title character, does some tremendous work as a young stripper who sometimes supplements her income with escort work for clients she likes.

 Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn) is one such client: a 21-year old heir to a Russian fortune who's evidently a little dipshit, but also charming in his own moronic way, and, more importantly, profligate with his money and completely taken with Anora.

 A few nights together turn into a two-week 'girlfriend experience' where Ivan and Ani and some Russian friends burn through reams of money in a decadent, drug-fueled hedonistic spree that ends, predictably, in Las Vegas. While there Ivan laments that his parents want him to go back to Russia to work, and that he could stay if he got married to a local... which leads to the both of them getting married at a Vegas chapel.

 Colour no one surprised when it doesn't last long; Ivan's family, horrified by the rumours they're hearing, get the idiot's local minder Toros (Karren Karagulian) and a couple of thugs (Yura Borisov and Vache Tovmasyan) to grab the couple and force them to annul their marriage.

 Ivan flees into the night as soon as they arrive, leaving Ani to deal with the consequences. The film then turns into a sort of "one crazy night" narrative as the three thugs and an effectively kidnapped Ani desperately search for Ivan in a bid to get the marriage cancelled before his parents arrive stateside.

 It's a strange film, one that works despite a bit of a tonal mishmash thanks to a very strong central performances, good cinematography (by Drew Daniels) and Baker's usual eye for mundane detail and off-beat characters and situations. I wasn't all that taken with the first third, to say the least - what with its focus on the dumb, shallow, wealthy and ridiculously attractive. It's almost like going through the Instagram of someone I'd rather not even know the existence of, and features some hilariously repellent music and the sort of decadence that made me kind of wish there'd be a horror movie-style comeuppance later on. But the film's second-act pivot is effective in that the fulcrum - a genuinely upsetting (yet somehow still funny) home invasion - is deftly handled, and in that the Elmore-Leonard-style petty-criminal bungling in the ensuing search for Ivan is often hilarious.

  Anora's faith in Ivan is pretty hard to swallow, The guy is so evidently immature, such an obvious douchebag, that his flakiness is never in doubt, and it makes Anora look like an idiot for placing her trust in him. I can easily see how that, plus the first part of the movie, plus Anora being a bit of a brat who doesn't get a lot of characterization beyond her brashness and profession, could break the movie for some.

 But in defense of Baker's script: despite the romantic sweep of the cinematography during their marriage, it never really turns into a love story. Anora obviously feels at least some affection for the kid, but there's a lot of room for calculation, too. Also, she's only 23, so I guess she's young enough to be allowed to be an idiot (different characters' ages are pointedly brought up at different times).

 There's another component, which is Baker's usual class consciousness coming to the fore. An integral part of Anora's shock and indignation at the whole situation is... well, the universal shock and indignation we're all feeling these days at just how much rich people can get away with. Even the most sympathetic of the thugs, the one who consistently shows a conscience, thinks nothing of wrecking an innocent (working-class) man's shop at the behest of his masters.
 You'd think a sex worker of all people would be used to the world being unfair - a lesson most people learn in their teens, if not earlier. It's not subtle or sophisticated, but that doesn't make the outrage any less valid.

 Has it been overhyped? Well, yeah, maybe. All the attention it's been getting might make the movie ripe for a backlash, but it's still a good one. Not Baker's best, not by a long shot, but definitely his most fun. And in any case, I'm not one to turn my nose up at a sex-positive, digressive, Elmore Leonard-esque confection that's not afraid to mix in a tiny bit of grit with its screwball comedy.