Anora is a both a personal story and a class divide parable about the struggles of working people and the indifference and callousness of the very wealthy. The title young woman is a stripper and escort working at a club called “Headquarters.” An opening montage shows her day’s work giving lap dances to customer after customer. It’s not an easy job, enticing and dancing in close contact with a variety of men. In the montage, the men are generally passive and non-threatening, but I’m sure dancers encounter much worse in their jobs. The film understates the general sleaziness of working conditions, even in a ”high-end” club like hers.

It's no wonder she sees a way out when, based on her knowledge of Russian, the club manager connects her with Vanya, the son of a Russian oligarch, who lives in a grotesquely opulent mansion stuck in the middle of Brooklyn. They move from a private dance at the club, to sex by the hour visits to the mansion, to a week’s stay, including a drug-fueled private jet trip to Las Vegas with his buddies. There, he tells her he loves her and impulsively proposes. She accepts and they have a quickie wedding in a Vegas chapel.

So far, it’s R-rated Cinderella or Pretty Woman territory, with the latter’s heroine in the same trade as Anora. But a class parable can’t go along with those happy endings. The oligarch’s local enforcers hear about the marriage and move into action, creating a lengthy confrontation at the mansion.

The film gives us some nicely absurd moments, including a priest running off from presiding at a baptism to a very different gig than his day job; an extended search ranging from Coney Island joints to endless Manhattan clubs; and two private jet trips to Vegas and back.

The acting is excellent, especially Mikey Madison’s best actress nominated performance as Anora. She balances the naiveté of falling into a very dubious marriage with her fierceness in fighting to save it and defend herself. She makes life miserable for the oligarch’s three henchmen, whose jobs force them to hold her against her will in the mansion. This scene lasts a bit long, and the dialogue seems improvised, even if it’s not. As some have noted, writer and director Sean Baker seems unwilling to edit scenes like this, a tendency in his prior films, Tangerine and The Florida Project.

[Mild spoiler alert]

It becomes clear that no matter how feisty a worker is she can’t compete with limitless money and power. At the cathartic ending, we grieve for Anora’s personal sorrow and the societal restraints that put her and millions of others in her position.