Mikey Madison in Sean Baker's Cracked Cinderella story

One of the things Sean Baker does exceptionally well is draw us into a vibrant and very specific milieu, feed our affection for characters who are rough to say the least, and then set off a vortex of steadily escalating chaos. The writer-director is like a conductor of raw symphonies about people from the marginalized margins, caught in a dizzying whirl, sometimes of their own making and sometimes not. Sex workers make up a large part of Baker's gallery of outsiders Anora a nice addition to his great oeuvre.

As a character, played by Mikey Madison With a sweetness that humanizes even the most transactional situations and a defensiveness that makes her dangerous when threatened, Anora, who goes by Ani, stands alongside the defiantly resilient protagonists of Baker's last handful of films, from Asterisk And Mandarine Through The Florida Project And Red rocket.

Ani lives with her sister in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, and works at a lap-dancing bar in Manhattan called HQ, an environment of throbbing sexuality and glittering sleaze that Baker refreshingly treats like any regular workplace. New York is tough and a girl has to earn a living. There is both camaraderie and friction among the young women who dance there, and although overdrunk customers sometimes have to be cut off at the bar, the bouncer and boss keep it a relatively safe space.

Ani approaches every potential customer with an engaging smile and knows how to maximize her profits by gently steering them through the ATM to semi-private booths for a lap dance or to VIP rooms for something special. Her upbringing with an Uzbek grandmother who spoke no English has given her cultural exposure and rudimentary communication skills that come in handy with Russian clients, which is the case when Ivan Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn) enters the club ready to party. “God bless America!” he exclaims as Ani treats him to a little extra.

Unlike many of her clients, Ivan is close in age to Ani and she likes him enough to give him her number in the hopes of making some money. That seems like a good decision when he sends a town car to pick her up the next day and take her to the gated and guarded mansion where he lives in luxury, ostensibly during an American study trip, which he considers a vacation. 23 year old Ivan is an immature, giggly stoner who likes to play video games and have sex like a Duracell bunny. But Ani seems tickled by his crazy charms.

He invites her to a wild New Year's Eve party at his palatial digs, and as she makes moves to return home the next day, he proposes an exclusive arrangement where she spends the week with him before returning to Russia and working for him . his father. With a wink to Beautiful ladyshe negotiates down to $15,000, cash upfront.

There's plenty of booze, coke and weed available as they hang out on Coney Island with Ivan's brothers and their girlfriends. On a whim, they all hop on a private plane to Las Vegas, where Ivan is no stranger to their hotel's luxurious penthouse suite. In what starts half-jokingly but soon becomes a serious, if impulsive, proposal, he asks Ani to marry him. One purchase of a four-carat diamond ring later, they are linked.

In a tongue-in-cheek way like how he used NSYNC's “Bye Bye Bye” in Red rocketBaker makes a motif of the Take That banger, 'Greatest Day', a euphoric anthem for the dizzying high on which Ani's life is transformed. Dressed in a sumptuous new Russian sable coat, she leaves her corporate office job behind and excitedly plans a Disney World honeymoon in a magical princess suite she's dreamed of since she was a child.

The real world collapses when news of the wedding – and of Ani's profession – comes back to Russia and Ivan's parents send their Armenian fixer Toros (Karren Karagulian, a good luck charm in Baker's films) to straighten out their son. Because Toros is involved in a family baptism, he sends two henchmen, Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov), to verify the marriage and await further instructions. But that plan goes spectacularly wrong.

In the film's most hilarious scene, Ivan flees, leaving Ani alone to deal with the crooks. But she proves to be a formidable match for them, causing considerable destruction and injury before they subdue her long enough to bundle her into a car and search for her husband. That nighttime quest takes them through authentic Brighton Beach locations – a billiards hall, a video game arcade, Tatiana Grill on the boardwalk – all of which serve to enrich the film's sense of place.

Ivan's father Nikolai (Aleksey Serebryakov) and his much fiercer mother Galina (Darya Ekamasova) enter to absorb the shame for their family and push through an annulment. When Ivan, aptly described by Toros as “a spoiled brat who doesn't want to grow up,” is finally located, he is too drunk to even talk about what's happening to Ani.

As events veer into seemingly dangerous territory, Baker spices the scenes with throwaway humor that keeps the film lively even as Ani gets a rude awakening to the shallowness of Ivan's feelings for her, let alone his respect. But as usual in the director's work, women who are treated as sexual playthings in the story are treated with dignity in the film. It's a nice touch that while Galina is furious at Ani's refusal to back down and be compliant, Nikolai finds her feistiness extremely funny. He doesn't seem used to hearing someone talking to his wife.

Karagulian plays a much more substantial role than his usual roles in Baker's films, offering humorous observations about a younger generation he sees as lazy and directionless, obsessed only with social media and buying the coolest trainers. “I don't have Instagram, I'm a damn adult!” he snaps when Garnick suggests this could be a way to find the wandering Ivan.

Madison plays Ani's emotionally painful experience with poignant poignancy, but the heart of the film owes as much to the unexpected capacity for kindness of Igor, who is supposed to be the designated muscle. Borisov, so wonderful as the soulful Russian miner in that of the Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen Compartment No. 6, plays up the character's sensitivity in stealth degrees, until a final scene that's deliberately awkward but genuinely moving.

Again with cameraman Drew Daniels, who shot Red rocket, this time in 35mm with anamorphic lenses, Baker gives each of the story's key locations – the headquarters, sleepy Coney Island in winter, glitzy Vegas and Ivan's airy Brooklyn home – its own distinctive vitality, color palette and lighting textures . While Anora could lose 10-15 minutes, it is a very satisfying watch; the director continues to firmly stake out his place as a chronicler of the messy lives of an often invisible American underclass.