t a strip club, 23-year-old Ani (Mikey Madison) goes through her routines, seductively shedding garments, grinding against various men, and browsing through the clientele to see which targets she can lure into a private booth or the VIP rooms – fueled by an ATM. It’s unglamorous at times (staying true to the subjects the film’s creator often scrutinizes), especially when customers say crude things, but the money is sufficient – and she’s adept at communicating and flirting, creating a temporary fantasy for a brief period and for a good price – a concept that will soon mirror her own experiences when she gets a taste of another sort of lifestyle and desperately, ignorantly, tries to cling to it. “At least he bought the dances.”

When 21-year-old Vanya Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn) comes into the club requesting a girl who can speak Russian, Ani becomes the reluctant choice. But he turns out to be the son of an extremely wealthy father, which means that Ani is soon paid large sums of cash to have regular sex with Vanya, who essentially spends his time doing little else – save for smoking weed (and snorting cocaine), playing video games, sleeping in ’til 5:00 pm, and throwing huge parties at his sprawling mansion. It’s quite the life of hedonism, though his carefree whims are intermittently interrupted by the random staff members who clean and look after the estate. Within the first couple of days of the “relationship,” Vanya offers her $15,000 to be his exclusive girlfriend for a week – an offer that feels awfully similar to the one in “Pretty Woman.” “You hit the lotto, bitch.”

If “Anora” is something of a modern-day “Pretty Woman” (there are even references to “Cinderella” in it), it certainly transforms the life of a powerful, affluent businessman with the stresses of high-stakes monetary transactions and negotiations into that of a reckless, drug-addled, spoiled, irresponsible, disrespectful, wayward (though fun-loving) youth with not a care in the world or a single thing to accomplish. It’s a rather meaningless cycle of spending money and having sex – which is to say, a life that many would gladly have. Perhaps it’s a decidedly anti-“Pretty Woman” notion, dispensing with the standard allure and enchantment seen in common power dynamics of rich men and poor women in film (though the dopey Vanya uses his limitless sums to influence the decisions of others in stereotypical ways, he has none of the charisma or capacity of Richard Gere). “Yeah, I’m always happy.”

Curiously, the unbridled decadence poses almost no conflict at the start. And Vanya’s entire existence musters no sympathy, since he’s neither smart nor hardworking, and definitely didn’t earn his fortunes. But, eventually, his utter thoughtlessness towards all things of substance will catch up to him, particularly as his parents keep the flimsiest of tabs on him. Since much of this is approached from a comedic standpoint, the coming predicaments bear little resemblance to reality; in fact, when Vanya’s handlers arrive to sort out rumors of his dalliances, the arguments and confrontations are full of slapstick and hysterically escalating chaos. In a more believable environment, Ani would simply be killed and disposed of. Instead, lengthy scenes of bartering ensue; in the world of “Anora,” gangsters (or fixers or henchmen) are polite, uncertain, inept, unprepared, and rarely genuinely threatening. “This is not my fault!”

Once again, writer/director Sean Baker uses actors that feel astoundingly authentic, as if having the participants play themselves and improvise all of their interactions. The dialogue is similarly natural with an unrehearsed vibe, while his subjects delve into very human impulses and ideas – especially pleasures of the flesh. Even the cinematography occasionally resembles a documentary.

Yet the impressive casting and design tend to get lost in the meandering that comes with an excessive runtime; no matter how bizarrely amusing this odyssey into the mayhem of a whirlwind romance and its sticky complications gets, the lengthiness thwarts its success. Minute after minute, “Anora” fails to demonstrate that it needs to be as protracted as it is to convey its story, which continually prevents the entertaining moments from staying memorable. Madison may be exceptional in the lead (disingenuous to a degree, since she let’s her guard down in such a drastic way, after having demonstrated an awareness and business acumen surrounding her profession – a supremely disappointing turn for a movie about unveiling the ugly realism behind engaging in transitory delusions of grandeur), but there’s only minimal satisfaction to be found in this interminable slice-of-life fairy-tale-turned-tragedy (with a parting shot that appears way off base) in which no one really learns a lesson and no one wins or loses in traditionally cinematic ways.

– Mike Massie