Stripper Cinderella Story with Mikey Madison is one of the best movies of the year

It’s easy to fall in love with Mikey Madison in “Anora,” director Sean Baker’s exceptional film about an exotic dancer from Brooklyn.

The 25-year-old actress has been working for about a decade, with roles in the “Scream” reboot, the Pamela Adlon series “Better Things,” among many others.

But Madison’s unforgettable performance as Anora, who prefers the Americanized nickname Annie, is, for anyone with eyes and ears, her star-making moment.

An elixir of charm, hilarity, toughness, spunk and grace, she is a modern-day Liza in “Arthur,” Marisa Tomei in “My Cousin Vinny.”

Only there is an important difference. In the end, as Annie wearily exhales after a whirlwind week of romance, fear, and crushing disappointment, she breaks down and the viewer follows.

Miraculous Madison is part of a treasure trove of elements that generate applause in the latest film from the director of “The Florida project.” Endlessly entertaining and frequently hysterical, “Anora” is one of the best films of the year and a formidable Oscar contender.

Like caviar, it’s not for everyone. This unsentimental and less direct “Pretty Woman” begins with a panning shot of topless erotic dancers and includes a lot of sex (the fun kind) and choice language that is the opposite of politically correct.

Like caviar, try it.

Annie’s journey from thong to riches begins late one night at a strip club, where a 21-year-old high roller requests a girl who speaks Russian.

The boy is Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the spoiled son of an oligarch who is vacationing (and partying) in New York before starting to work for the family business.

Annie grew up in New York and had a Russian grandmother. so it’s love at the beginning nyet.

Youthful, eccentric and funny, Ivan pays handsomely for her dance and then asks to see Annie again the next day. Everything related to the Benjamins, she accepts.

In the morning, Annie arrives, amazed, at her elegant mansion with God knows how many rooms and its own elevator. When Ivan boldly asks her if she can be his girlfriend for a week (for the sum of $15,000), the lavish incentives are irresistible. Heck, they hop on a private jet to Las Vegas. He proposes.

Baker has billed her film as a “love story,” and now we’re starting to wonder: is she in love with Ivan? Your money? A life previously unimaginable? And is Ivan really in love with Annie? Or sex? Or his last breaths of carefree youth? Maybe the relationship is real.

Because of Eydelshteyn’s charisma and innocence, not to mention the duo’s chemistry, we’re just as excited about the fantasy as Annie is. And then, like from summer to winter, “Anora” abruptly becomes a completely different film.

The cortisol flows in the stressful second act, which ensnares Ivan’s father Nikolai’s aggressive hired thugs: Toros (Karren Karagulian), Igor (Yura Borisov) and Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan). With a furious Annie in tow, they embark on a frantic search for Ivan throughout the city.

The gruff trio arc is the most surprising in the film.

At first we hated them outright; They are evil security guards who annoy the heroine and shatter our starry-eyed illusion. Soon, we began to find his quirks amusing. And then we realize poignantly that they might be the only decent men Annie has met all week. Like Anora, they are normal people trying to survive.

Karagulian, as the bumbling boss, and the mysterious Borisov do an especially good job. Baker’s wonderfully chaotic writing and direction are top-notch throughout.

But in the end it’s Madison’s movie. And no matter what the future holds for Añora and Iván, this actress’s love story with Hollywood has only just begun.