If you think that Sean Baker is the guy who makes gritty, naturalistic little movies about marginalized communities, “Anora” will give you reason to think you’re right. But once it’s done that, it may turn around and make you change your mind, because the film is also big and bold and glossy and very funny, a raucous comedy unlike anything else in Baker’s filmography.
It’s one of the most entertaining movies to play in Cannes this year, and also one of the most confounding: part character study of the title character (Mikey Madison), a sex worker from Brighton Beach who falls for rich Russian playboy Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn); part look into the world of the super-rich, an arena Baker has studiously avoided in films like “Tangerine,” “The Florida Project” and “Red Rocket”; part escalating nightmare comedy reminiscent of ’80s gems like “After Hours” and “Married to the Mob.”