Mikey Madison’s open-spirited performance as a lapdancer who falls for a feckless young client ignites a film brimful of heart, and we ought to return the love

When future historians look back at this year’s crop of Oscar nominees and ask what the world was like in 2024, what will they learn? Maybe that we’d had enough of reality, thanks. It’s telling that nine out of the 10 nominees are essentially set in the past, or in isolated or fantasy realms, from 1960s America (A Complete Unknown, Nickel Boys) to “Mexico” (Emilia Pérez, filmed in France), from Wicked’s Oz to Dune: Part Two’s Arrakis. Only one entry is set in genuine, here-and-now, modern-day society. What’s more, Anora goes to places mainstream cinema rarely does: the grubby streets, the strip clubs, the all-night cafes, off-season Brighton Beach in Brooklyn and the Russian and Armenian communities who live there. Anora also gives us the opposite: gated mansions, deluxe hotel suites, private jets. That’s the kind of film it is; that’s the kind of world we live in.

But the main reason Anora should win is that it’s simply an adorable film – full of heart and passion and energy and just life. It’s impossible not to be swept along with its hero, Ani – a gutsy but tragically naive lapdancer who falls for a Russian oligarch’s spoilt son, and spontaneously marries him. Mikey Madison’s beautifully open and spirited performance means we’re rooting for her every step of the way. Some have likened Anora to a Cinderella-like fairytale – minus the happy ever after. Pretty Woman it ain’t – but there’s far more going on here. As a snapshot of the degraded American Dream, a quarter of the way into the 21st century, for my money there’s been nothing better.