Winner at the Directors’ Guild, Producers’ Guild, Critics’ Choice, Cannes Film Festival and Best Picture Oscar frontrunner “Anora” may have a similar concept to “Pretty Woman,” but with one helluva difference. 

Oscar nominee Sean Baker’s raucous, raunchy rom-com revolves around Anora – a.k.a.  Ani (Oscar nominee Mikey Madison) – a tough-talking, 23-year-old stripper from Brighton Beach in South Brooklyn, who hooks up with 21-year-old Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the obscenely spoiled son of a Russian oligarch.

They meet at the tacky HQ KONY Midtown Manhattan strip club where Ivan – nicknamed Vanya – specifically requests the services of a Russian-speaking lap dancer. What starts out as a drug-fueled, transactional sex worker/client relationship in a private room soon progresses to a wild New Year’s Eve party that culminates in an impromptu wedding in Las Vegas. 

Ani’s thrilled with the accoutrements of this whirlwind romance, particularly the cash payment of $15,000 a week as his personal escort, a sparkling 4-carat diamond engagement ring and long sable coat, while Vanya relishes the idea that this quickie U.S. ‘green card’ union will enable him to escape parental control and become an American citizen.

But when Ivan’s irate folks in Moscow discover their precious son/heir has married a prostitute, all hell breaks loose. Specifically, there’s a remarkable home-invasion scene in which Toros (Karren Karagulian), an Armenian ‘fixer,’ and his two muscle men (Vache Tovmasyan, Oscar nominee Yuri Borisov) try to capture Ani and Ivan to facilitate an immediate annulment.

While feckless Ivan flees, feisty Ani turns ferociously feral, screaming uncontrollably and utterly terrorizing the thugs as she tears apart the luxurious waterfront McMansion (the palatial Brooklyn property actually once belonged to Russian billionaire Galina Anisimova).

In interviews, writer/director Sean Baker, who favors making movies about bawdy, brash sex workers (“Tangerine,” “The Florida Project,” “Red Rocket”) often mentions that he was loosely inspired by Federico Fellini’s “Nights of Cabria” (1957), starring Giulietta Masina as the determined prostitute who – at the conclusion – sheds a single tear. 

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Anora” is a provocative 8, available to rent/buy on Prime Video, Apple TV+ and soon streaming on Hulu.

For years, Hollywood studios have been releasing a star-studded romantic comedy for Valentine’s Day weekend. But Amazon’s Will Ferrell/Reese Witherspoon “You’re Cordially Invited” is a dismal mess.

Widower Jim (Ferrell) is an overly devoted father to Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan); since the death of his wife/her mother many years ago, Jenni has been the center of his life and he’s become creepily co-dependent on her. 

So when Jenni returns to their home in Atlanta with a diamond engagement ring on her finger and her DJ fiancé Oliver (Stony Blyden) in tow, Jim immediately books a June 1^st destination wedding at the Palmetto House, an idyllic inn on the small Georgia island where he married her mother decades earlier.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Margot (Witherspoon), a high-powered reality TV executive, is planning the Palmetto House nuptials of her younger sister Neve (Meredith Hagner) to her Chippendale’s dancer boyfriend Dixon (Jimmy Tatro) on the same date.

When these two disparate groups arrive on the island, the accidental double-booking is revealed, creating an extremely awkward situation since there can be only one wedding at a time at the resort – and both are determined to use the picturesque pier at sunset.

While a compromise is negotiated, chaos results when Margot and Jim each strive for dominance within their respective extended families, eventually resulting in plans to sabotage each other, only to discover – in a bizarre third-act twist – that they’re romantically attracted to one another. 

Yet the only glimpse of their improbable and unconvincing romantic chemistry is glimpsed during the end credits.

Written and directed by Nick Stoller (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”), it’s simply one of the world’s worst wedding comedies, despite memorable turns from Celia Weston as a starchy Southern matriarch and Leanne Morgan as sex-starved Aunt Gwyneth – plus senseless cameos from NFL quarterback Peyton Manning and musician Nick Jonas as Pastor Luther.

On the Granger Gauge, “You’re Cordially Invited” is a flimsy, floundering 4. It’s streaming on Prime Video so I’d advise sending regrets.