In the Dark Reviews

When "Pretty Woman" premiered in 1990, I remember certain critics treating it as a subversion of Walt Disney Productions' 1950 animated adaptation of "Cinderella," not in the least because Touchstone Pictures, which produced it, was owned by Disney.

But writer-director Sean Baker's "Anora" is a far more transgressive subversion of that romantic fairy tale, enough that it also qualifies as a subversion of the relatively tame "Pretty Woman."

In both 2015's "Tangerine" and 2017's "The Florida Project," Baker took audiences on tours through the seedy undersides of name-brand bright-light destinati...