With her feature debut Idiotka, filmmaker Nastasya Popov delivers a spirited satire that skewers influencer culture and reality television while grounding the chaos in something surprisingly tender: family.
At its centre is Margarita – or Margusya – played with precise comic timing and quiet vulnerability by Anna Baryshnikov. A young Russian American woman living in Los Angeles with her father, grandmother and brother, Margarita is the primary breadwinner in a household still reeling from financial strain after her father’s prison sentence for Medicare fraud. Their circumstances are precarious, their apartment is on the brink, and survival requires a certain… entrepreneurial flexibility.
Margarita’s side hustle? Rebranding no-name garments with designer labels and flipping them online. It’s ethically dubious, yes – but in Popov’s world, everyone is cutting corners. The difference is who gets punished for it and who builds a brand.
When Margarita auditions for a new reality fashion competition series titled Slay Serve Survive, the film kicks into delicious high gear. The show’s producers are less interested in couture and more invested in mining contestants’ personal lives for dramatic fodder. Margarita’s chaotic family dynamic becomes her audition hook – but getting her relatives to sign the release forms proves harder than impressing the judges.
Popov clearly understands the absurdity of modern performance culture. The film’s sharpest laughs come from its send-up of influencer-speak – those breathless, empty affirmations delivered with total conviction. Characters posture, brand themselves and weaponise vulnerability in pursuit of relevance. It’s biting, but never smug. The satire lands because it feels recognisable.
The ensemble similarly leans fully into the tone. Mark Ivanir brings weary dignity and flashes of dry humour to Margarita’s father, while Galina Jovovich steals scenes as the formidable babushka, and Nerses Stamos injects offbeat energy as the brother navigating his own insecurities. On the industry side of the equation, Camila Mendes is slick and calculating as the reality show producer, and Julia Fox goes gloriously big as a flamboyant fashion judge who exists somewhere between parody and prophecy.
What makes Idiotka more than just a clever industry roast is the emotional current running beneath the sequins. For all its lampooning of hollow fame and manufactured drama, the film returns again and again to the messy, complicated devotion of family. Arguments flare. Pride gets in the way. Regrets surface. But so does loyalty.
Popov doesn’t pretend these characters are perfect – far from it. They are flawed, stubborn, and occasionally ridiculous, but their love for one another feels real, and that sincerity anchors the film’s heightened world. Even as outrageous costumes parade across the screen and cattiness escalates under studio lights, the story remains rooted in the very human desire to be seen – not by millions of viewers, but by the people at your kitchen table.
Working with what appears to be a modest budget, Idiotka maximises its resources with vibrant production design and sharp pacing. The fashion competition scenes crackle with chaotic energy, while the quieter family moments allow the performances to breathe.
In a media landscape where reality often feels stranger than fiction, Idiotka lands its punchlines with knowing precision. It skewers performative authenticity while embracing genuine connection. The result is a comedy that laughs at the circus without losing sight of the people caught inside it.
Stylish, satirical and unexpectedly warm, Idiotka proves that beneath the labels – designer or otherwise – what truly matters is who stands beside you when the spotlight fades.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Idiotka is screening in select theatres in the United States from February 27th, 2026.
