Writer-director Nastasya Popov finely threads a needle in her debut feature “Idiotka,” dipping into the chaotic life of Margarita (Anna Baryshnikov), an aspiring fashion designer with a barely functioning sewing machine in the tight-knit Russian district of West Hollywood. Margarita seems as much a work in progress as the eternally under-construction house she lives in. She’s been making ends meet by attaching tags taken off well-known designer labels onto her own work, then pawning them off online. But the clothes themselves show plenty of personality under the false advertising; accordingly, Popov delivers a boisterous tale of a woman coming into her own, told with real humor and heart.
Like one of Margarita’s dresses, there is at least some repurposed fabric in “Idiotka.” Margarita struggles both with asserting herself in a brutal industry and with stepping out of the shadow of her feisty family, but the comedy is all in how Popov puts those two sides together. The seamstress is discovered by Nicol Alejandra Garcia (Camila Mendes), the savvy producer of reality TV show competition “Slay, Serve and Survive,” who unearths Margarita’s video application from a rejection pile. Margarita’s pitch may not have been too promising on its face, but when her grandma Gita (Galina Jovovich) doesn’t think twice about bursting into the frame to ask for a close-up, Nicol suspects the family would have a compelling backstory. He’s far more interested in the potential for chaos than what clothes Margarita could make.
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Margarita is desperate for cash, with five months worth of rent to be paid on the apartment she shares with Gita, father Samuel (Mark Ivanir) and brother Nerses (Nerses Stamos). The potential to make $100,000 by signing away her life on TV seems like a deal she can’t refuse. But Nicol isn’t wrong to think that the real entertainment is coming from inside the house, where the spry Gita may love nothing more than to be on camera. But patriarch Samuel prefers to remain off camera, already embarrassed after being forced to give up his medical practice after getting prison time for health care fraud. When his children are left to be premature breadwinners, not a moment goes by without a scuffle between family. Margarita is left with the responsibility of keeping a roof over their heads, with none of the authority that comes with it.
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The heroine might be fed up with her family, but it would be nice to spend a little more time with them in “Idiotka.” The entertaining ensemble are a gregarious center, and the story itself would benefit from a few of their relationships being more fleshed out than simply establishing their dynamics. “Idiotka” channels the frenzy around Margarita with its own energetic pace. But Popov is eager to get to “Slay, Serve and Survive,” where Margarita competes with four other “underprivileged designers,” as the show eagerly touts, and the film’s major laughs ensue.
The contest is outrageous, particularly when the panel of judges includes Saweetie and Julia Fox playing exaggerated and thinly veiled versions of themselves, but the sharp satire really comes from how well-attuned Popov is to the nuances of how such a show operates: what people can say to avoid elimination and the overall air of faux virtuousness. The director also keenly observes how the clothes are never judged strictly on their merits: each of the designs has to come with some story of personal inspiration, the more rooted in heartbreak or some social cause the better. Value is derived from pain, rather than creativity.
After being a reliable scene-stealer in films like “Manchester By the Sea” and “Love Lies Bleeding,” Baryshnikov more than holds her own in her first leading role, playing a character gradually learning to do the same. Her playful performance is accentuated by exquisite work from costume designers Natasha Simchowitz and Sophie Kay, outfitting Margarita in patchwork dresses that would seem to reflect all that’s bursting inside her as she’s ready for someone to finally take notice. In “Idiotka,” talent ends up shining through on all fronts.
