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VIFF 2025 Review: Idiotka

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Anna Baryshnikov plays a fashion designer looking for her big break on a reality TV contest in Idiotka.

The VIFF will be full of dramatic films this year, so it’s kind of understanding why I would want to look for a comedy break. I was lucky to get it with Idiotka. It’s an American comedic film that can make you laugh.

Margarita Levlansky is a woman who dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Trouble is she lives in the Russian section of West Hollywood where it’s hard to get notice. She also has a flimsy sewing machine. The only way she can make money from her fashions is when she sells them with a big-name designer label on them and sell on eBay. Margarita’s family are full of hard times in America. Her brother Nerses is an unsuccessful musician, het father Samuel was a doctor who spend eight years in prison because of medical fraud and was depressed enough to leave his practice, and grandmother Gita is physically unable to work thanks to chain-smoking. To complicate things, they’re waiting for a house being constructed and they’re five months behind in rent at their apartment. Their landlord, restaurant owner Vlad, is not happy at all about it.

One day, Margarita finds a chance for a big break. A fashion television channel is starting a new reality competition for fashion designers from underprivileged backgrounds called Slay, Serve and Survive. At the audition, she meets the shows top producer Nicol Garcia. She let’s Margarita know from the start that this fashion contest will involve a lot of playing to the camera. That will mean things like a likable personality, a relatable scenario and even exposing personal things about her family is she progresses in the rounds. Margarita accepts. Within time, she is one of the final five for the big prize of $100,000. The family is excited for Margarita. Finally, a chance for a way out of the financial mess for them.

At the start, Margarita is nervous when she learns who her four rivals are. They also have attention-getting backgrounds of their own. To add to it, she also learns of the flamboyancy and ego of the two other judges: Candy and Emma Wexler. The first round starts where they all have to take various types of yellow-colored pieces of clothing and work them to make something nice and eye catching. They all have a limited amount of time to make it work. At the end, all five show their works off. Then the judges decide. One has to go home. It’s not Margarita! She’s still in the running!

As each round progresses, the fashions get more and more personal and the competition gets that much tighter. They even go as far as showing off one’s ethnic background. The producers are looking for more chaos from Margarita but she’s reluctant. Grandmother Gita wants to be on camera but father Samuel is reluctant. He still doesn’t want to admit his failings. Soon bad news hits the family as Vlad is evicting them from the house and Gita has been diagnosed with lung cancer.

The two finalists have been narrowed down. It’s Margarita and Jung-soo. For the final episode, only one will walk away with the $100,000. In the days leading up, Margarita is still uncertain how things will go. Her father is still reluctant, she has no place to show her clothes, and her sewing machine works terrible. She’s just about to quit. The night before the main event, she has drinks with Jung-soo and he talks about his own nervousness for this contest. Soon things look up. Gita used her last money to buy Margarita a new sewing machine. One that works effortlessly! Vlad learned of Margarita on television and is willing to forgive the family of the money they owe as long his restaurant is shown in the final episode. Right just an hour before Margarita is to give her show, the father is finally willing to go along and be on camera.

The final show is on. Filming takes place in Vlad’s restaurant. All of Margarita’s family wear fashions showing off the shortcomings of their lives. Nerses shows himself off as the flop singer. Gita shows herself off as the smoking grandmother and tosses cigarettes to the hosts and producers. Samuel comes on with his MD uniform and takes it off to unveil a prison uniform. Finally Margarita comes out in one of her hand-made outfits with all the designer labels she uses sewn all about. Then it’s up to the judges to decide who the $100,000 winner is. The ending gives us a sense that things will get better for the family, but not without some heartbreak along the way.

It’s not that often I go to see a comedy at the VIFF. I just took the film because it was available at the time. I’m glad I did. This comedy does have a lot of relatable teams. A young budding fashion designer who longs for her big break. Her family that’s full of flaws and problems. A fashion contest/reality show that’s a chance to be her breakthrough. It gives a lot to identify with and laugh about. Especially for the young.

I know that films about a reality TV competition have been done very frequently in the past, so this comedy doesn’t offer anything too new. What this comedy does do is it gives a relatable situation about a family with problems and one person trying to find a way out of it. It will require family cooperation and it gets messy, but it does work out in the end. The story is also about how the child of the family has the biggest responsibilities with her being the breadwinner. To do all that she does and then risk it big time to win on reality TV, that is one big challenge. Nevertheless the story pulls itself off well. It may get messy at times in the story, but it succeeds in the end.

This is the first feature-length film for Nastasya Popov. She has directed short films including documentaries before. Here she delivers a compelling comedy about trying for a big break while hanging by a string. It’s a funny story, if it’s not always together. Popov has gotten some acclaim for this as she won a New Director award at the San Francisco film festival.

Anna Baryshnikov holds the film together as the protagonist. The daughter of legendary ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnykov, she’s had a steady acting career for over eight years and she looks great here. She’s able to balance the humorous with the dramatic and be able to be the centre of a story of a messy family drama. The chemistry of the family also made the film work. Mark Ivanir is great as the father too prideful to fess up to the mistakes he made. Nerses Stamos is also good as the son who can’t get a break. Galina Jovovich often steals the film as Gita the fierce grandmother. Camila Mendes adds to the humor as Nicol as do both Julia Fox and Saweetie as exaggerated versions of themselves.

Idiotka may follow a common story line found in most comedies, but it succeeds in delivering its own story. It has a mix of relatable and unrelatable ingredients that will make you enjoy it.

VIFF 2017 Review: Friendly Beast (O Animal Cordial)

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A restaurant owner (played by Murilo Benicio) and his waitress (Luciana Paes) provide a night of chaos and madness in Friendly Beast.

The VIFF is a chance for some eccentric ideas to come across on the big screen. Friendly Beast is a Brazilian film that allows insanity to go wild.

The film begins at a nice small restaurant in Brazil. The owner Inacio takes pride in his business and appears to have things cool and under control. He may be nasty to some of the lesser workers, but what restaurant owner isn’t? Waitress Sara seems to be the one who most helps him without question.

During the night, Inacio is dealing with a couple that appear to be like any other. Then a robbery happens. Instead of letting the two take what they need, Inacio attacks them and holds them captive. It doesn’t stop there. Inacio then makes his ‘lesser’ workers captive too, and then the dining couple! Sara willingly goes along.

Inacio uses his time to antagonize and even torture the people he holds hostage. He even accuses kitchen-hand Djair of planning this robbery. We learn that Sara also has the same diabolical urges as Inacio and she takes the same pleasure in inflicting torture, especially in the female diner. It goes from one thing to the next, from torturing one person to killing another. Whatever Inacio commands, Sara follows along. Inacio even comes across as threatening to her, too. However Sara gets even with him in the end and turns the tables. Inacio is not so much the man in control!

What we have here are common things we’d find in a horror film. They’re also things that can parlay into one of those horror movies that come off as dreadful. We have a restaurant owner who appears to be in control on the inside. He appears no nastier and no more controlling than your typical restaurant owner. That all changes after the failed robbery. Son he terrorizes the robbers, then his coworkers, then the dining couple. Then the waitress joins into his sinister plan, only to be the one who overtakes him in the end.

Yes, the making for something dreadful. However what keeps it from being dreadful is that the film is well-written and well-acted throughout. In order for Inacio to suddenly become sinister when the robbery happens, the transfer to madness has to work well. It also has to work for Sara when she too becomes part of this mad scheme. If you saw the movie, you’d see that it worked out well. Inacio first making victims of the robbers and them making everyone in the restaurant captive, including the couple dining out, worked out in the film and did not come off as ridiculous. Sara suddenly controlling Inacio also worked too, and it added for a surprise twist for an ending.

A film like this even has to have some dark sick humor added to this as well. There are elements of that too, like stealing a dead person’s earrings to seduce someone, or flirting in the presence of a man who’s bleeding out. There’s also that scene where Inacio makes a phone call to his wife trying to sound cool and collect and that it’s just another day at the place, when it couldn’t be further from the truth!

Gabriela Amaral did a very good job in writing and directing a bizarre and darkly humorous horror movie that’s big on thrills and intrigue, but puts the right limit on the gore. Betcha didn’t think a woman director/writer can create a good horror film, did you? Murilo Benicio did a very good job with the character of Inacio in turning him from a typical restaurant owner to a Charles Manson-like madman. Luciana Paes also did a very good job in making Sara go from a regular waitress to sinister to being the one who overtakes Inacio. The other actors in their minor parts also did well and contributed greatly to the film.

Friendly Beast is a surprising horror film. It’s well-written, well-acted and does not come across as cheesy and ridiculous like so many horror films.