{"id":230366,"date":"2026-01-10T05:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T05:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/230366\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T05:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T05:25:07","slug":"how-the-fashion-comedy-landed-camila-mendes-benito-skinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/230366\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Fashion Comedy Landed Camila Mendes, Benito Skinner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA first-time filmmaker managed to collect an impressive roster of prominent comedy stars for Idiotka<\/a>, offering a satirical look at the fashion<\/a> industry and reality television. <\/p>\n

\n\tWriter-director Nastasya Popov\u2019s movie debuted at last year\u2019s SXSW<\/a> and has since been playing the festival circuit ahead of its planned theatrical release later this year from Utopia. Anna Baryshnikov stars as Margarita, who lives in her Russian family\u2019s crowded home in a less glamorous section of West Hollywood and considers competing on a reality show for aspiring fashion designers. <\/p>\n

\n\tBaryshnikov, who is known for the series Dickinson<\/a> and is the daughter of famed ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov<\/a>, leads a cast that includes such prominent performers as Camila Mendes<\/a>, Mark Ivanir (Emilia P\u00e9rez) and Galina Jovovich, a Russian star whose daughter is Milla Jovovich. Additionally, the film features a supporting cast of rising comedic talent, including Julia Fox<\/a> (Uncut Gems<\/a>), Benito Skinner<\/a> (Overcompensating<\/a>), Owen Thiele<\/a> (Adults<\/a>) and rapper Saweetie.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring an onstage conversation following Idiotka\u2019s screening at the Palm Springs Film Festival<\/a> on Sunday, Popov offered insight into how the indie project scored such a notable cast for her directorial feature debut. Popov, who grew up with Russian immigrant parents, enlisted a mutual friend to pass along an early draft of the script to Baryshnikov, with the actress then involved in further shaping the lead character. After Baryshnikov filmed a sizzle reel to help the project land funding, Mendes signed on to produce and star.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCamila was friendly with Benny [Skinner], and he\u2019s of course amazing,\u201d Popov said. \u201cAnd then I showed up at Julia Fox\u2019s book talk and handed her a letter. It was very DIY and grassroots, but I think our approach was always, \u2018We\u2019re making a movie in L.A. What\u2019s the worst they\u2019ll do? They\u2019ll say no to us. So let\u2019s try to get every cool, funny person that we can.\u2019 Enough said yes that then it just became this gorgeous ensemble.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNastasya Popov attends the SXSW premiere of Idiotka.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNicola Gell\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tPopov noted that she shot the film in part at her grandmother\u2019s apartment in Los Angeles. While the movie features dramatic scenes as Margarita navigates her challenging family baggage, it also takes advantage of the comedy that arises from poking fun at reality TV<\/a> tropes, particularly the onscreen judges and their outsized personalities. Popov cited Project Runway<\/a> and HBO\u2019s streetwear-focused competition series The Hype as helping to inspire the narrative and comedy.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was funny to me to see the evolution of the fashion reality show, and then also think about reality TV as an engine for how artists these days are all expected to just basically bare our soul on a platter,\u201d Popov said. \u201cThat\u2019s just right for comedy and also very true to our world and was fun to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn her review of Idiotka<\/a> for The Hollywood Reporter, critic Angie Han wrote, \u201cPopov has a great feel for the easy warmth coursing between every member of the family, even in moments of strife, and the cast share a fun and comfortable chemistry.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A first-time filmmaker managed to collect an impressive roster of prominent comedy stars for Idiotka, offering a satirical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[125356,73390,146,9172,85,46,100781,125357,397,125358,125359,6653,39175],"class_list":{"0":"post-230366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-benito-skinner","9":"tag-camila-mendes","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-fashion","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-julia-fox","15":"tag-mikhail-baryshnikov","16":"tag-movies","17":"tag-owen-thiele","18":"tag-palm-springs-film-festival","19":"tag-reality-tv","20":"tag-sxsw"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}