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You and me and almost everyone we know inhaled the New York Magazine article about Anna Delvey back in spring 2018. With equal fervor we gobbled down the news of the criminal trial of Anna Sorokin, a con artist who changed her name and shattered the end-to-end social encryption of New York City’s most elite circles. In this era of plentiful documentaries about scammers, we cheered at news of adaptations of Sorokin’s life: a series at HBO, written by Lena Dunham, and one at Netflix, helmed by Shonda Rhimes.
The former remains in development. The latter is rife with great performances, and devoid of writing to match.
If “Inventing Anna” possesses any relevance at all, it’s due to the quality of its cast. Julia Garner is disturbingly flawless as Anna Delvey. If you closed your eyes you might well think the real Anna was speaking. Garner is a chameleon performer, disappearing into every role. There’s no evidence of mop-top Ruth Langmore from “Ozark” here, the role that has won her two Emmys and counting. Her mastery of Sorokin’s bizarre accent—part German, part Russian, part every Bond villain ever—has an Emmy nomination in its future too. The sole parallel to Garner’s performance that came to mind was the bone-chilling fear I felt after watching “The Jinx,” Andrew Jarecki’s documentary about the now-deceased convicted murderer Robert Durst. Sorokin hasn’t killed anyone (yet), but like the farting, blinking failson killer, she too assumed she’d get away with it all because she was smarter than everyone around her.
The former remains in development. The latter is rife with great performances, and devoid of writing to match.
If “Inventing Anna” possesses any relevance at all, it’s due to the quality of its cast. Julia Garner is disturbingly flawless as Anna Delvey. If you closed your eyes you might well think the real Anna was speaking. Garner is a chameleon performer, disappearing into every role. There’s no evidence of mop-top Ruth Langmore from “Ozark” here, the role that has won her two Emmys and counting. Her mastery of Sorokin’s bizarre accent—part German, part Russian, part every Bond villain ever—has an Emmy nomination in its future too. The sole parallel to Garner’s performance that came to mind was the bone-chilling fear I felt after watching “The Jinx,” Andrew Jarecki’s documentary about the now-deceased convicted murderer Robert Durst. Sorokin hasn’t killed anyone (yet), but like the farting, blinking failson killer, she too assumed she’d get away with it all because she was smarter than everyone around her. Note: https://regarder-4k-super-heros.tumblr.com/
Now, however, we must confront the writing. It does not help that Anna Chlumsky is hopelessly, horribly miscast as Vivian, a writer at Manhattan magazine and Jessica Pressler’s stand-in. As Amy Brookheimer on “Veep,” Chlumsky’s facial acrobatics were matched by the quality of the writing. On “Inventing Anna” the actress’ face is constantly in motion: furrowing, twisting, narrowing, clenching. Vivian is pregnant, and recklessly endangers the health of her unborn child by pursuing the story, reminding me, unhappily, of how writer Michelle McNamara went down a similar path to find the Golden State Killer, and never came back. Her water breaks as she writes the last sentences of her essay. Moments after filing the piece, she delivers a baby girl. Hey Shonda Rhimes, 2004 called, they want their rom-com plot back. Note: https://regarder-4k-mort-su.tumblr.com/
Vivian’s characterization grows more preposterous as the series progresses: she breaks every syllable of journalistic ethics by bringing Sorokin underwear in prison, paying for her courthouse clothes, and eventually believes that Sorokin’s lies are a vague tragic medley of mental illness, childhood abuse, and genuine delusions—that we should pity her. The writers on the show hail from “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal,” “How to Get Away With Murder,” and “Bridgerton.” All incredibly popular, all with the writing quality of candy floss. It is no surprise, perhaps, that the writing on “Inventing Anna” reads like something meant for ABC, because that was Rhimes’ first TV home.
More Information:
https://onlinestreming4k.blogspot.com/2022/02/gentle-and-lilting-lunana-yak-in.html
https://kalongwewe14.blogspot.com/2022/02/only-second-movie-submitted-for-oscar.html
