Inventing Anna movie review & film summary (2022)

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.

Other bright lights: Laverne Cox is pitch-perfect, and radiant, as personal trainer Kacy Duke, who charged Sorokin $4,500 for workout sessions, and narrowly avoided being marooned in Marrakech with her weird client and Vanity Fair photo editor Rachel Williams. Very little ruffles Kacy’s preternatural calm, but there’s a great moment when she says during a heated confrontation, “This is shock. You’ll know when I’m angry.” Rachel, the author of her own Anna Delvey story, is played by Katie Lowes, but because the show is largely pro-Anna and anti-Rachel, this is a thankless job, and Rachel comes off as a schemer too, just one less—or more, depending on your point of view—successful than Anna. Arian Moayed plays Stewy Hosseini on “Succession,” but provides beautiful, sincere warmth in his role as Sorokin’s defense attorney Todd Spodek. Kate Burton and Anthony Edwards have lovely, understated arcs, and Ben Rapaport pops by to play one Billy McFarland, who, briefly, was Anna’s roommate. He eagerly pitches the idea of a music festival to her; she scoffs, and declines to invest.

But the show’s scene stealer (and, I hope, its breakout star) is Alexis Floyd, whose performance as Neffatari Davis is truly magnetic. A former concierge at 11 Howard (12 George on the show), one of New York City’s chicest boutique hotels, Neff was a crucial part of Sorokin’s circle, and her only friend. She was tipped in $100 bills for arranging the “V-VIP” guest’s swanky dinner reservations, car rentals, shopping services, exclusive parties. Floyd’s vivacious confidence pole vaults off the screen; you can’t help but be mesmerized by her visceral charm and vulnerability. Garner’s terrific accent work is matched by Floyd’s, who said in an interview she was familiar with Neff’s Maryland accent prior to spending time with her real-life counterpart, but also thought “about the ways Brooklyn might’ve snuck in there. And then if she is working as a concierge, you’re doing a lot of mirroring clientele.” Whatever audiences make of "Inventing Anna," I hope Floyd will grace our screens for many, many years to come.