The Hollywood Reporter reviews "The Idiot(s)," a film by Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert that puts the spotlight on Anna Dostoevskaya (Aimee Lou Wood), the wife and stenographer of novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (Johnny Flynn), rather than treating her as a footnote to his genius. The review praises the film's playful, irreverent approach, arguing that even a literary titan like Dostoevsky did not create his masterpieces alone, and credits Wood with a performance that keeps Anna from feeling like a passive victim despite the hardships she endures.

The story follows the couple in Germany, where Fyodor is meant to be writing but instead gambles away money, parties with rivals such as Ivan Turgenev, and produces nothing but doodles, while Anna repeatedly tries to steer him back to work. The film mixes affectionate nods to Dostoevsky's novel "The Idiot" with deliberate anachronisms and outrageous comic details, favouring dark comedy over the solemnity typical of literary biopics. The reviewer finds the tone largely successful and the central performances, particularly Wood's, a highlight, though notes the film runs somewhat too long.