Variety reviews "The Idiot(s)," a satirical biopic from Polish filmmaking duo Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert that reimagines Fyodor Dostoevsky not as a revered literary sage but as a chaotic, drunken gambler propped up by his devoted wife Anna. Starring Johnny Flynn as Dostoevsky and Aimee Lou Wood as Anna, the film deliberately strips away the writer's dignified public image, presenting him instead as a flawed, often humiliating figure closer to his own tragic characters, while still arguing his work retains value despite his personal failings.

The film, based largely on Andrew D. Kaufman's book "The Gambler Wife," follows the newly married couple on their honeymoon in Germany, where Fyodor's pride and contempt for Western Europe clash with figures such as fellow Russian writer Ivan Turgenev, played by Christian Friedel. Amid financial hardship as Dostoevsky struggles to finish the manuscript for "The Idiot," the directors use scatological and cringe comedy, alongside a cartoonish depiction of the aristocracy (including a role for Vicky Krieps), to contrast elite decadence with the couple's grim living conditions. Critics praise Flynn's visceral, self-abasing performance and Wood's charismatic portrayal of Anna, who emerges as an equally central figure in this tonally unconventional two-hander.