I have been following the Anna Delvey/Sorokin story for about four years now. Needless to say, when I first heard of “Inventing Anna,” I was ready to go.
Imagine having style, connections, and intelligence. Commanding a room with your energy, thoughts, and unfettered confidence. That was the life of Anna Delvey, as she stayed in luxury hotels, swiped cards at Bergdorf’s, and traveled the most exotic places in the world. She did it all, with style.
Too bad it was all a lie, right?
“Inventing Anna” is the Netflix adaptation of a news article written for New York magazine. Published in 2018, the article provided a full scope of Anna’s story. From 2013 – 2017, Anna Delvey (real name Anna Sorokin) posed as a German heiress with a massive trust fund. With designer clothes and wallets full of credit cards, Anna ate dinner in the most exclusive restaurants, partied in the best clubs, and rubbed shoulders with the cream of the crop in New York society.
Quickly, Anna established herself as the next “it” girl, with Instagram to document the fun. With a plan to build the most exclusive New York club, Anna hired the most established architects, designers, and PR professionals to make her dream a reality. However, with her trust fund not available until her 25th birthday, she’d need a bank loan to get started.
It all seemed so easy. Until it wasn’t!
The trust fund? Nonexistent. Rich and powerful father? Truck driver turned cooling repair. Wire transfers never came through and credit cards came back declined. Anna brushed off each flag as an insult, accusing whatever establishment at the time of having poor machines. She managed to fake this ruse for years before an arrest. She was convicted on eight out of ten charges, and sentenced to four to twelve years in prison. Would she do it all again? Anna says, without hesitation.
Needless to say, I binged this series in one day. Considering the only TV I’ve watched this year has been “The Simpsons” reruns (I know, shocking!), THAT is a feat.
The Netflix adaptation told Anna’s story mostly in flashback format. While Anna is the center of the story, the writer of the article, Vivan Kent, is the protagonist. Vivian Kent has been exiled to write somewhat meaningless features, after a disastrous story she published proved as “fake news.” Vivian pushes through interview after interview with Anna, people who knew her, and falls down every rabbit hole in the process. Simultaneously, Anna awaits trial for her crimes.
Because I was familiar with the story, I was surprised about… well, how little I knew about it. I had the briefest bullet points — Anna stays at boutique hotels, dresses like a millionaire, maxes out cards and sent to jail– but there were nuances that I missed. In fact, there were entire people that I missed! She shuts out a stylist friend without a second thought. In turn, she befriended an aspiring filmmaker who worked as a concierge in one of the hotels she swindled. She overstayed her welcome on a yacht with a boyfriend, also a fraudster of sorts. I also didn’t fully realize that Anna planned to build her social club, the Anna Delvey Foundation, with the help of a million dollar loans from different banks. Turns out, when you lie to banks in the hopes of getting a hefty loan, they don’t like it.
There’s the question of reality vs. fiction. The story is true, and has source material to back it up. However, how many details were added to the series for dramatic effect (a la The Social Network)? I’m not sure. Each episode begins with a caption (that I’m paraphrasing): “This story is completely true. Except for the parts that are totally made up.”
An interesting note with regard to the show is the treatment of Rachel Williams. Rachel, who became one of Anna’s closest friends, wrote the Vanity Fair article that introduced me to Anna’s story years ago. There’s always three sides to every story: their side, my side, and the truth. In Rachel’s side of the story, Anna took Rachel and a few others on a lavish trip to Morocco. However, not long after their arrival, angry hotel representatives confronted Anna about a faulty credit card. Intimidated by the angry hotel staff and Anna’s desperate cries of “bank troubles,” Rachel put her card down for the hotel.
Except, Rachel didn’t really use her card. She used her company card from Vanity Fair, where she worked as a photo editor. Suddenly, $62,000 gone. Rachel hounded Anna to pay her back, only for Anna to send a measly $5,000 deposit (via a wire transfer that didn’t go through). After multiple failed attempts and an intervention, Rachel helped the authorities in a sting operation that lead to Anna’s arrest on several fraud charges.
However, the New York edition (and “Inventing Anna”) paints Rachel more brutally. Of all the swindling Anna did, she only really paid back one person: Neff, a concierge she befriended at one of the boutique resorts. On one occasion, Neff pays for an expensive dinner after Anna’s credit card fails. After weeks of Anna dodging Neff, Anna eventually pays her back. Throughout this entire debacle, Neff has stayed loyal to Anna, believing in her abilities (and, to some degree, the presence of her money).
According to Neff, Rachel was not only a bit passive aggressive to Neff, but also a poseur of sorts, like Anna. Rachel was only too happy to accept the expensive spa treatments, the free dinners, and the bottle service. In fact, when Anna’s card didn’t work during their Morocco trip, Rachel offered to pay. Anna didn’t ask, or beg, for Rachel’s help. Rachel offered, with the image that she could keep up. As a photo editor for a magazine, she could not. Rachel was only too happy to ride Anna’s coattails to the top.
Rachel not only sold her story to Vanity Fair, she sold the rights to HBO. In addition, she received a publishing deal and wound up on the 2019 bestseller list. Lastly, AmEx also paid her the $62,000 back, eventually. Of the charges against her, Anna received a “not guilty” verdict with reference to Rachel.
Anna Chlumsky portrays reporter Vivian Kent, and it’s a nice footstep away from her role as Amy in “Veep.” She maintains that tenacity and strength, but has a sympathetic heart. Despite the fact that Anna is absolutely a crazy criminal, Vivian cares about her wellbeing.
An additional shoutout goes to Anders Holm, who plays Vivian’s husband, Jack. In stories like this, I feel like the husband (or boyfriend) is unsupportive, selfish, and ultimately leaves the girlfriend or wife when she needs his support most. Jack puts up with Vivian’s long hours, one track mindedness, and even borderline insane dedication to the story, despite their impending newborn. I don’t know if the real Vivian (Jessica Pressler) was pregnant while writing this story, or if Jack is even real. For the purposes of this story, he’s a true highlight, and a picture of what real love is.
When I first started watching the show, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to sit through all of it for one reason: Anna’s crazy accent. It sounds very weird, and not sure what to do with itself. However, that’s just one of the ways that Julia Garner nails this role. As a born Russian who grew up in Germany, Anna purposefully made sure that her voice sounded European, without having to provide any extra details.
Julia captures Anna’s confident, mean and manipulative side, but also gives her a sad vulnerability. When she’s unable to swipe her way out of all the boutique New York hotels, she quietly rides the subway, eats from an abandoned bag of “Shake Shack,” and walks through the park with a draining phone battery; her life source. There’s a reason Anna’s story captured the eyes of millions all over the world. She’s a captivating person, and Garner gives her that appeal.
“Inventing Anna” is not a perfect show. The storytelling gets a bit uneven towards the end, and though the catchphrase in each episode introduction is, well, catchy, it’s a cop out to avoid lawsuits.
The meat and potatoes of Anna’s adventures took place during the Trump presidency. “Inventing Anna” ensures that we know that. In one scene, Vivian reflects on how she was set up to take the fall for her editor in regards to the fake news article. She bitterly remarks that “these men get away with everything,” whilst watching Trump’s SOTU address. When confronted with the possibility of reporting Anna to the authorities, Rachel initially rebukes, not wanting to send an immigrant woman through the ringer “in Trump’s America.” Lastly, in Vivian’s interviews with Anna, Anna laughs at the idea of her getting sent away with prison time, when Wall Streeters do what she did everyday and see no consequences. Alexa, play “The Man” by Taylor Swift.
A lot of critics take issue with it’s treatment of Anna. I’d say this is fair; “Inventing Anna” conveys Anna’s story as neither a hero to root for, nor a villain who deserves a comeuppance. It’s a little bit of both. Anna Delvey is a true antihero. Through her scam, she proved how far a good bag and confidence can get you. She defrauded successful, smart people throughout the process of building the Anna Delvey Foundation. Banks got in a bidding war to provide her with the money, despite no tangible proof of a trust fund. Anna held up a mirror to that society: “Look at how easy you were to infiltrate.”
There’s a reason that “Inventing Anna” is so binge-worthy. Her lawyers would say that she didn’t get away with her intentions (and therefore cannot be charged) because she only got “dangerously close.” Anna’s team in court used the “fake it ’til you make it” defense. In their eyes, Anna would have paid everyone back once her club launched, giving her the means to do so in no time. She’d sit pretty at the top of the Manhattan social scene. But because she never got the chance to start, she’s technically innocent.
As of now, Anna has been released from jail three years into her sentence for good behavior. However, she was immediately picked up by ICE for overstaying her visa. She awaits deportation to Germany, cell phone in hand, as the world watches her story unfold for a bigger audience. Surprisingly (or not), her Instagram comments are positive, if a bit tongue-in-cheek. In her quest to be elite, Anna has become a woman of the people. “Inventing Anna” provides a fascinating look at a universally acknowledged truth: reality is stranger than fiction.