'Couture' Review: Jolie Carries Winocour's Patchy Drama
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- Alice Winocour directed "Couture," an earnest Paris Fashion Week ensemble drama that premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7 and opens theatrically via Vertical on Friday, June 26.
- Angelina Jolie plays Maxine, an indie-horror director who travels from America to Paris to shoot a short film accompanying a runway show, only to receive a cancer diagnosis via phone call during her trip.
- Jolie has said in interviews that Maxine's diagnosis was partly inspired by a personal health matter, and the review credits her for bringing "palpable life" and "dawning dread" to the role despite thin script material.
- The ensemble includes Anyier Anei as Ada, a South Sudanese model via Kenya; Ella Rumpf as a makeup artist-cum-novelist; Garance Marillier as a seamstress; Vincent Lindon as Maxine's doctor; and Louis Garrel as her cinematographer and possible love interest.
- The film is described as "patchy and ill-fitting," with character plotlines so faint they're barely detectable and a tone the critic calls "both glancing and melodramatic, a strange and underwhelming cocktail of blasé Euro sleekness and TV-movie drama."
- Winocour's earnest approach distinguishes "Couture" from fashion-industry satires like Robert Altman's "Pret-a-Porter" and "Zoolander," prioritizing mood over explication across intersecting storylines.
Why it matters: For Jolie, who drew on a personal health experience for the role, the film's June 26 theatrical release arrives with mixed early reviews that may limit the reach of this prestige vehicle despite her committed performance. Winocour's earnest, mood-driven take on the fashion industry stands apart from satirical predecessors but is undercut by structurally faint character arcs that even Jolie's magnetism can't fully compensate for.
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