Entertainment
‘Couture’ Wastes Angelina Jolie’s Emotionally Bare Performance
Miranda Priestly probably wouldn’t tolerate Angelina Jolie’s character from Couture, a new drama set in the world of high fashion that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2025. Jolie plays Maxine, an indie filmmaker who’s been hired to bring her brand of transgressive edginess to a promotional short for Paris Fashion Week. With neither the patience nor the experience for promotional work, Maxine can barely mask her contempt for her new gig — and that’s before a call from her doctor flips her world upside down.
Couture couldn’t be further removed from the glossy world of this summer’s fashion world-set blockbuster The Devil Wears Prada 2. And while that movie makes excuses for the same industry that Couture wants to dress down, director Alice Winocour’s attempt to offer a ground-level perspective of an industry that has been glamorized for far too long turns out dull, directionless, and mildly delusional.
What Is ‘Couture’ About?
Maxine has a lot on her plate at the film’s start: she’s going through a divorce that has alienated her teenage daughter from her, and most of her attention is devoted to her new movie, a passion project that’s barely a month away from entering production. She also has bills to pay. While she’s risen through the ranks of independent genre cinema and hit a creative peak with a gritty vampire movie, there’s obviously not enough money in the film festival Midnight Madness sections that she has seemingly been dominating. It’s a clever decision to not cover up Jolie’s many tattoos; they give Maxine a necessary edge that communicates more about her than three pages of expository dialogue could. Despite describing the fashion industry as “useless but necessary,” Maxine is determined to perform her duties at Paris Fashion Week and continue her real career with a much-needed financial infusion.
Her problems transform when her doctor informs her that she has breast cancer and that she needs to undergo surgery immediately. As if her disdain for the vanity surrounding her hadn’t hit a boiling point already, Maxine is given a new reason to question the choices that have led her to Paris in the first place.
Jolie is unsurprisingly very good in the lead role, injecting Maxine with emotional maturity that she herself has seemingly developed during the course of a life that unfolded in public. Even when Maxine is hit with the devastating revelation about her health, she doesn’t spiral in the way you’d think. Jolie’s talent and experience are perhaps the only things that save her from falling into the holes that the script insists on digging around her.
The Oscar-Nominated Angelina Jolie Biopic No One Watched Is Becoming a Sleeper Hit on Streaming
The film is available to stream on Netflix.
‘Couture’ Short-Changes Its Protagonist and Supporting Characters
Maxine isn’t the only character not given the depth she deserves by the script. Couture surrounds its protagonist with a handful of other young women trying to get by in the ruthless field they’ve chosen. The problem is that none of these underwritten supporting characters are given much to do, other than to serve as a stereotype of some kind. There’s a woman from South Sudan (Anyier Anei) who’s handpicked by Maxine to star in the promotional film; there’s also a seamstress (Garance Marillier) who wields her scissors with the seriousness of a samurai with a katana, and a makeup artist (Ella Rumpf) trying to sell a tell-all about the fashion industry. As if Winocour hadn’t overpopulated her movie already, she throws Louis Garrel into the mix as Maxine’s cinematographer, who is tragically reduced to an object who makes himself available for sex whenever Maxine needs it. Each of them barely have any interactions with Maxine, which leaves you with the impression that you’re watching characters who’ve stepped out of other movies into this one.
They’re also done no favors by a weak screenplay. While a significant chunk of Couture is set in French, the English-language portions can’t help but feel as if they were translated poorly, a situation that becomes more obvious in the scenes that Jolie isn’t involved in.
A Failed Critique of Two Industries
Couture wants to have its gown and wear it, too. Well-known as many of its supporting cast members are — Raw breakout Marillier is knowingly written into another scene that involves blood — let’s not forget that the film’s protagonist is played by perhaps one of the most famous people on the planet. The decision to cast a movie star can never be limited to their talents as a performer; they bring their own baggage to every role, and that’s partially what filmmakers are hiring them for. In movies like Couture, the parallels are all too obvious.
Couture poses as a rare character drama centered on a middle-aged woman. But while Maxine is a complex character, Couture isn’t a character study. Instead, Winocour (who has made memorable movies about complex women before) goes for a critique of the fashion and film industries that ultimately has little to say about either. Both its halves seem to work overtime to undermine each other. Maxine, on the other hand, seems to exist in a universe of her own, isolated by both the film and her fate. She wouldn’t describe the movie as entirely useless, but it most certainly isn’t necessary either.
- Release Date
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June 26, 2026
- Runtime
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106 minutes
- Director
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Alice Winocour
- Writers
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Alice Winocour
- Producers
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Angelina Jolie, Charles Gillibert, William Horberg, Zhang Xin
- Angelina Jolie delivers an emotionally restrained, mature performance as a filmmaker dealt a terrible blow.
- Much of the dialogue is jarring, unnatural, and expository.
- The movie spreads itself too thin by introducing more characters that it can service.
- It has little of worth to say about either the fashion or film industries.
- All attempts at cultural commentary come at the cost of character development.
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