Marc by Sofia (Sofia Coppola, 2025, USA)

Marc by Sofia is the latest film by Sofia Coppola, and her first documentary. The film centers on the life and career of Coppola’s long-time friend Marc Jacobs, the fashion powerhouse with a multi-decade career. At a recent introduction for the film, Coppola explained that she approached the project with some trepidation - particularly given her deep personal attachment to Jacobs. The end result provides a flattering portrayal of the fashion designer, and mostly focuses on his lengthy career as well as the build up to an upcoming fashion show. That being said, the film does try to pry deeper and points and psychologize him.

Despite being a documentary, Marc by Sofia bears many of the sonic and visual trademarks of her other works. In many respects, the doc is a love letter to a bygone era of NYC culture - particularly the grunge explosion of the early to mid 90s. We feel throughout the film that these were formative years not only for Jacobs, whose grunge collection for Perry Ellis was a cause celebre, but also for Coppola. The film is in many respects, a retrospective for Coppola, as she interjects her own personal footage of Jacobs as well as the projects they worked together on into the film.

While the film succeeds on a stylistic level, whether its infusing the music of Sonic Youth or the various films that inspired Jacobs’s designs (including Fassbinder and Bob Fosse), the film succeeds the most when trying to explore Jacobs’s psyche and the reasons why he went into fashion in the first place. The mechanics of preparing for the show can feel a bit samey for those not particularly interested in fashion, though the show itself is interesting to watch and visually dynamic. Marc by Sofia will appeal most to fashion fans in the end, however.

6/10