Steve Johnson in 'Rubberhead: The Life and Monsters of Steve Johnson' - American Nightmare Studios
Rubberhead: The Life and Monsters of Steve Johnson spotlights the life and career of one of cinema’s most revered FX masters. The picture marks podcast host Nick Taylor’sdirecting debut, and the ambitious documentary took over seven years to make. A big step in its journey comes tonight with its July 23rd world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival. Taylor talked to Deepest Dream about his film, his anticipation for the fest premiere, and his thoughts on the engaging (and talented) Johnson.
If you’re a practical effects fan, then Steve Johnson’s work may have crossed your doorstep on several occassions. Species II,Lord of Illusions, Bicentennial Man, and Spider-Man 2 are just a few of Johnson’s credits. A slew of Hollywood stories, mixed in with Johnson’s self-effacing and engaging personality, make Rubberhead: The Life and Monsters of Steve Johnson a memorable experience.
“One of the biggest issues, (actually). not issues, was an embarrassment of riches in terms of the content and stories that we had to work with,” said Nick Taylor. “We would have the movie fairly, you know, done, and then he’d tell me some new story. Every fabric of this guy’s life is so hilarious and incredible and there was just so much to work with.”
Rubberhead: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson – CR: American Nightmare Studios
Although he had a wealth of stories at his disposal, Taylor did not want to make a talking head, fan service documentary. “We wanted it to be entertainment and I wanted it to feel less like an academic style documentary. I didn’t want a typical paint by numbers documentary that was so focused on history (and) that’s where some documentaries can get dull.
As for it July 23rd world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival, Taylor understands it could be “nerve-wracking.” “I’ve not seen it with a live audience, so I’m realy looking forward to it because I always hear that when you see it with a live audience, it’s not what you expect. We couldn’t afford to do test audiences when we were editing it, which I hear is really helpful because you can just vibe out where people are just dropping out of the movie (or) not. I think horror movies should be a shared experience, and one should see these movies with out people and share in the scares and in the fun.”
Along with Johnson, the interviewees include John Landis, Linnea Quigley, Tom Holland, and Bill Corso.
Images: Obsession (Universal Home Entertainmenet), The Crying Game (The Criterion Collection), Normal (Magnolia Home Entertainment)
Three minutes of Dracula sat missing for sixty-six years. Censors cut them in 1958, deeming them too gruesome, too sexual, and the footage vanished, seen only once, by audiences in Japan, before it disappeared into a warehouse. This month, Hammer Films found it. Not on a hard drive, and not in some cloud archive. In a physical film vault owned by Warner Bros., sitting in a box, waiting. The restoration streets in October, uncensored for the first time anywhere outside Japan, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing exactly as Terence Fisher shot them. Sixty-six years is a long time to wait to be found. But it was still there to find.
Compare that to what Sony did on June 26th. The company confirmed it’s deleting 551 movies and TV shows, ones people paid for, from PlayStation libraries on September 1st. Terminator 2. Apocalypse Now. Hot Fuzz. Gone, the day the StudioCanal licensing deal expires. No refunds. No warehouse to search. No sixty-six years from now where someone finds it again, because there’s nothing physical left to find. When Sony deletes it, it’s actually gone.
That’s the difference this whole journal keeps circling back to. A physical copy can be forgotten, censored, buried, mislabeled, and shoved in a warehouse for six decades, and it will still be there when someone finally goes looking. A digital license doesn’t get forgotten. It gets revoked. There’s nothing to discover later because there was never anything to hold onto in the first place.
I keep thinking about the people who bought those StudioCanal movies thinking they owned them. In sixty-six years, nobody is going to find their purchases in a warehouse and restore them for a new generation. There won’t be anything left to restore.
Welcome to PM Weekly. Let’s get into the week.
THIS WEEK ON DISC
Fourteen titles landed on shelves this Tuesday, one of the busiest single street dates this journal has tracked yet.
Michael (2026), Lionsgate, in Amazon, Walmart, and Lionsgate Limited exclusive SteelBook editions
Obsession (2026), Focus Features/Universal
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (2026), Limited Edition SteelBook and standard release
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Scorsese, Criterion 4K
Hud (1963), Criterion 4K
The Crying Game (1992), Neil Jordan, Criterion 4K
Red Sun (1971), Charles Bronson/Toshiro Mifune spaghetti Western, Arrow Limited Edition 4K
The Untouchables (1987), reprinted 4K SteelBook
Ip Man: Kung Fu Legend (2026), Well Go USA
Full Contact (1992), Ringo Lam/Chow Yun-fat, Shout! Factory Hong Kong Cinema Classics
Howard the Duck (1986), 40th Anniversary 4K SteelBook
Crawl (2019), new 4K SteelBook
Normal (2026), Magnolia
Legion of the Dead (2009), two-disc Blu-ray with restored director’s cut, Unearthed Films
INDUSTRY WATCH
The UK’s home entertainment trade bodies quietly delivered some good news this year. BASE and ERA’s year-end figures for 2025 show the 4K Blu-ray market grew 19.5 percent, driven largely by boutique labels and the rising popularity of Steelbook editions, which now account for nearly a fifth of all 4K spending despite representing just one in ten releases. Overall physical video, DVD and Blu-ray combined, still declined, but only by 4.7 percent, the smallest drop since 2010. The format isn’t reversing course. It’s slowing its descent while the collector-driven end of the market actively grows. Not every week has to be about what’s disappearing.
MARKET SIGNAL
A collectibles market in Genesee Township, Michigan drew crowds this past week specifically chasing VHS tapes, turntables, and vinyl, no algorithm, no shipping wait, just folding tables and people digging. The organizer pointed to renewed demand for VCRs and tape decks alongside the discs and records. It’s a small, unglamorous data point, but it’s the kind that matters more than a press release: people are still showing up in person for physical media, in a Michigan parking lot, on a random Sunday, because owning something beats renting access to it.
STORE OF THE WEEK
Scarecrow Video (Seattle, WA)
Nonprofit, staff-run, and home to roughly 156,000 titles, Scarecrow is the kind of archive a streaming algorithm could never replicate. The collection spans everything from studio blockbusters to region-free rarities, and the store rents out the hardware, LaserDisc players, VCRs, region-free decks, needed to actually watch half of it. It’s less a video store than a working film library, kept alive by people who show up because they want to, not because a metric told them to.
The Doors (1991) Format: DVD, 2 Discs (Artisan Special Edition) Bonus Features: Disc Two dedicated entirely to extras, behind-the-scenes footage, an archival trailer, and supplementary material chronicling the film’s production
Oliver Stone’s fever dream of a biopic gave Val Kilmer the role that still defines him for a generation of viewers, an uncanny, unsettling embodiment of Jim Morrison that the band’s own surviving members reportedly found hard to watch. Artisan gave it the two-disc treatment when that still meant something: a full second platter built around nothing but going deeper into how the thing got made. It’s the kind of physical-only excess that a single streaming file was never going to carry along with it.
SIGN-OFF
That’s Issue #2. Fourteen titles in one week, three million reasons to worry about what Sony can take back, and one warehouse in Warner Bros.’ back lot that proves the opposite can still happen too. If you know one person who still alphabetizes their shelf, forward this to them. That is the whole engine we have, and it is a good one.
"Eclipse Series 5: The First Films of Samuel Fuller" - Image Credit: The Criterion Collection
Eclipse Series 5: The First Films of Samuel Fuller – The Criterion Collection
Samuel Fuller, a revered filmmaker who described his movies as “yarns,” is spotlighted once again by The Criterion Collection with a new release. Eclipse Series 5: The First Films of Samuel Fuller, a two-disc Blu-ray collection, streets on October 13. The movies in the set includeI Shot Jesse James, The Baron of Arizona, and The Steel Helmet.
Samuel Fuller made his feature directing debut with I Shot Jesse James. Producer Robert L. Lippert contacted Fuller through a secretary who worked for the publishers of his pulp novel The Dark Page. Lippert agreed to let Fuller write and direct the movie, which featured John Ireland in the lead role of Bob Ford. “The time constraints and small budget made I Shot Jesse James one of the toughest films I ever did,” recounted Fuller in his autobiography A Third Face. “But I loved every minute of it.”
Released in 1950, The Baron of Arizona starred Vincent Price as James Addison Reaves, a man who tried to coinvce the U.S. government that he owned all of Arizona. Fuller pitched the idea to Lippert and they were back in business. Celebrated cinematographer James Wong Howe (Seconds) shot the movie for just a fraction of his regular salary. “The camera man is master of his own kingdom,” said Fuller in A Third Face. “I feel the same about the rest of my crew: sound technicians, makeup people, hairdressers, constume designers. We’d discuss the kind of picture I wanted to make. Then I’d give them amble freedom to get the job done.”
Fuller’s collaboration with Lippert continued with The Steel Helmet. The ten day shoot centered on soldiers who were trying their best to survive the brutality of the Korean War. This 1951 feature was the first of five movies that featured actor Gene Evans, one of Fuller’s favorite collaborators.
The Criterion Collection release comes with an essay by film critic Nick Pinkerton.
Dina Silva and Pierre Tsigaridis in "Frankie, Maniac Woman" - Two Witches Films
Now available on Digital and VOD, Frankie, Maniac Woman is an indie horror film that doesn’t pull its punches. The unforgiving violance and brutality may turn off the average viewer, but actress Dina Silva and director Pierre Tsigaridis wanted to make a singular story. Horror fans should gravitate to this unrelenting narrative, and Silva and Tsigaridis gave a clearer insight to their film during their Deepest Dream conversation.
“It’s been years in the making,” said Dina Silva, who co-wrote Frankie, Maniac Woman with good friend Pierre Tsigaridis. “And Hollywood is changing and hard to break into. To be able to show myself in such a great light with my acting and singing as well. And doing it with my dear friend has been nothing short of amazing.”
The story centers on Frankie Ramirez (Silva), a troubled woman who is severely affected by childhood trauma and influenced by the corrosive personalities around her. Ultimately Frankie snaps and becomes a killer. Tsigaridis, who wrote the script with Silva, plays a mysterious presence who plays a huge part in Frankie’s descent into evil.
“We not diluting (the movie) or bending to anyone’s agenda,” said Tsigaridis. “It’s just like being free and really sticking to our guns. We’re fearless even though sometimes it triggers fear like ‘Oh my God, what are people going to think of this?’ We show parks where we’re all vulnerable in this film.”
Both CinemAddicts co-host Eric Holmes and I love the movie. Check out his interview with Silva and Tsigaridis on the podcast:
Frankie, Maniac Woman is now out on Digital and VOD. Share your thoughts on the movie in the comments!
My full interview with Dina Silva and Pierre Tsigraidis is below.
The Mandalorian lead teams up with the creator of Andor? Although it sounds like an eventful Star Wars pairing, Pedro Pascal and Tony Gilroy are not collaborating in a galaxy far, far away. Behemoth!, set in the City of Angels, is an entirely different tune altogether. Check out the trailer below!
Behemoth! centers on Alex Serian (Pedro Pascal), a gifted cellist who has spent 20 years on the road. Alex has returned home to sunny Los Angeles to embark on a new and life changing adventure. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Pascal described the film as a “love letter to music (and) a love letter to movies.” Pascal was recently seen in Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu.
Rounding out the cast are Olivia Wilde, Eva Victor, Alexa Swinton, Kaya Ralls, Erik Griffin, JoBeth Williams, Margarita Levieva, Hank Azaria, and Will Arnett.
Tony Gilroy, the creator and showrunner of the acclaimed series Andor, also directed the features Michael Clayton and Duplicity. He produced Behemoth! with his brother (and Behemoth!) editor John Gilroy and Sanne Wohlenberg. Music from the film is from The Behemoth! Collective.
The teaser trailer, filled with music and tense pacing that is giving off a bit of Hitchcockian vibes, pulled me in without giving too much away. I’m definitely intrigued and am looking forward to seeing the movie.
The feature hits theaters December 4 via Searchlight Pictures. Gilroy is a two-time Oscar nominee, and December releases usually signal awards worthy movies. Will Behemoth! be an awards season favorite? Check out the trailer and share your thoughts in the comments!
Check out our weekly movie review podcast CinemAddicts:
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***We do weekly Blu-ray/Digital Codes giveaways on the CinemAddicts Movie Club. Join our Facebook Club to be part of our community!
Mackenzie Foy in "The Isolate Thief." - Radial Entertainment
Actress Mackenzie Foy stars in The Isolate Thief, a first rate Western that is now playing in theaters. As evidenced from 2020’s Black Beauty, Foy has a natural bond with horses, and that passion must have made this film an obvious movie choice. Foy talked to Deepest Dream about what made working on The Isolate Thief “so much fun.”
Set during the Civil War, The Isolate Thief centers on a young woman (Mackenzie Foy) who is the sole caretaker of a remote Union Army outpost. Upon the discovery of stolen gold, she hides that treasure from several outlaws (led by Sean Bean). Odeya Rush co-stars as a woman who has her own connection with these cutthroats, and together maybe these women can survive this deadly ordeal. Rounding out the ensemble are Jack Kesy, Ty Simpkins, Martin Sensmeier and Joe Pantoliano.
Check out our review of The Isolate Thief on CinemAddicts:
“There is definitely a lot of stunts in (The Isolate Thief), especially for me,” said Foy. “It’s the most I’ve ever done. I really enjoyed it. But it was very cold. We were in Arkansas and so I’m just outside laying on the ground covered in blood. But it was so much fun – lots of firss for me and I think that was also the appeal of (the movie). So that’s always fun to explore new things.”
Mackenzie Foy does ride a horse in The Isolate Thief, so this experience was the best of both worlds for the actress. “I’ve always loved horses,” said Foy. “I now have horses of my own, and that’s something that i’ve started in the adult portion of my life. I think that film is my passion but (a) horse is my peace. And they they overlap, of course I love it, because how could you not? Any day there’s an animal on set, it’s a lovely day. You can’t be upset when there’s a dog or a horse involved.”
Full interview with Mackenzie Foy:
The Isolate Thief is now in theaters. Share your thoughts on the movie in the comments!
***We receive a slight commission if you purchase items through our Amazon SiteStripe and/or our affilate links. Thanks for your support!
Bruce McKenzie and Cemre Paksoy in "Night Nurse." - An Independent Film Company
If you are in the mood for visually immersive, morally complex narratives with personal flourishes, then Night Nurse might be a film to watch. I highly recommend the picture, which is now out in theaters, and last week I had the pleasure of interviewing filmmaker Georgia Bernstein and actors Cemre Paksoy, Mimi Rogers, and Bruce McKenzie. Check out the post for more details on Night Nurse, and it’s a totally bonkers and enigmatic feature that definitely grabbed my attention!
Night Nurse centers on Eleni (Cemre Paksoy), a mysterious woman who lands a job at a luxury retirement community. She immediately becomes drawn to her patient Douglas (Bruce McKenzie), a manipulator who targets elderly residents with scam calls. Mimi Rogers co-stars as Doctor Mann, a focused individual who tries to keep things safe and respectable in the community.
Filmmaker Georgia Bernstein was inspired by her late grandmother’s experience receiving a scam call from a man alleging to be her grandson. Luckily she did not wire money to this criminal, and that instance was part of the elements which started Bernstein on her Night Nurse journey.
“I was living in Chicago at the time, and I had rented this little tiny office that was two blocks from my apartment because I was living with my ex,” said Bernstein, whose grandmother’s Northbrook, Illinois domicile served as one of the film’s settings. “I have so many memories of writing this script in basically this cubicle. It feels so long ago. Writing the script, maybe it’s the distance, but it doesn’t feel like the most challenging part (of making Night Nurse).”
Bernstein, is also childhood friends with Mimi Rogers’ daughter Lucy Rogers (one of Night Nurse’s producers). Lead actress Cemre Paksoy, who delivers a refreshingly nuanced and magnetic performance as Eleni, is also close friends with Bernstein. The “family affair” description applies to this movie, giving the thriller an added dimension.
Cemre Paksoy and Bruce McKenzie in “Night Nurse” – Lidia Nikonova, An Independent Film Company Release.
“Cemre and I, we talked a lot about backstory for her character, and we had idease of where she worked before,” said Bernstein. “Where she came from, and how she could be in this situation. But it was important to me to represent her character specifically. This idea that (Eleni) was a bit of a blank slate that was going to be sucked into this cult (and/or) relationship. I did really want the audience to be able to project onto her and experience the movie through her eyes in that way.”
Part of that projection is exemplified in the visual collaboration between Bernstein and cinematographer Lidia Nikonova. “One thing that my DP and I would talk about a lot is this idea of the desire angle,” added Bernstein. “We watched a lot of Lucrecia Martel movies. Sometimes (Martel) does a shot of someone through a doorway or the back of their neck. And we were trying to find that angle in our film and see the world through Eleni’s eyes.”
***Full interview with Georgia Bernstein and actors Cemre Paksoy, Mimi Rogers, and Bruce McKenzie
“Night Nurse” – An Independent Film Company
Night Nurse is now playing in theaters. Share your thoughts on the film in the comments!
Check out Bruce Purkey’s Night Nurse review on CinemAddicts:
Falling Down - Arrow Video, The Complete Kubrick - Criterion Collection
PM Weekly, Issue #1. One company is preserving cinema forever. The other just killed the disc.
We’re a new, independent newsletter covering the fast-growing world of physical media. Let’s start our journey with a “complete” and fascinating “odyssey” into one of cinema’s most revered filmmakers.
I am going to tell you upfront that I want this one, so weigh everything that follows accordingly.
This week, Criterion announced The Complete Kubrick. Every film Stanley Kubrick has ever directed, thirteen features and three shorts, restored in 4K and gathered into a single thirty-disc box for the first time. It arrives October 20th and costs six hundred dollars. The box itself is modeled on the archive Kubrick built for his own work, the hand-designed boxes he used to keep every photograph, every note, every frame in its place.
That detail is the whole story, because Kubrick understood something most of the industry is busy forgetting: a film is not safe just because it exists somewhere. It has to be kept.
The same week Criterion committed to keeping Kubrick forever, Sony announced it is done with the disc. Starting in 2028, every new PlayStation game will be digital only. No box, no shelf, nothing to hand down, just a license that lives on a server until the day it doesn’t. The company that put the game disc on the map in 1994 is now quietly walking it to the door.
So there is your week, in two announcements. One company spending two years and every resource it has to make sure a body of work can be held, owned, and passed on. Another deciding that owning things is a phase we are all supposed to be growing out of.
I know which side I am on. I want the Kubrick box, partly because a future that quietly deletes the shelf is a future worth arguing with. Welcome to PM Weekly. Let’s get into the week.
Stranger Things – Netflix, Arrow Video.
THIS WEEK ON DISC
The Elephant Man (1980). David Lynch’s stark black-and-white masterpiece comes to 4K from Criterion.
The Evil Dead: 45th Anniversary. Sam Raimi’s low-budget horror landmark arrives in a new 4K edition.
Falling Down (1993). Joel Schumacher’s urban thriller gets a limited-edition 4K from Arrow.
Prom Night (1980). Synapse debuts a world-premiere Dolby Vision restoration on 4K. Only 3000 units are available!
“The Elephant Man” – Courtesy of the Criterion Collection
All told, July’s calendar tops sixty new 4K titles. A full month.
INDUSTRY WATCH
The vault question hanging over the whole hobby got bigger this week. Warner Bros. Discovery’s catalog, one of the deepest libraries in film, is heading into new ownership. Shareholders approved a $110 billion takeover by Paramount Skydance in April, and the deal now waits on regulators. In the meantime, boutique labels are moving fast to license Warner classics while they still can. Arrow, Criterion, Shout! Factory, and Vinegar Syndrome’s Iconoscope all hold Warner deals now. When a century of movies changes hands, the discs already pressed are the copies no merger can rewrite.
MARKET SIGNAL
Here is the number that reframes every “physical is dead” headline: vinyl records topped $1 billion in US sales last year, the first time since 1983. The lesson buried in Sony’s game-disc obituary is that the death of a format is a choice, not a law of nature. When a physical format is treated as something worth owning, people still buy it by the billion.
STORE OF THE WEEK
Videodrome (Atlanta, GA)
Since you are reading a newsletter about owning movies, meet the store that bet its life on it. Opened in Poncey-Highland in 1998 and named for the Cronenberg film, Videodrome is the last video store standing in Atlanta. Roughly 37,000 titles line a 2,000-square-foot space, about 30,000 DVDs and 6,500 Blu-rays, plus a curated wall of VHS for sale, all shelved the way a cinephile actually thinks: whole sections by director, rooms for Lynch and Cronenberg and Tarantino, shelves for film noir, Blaxploitation, and Serbian cinema. The staff’s knowledge is encyclopedic, and when rentals alone got hard, they built the Plazadrome screening series at Atlanta’s oldest theater rather than fold. It is the anti-algorithm, and it is a short drive from where this newsletter is written.
Bonus Features: Unaired Sketches, Deleted Scenes & Bloopers, The Fabulous Making of the Chappelle’s Show
Before he walked away from a reported $50 million deal, Dave Chappelle left behind three nearly finished episodes, and this disc is where they live uncut and unbleeped. It is a fascinating time capsule of a comedian caught between his peak and his breaking point, exactly the kind of artifact streaming quietly lets slip out of reach.
SIGN-OFF
That is Issue #1. If you know one person who still alphabetizes their shelf, forward this to them. That is the whole growth engine we have, and it is a good one.
Hans Christopher and Ryan Wuestewald in "Reeling" - Tribeca Films
Director/producer/writer Yana Alliata makes her feature debut with Reeling, a feature set in O’ahu and executive produced by Werner Herzog. Alliata lived in O’ahu as a youth, and her use of non-actors, along with her familiarity of the area gives Reeling an added dimension. Although armed with an indie budget, Alliata delivered an ambitious film. Through the use of long takes and tracking shots, Alliata gives viewers an immersive look into this fractured family tale. The filmmaker talked to Deepest Dream about Reeling, Herzog, and, of course, O’ahu!
Reeling centers on Ryan (Ryan Wuestewald), a closed off individual who returns home for his sister Meg’s (Nikki DeParis) birthday luau. Every individual at the party is standoffish towards Ryan, and his brother John (Hans Christopher) is especially unfriendly.
Hans Christopher in “Reeling” – Tribeca Films
A traumatic incident involving Ryan has affected the family, and at first Ryan tries to become a bit more part of the group. Those efforts are in vain, and ultimately he must face his past and ultimately confront a long buried truth.
It was “very important” for Yanna Alliata to shoot the movie in Hawaii. “A lot of the films that we see usually from the islands are either about tourists at a resort or some kind of high surf rescue situation,” said Alliata. “And I thought it was really important for me to tell a story that was true to my upbringing in Hawaii, and a place that i love and have deep memories in. (This was) an environment that I was raised in, and a part of Hawaii that we’re not used to seeing so much on a mass scale.”
Werner Herzog, a director of documentary and narrative features, executive produced Reeling and appreciated the tale’s neorealistic bent. “He was attracted to the project because I was working with predominantly non-professional actors,” said Alliata. “It was important for me to have that. So then Werner wanted to get into the editing room as well as the sound mix (and) he came on board naturally as an executive producer once he became involved in every step of the process.”
“Reeling” – Tribeca Films
Alliata is currently working on her next film, as she and her co-writer are revising their “ghost thriller” script that is set in a Hawaiian rainforest. “Actually at the family home that I grew up in,” added Alliata.
Currenly based in Los Angeles, Alliata believes there is “untapped territory” when it comes to Hawaii set storytelling. “I think the dream is definitely to live and work out of O’ahu,” said the filmmaker. “that would be the absolute dream, but I certainly want to keep telling stories out of there. I was raised there, and it’s a really special place.”
Full interview:
Catch Reeling on Digital starting July 7th, and leave your review/thoughts in the comments! I love and recommend this movie, and excited to hear more reactions to the movie!
***We receive a commission when you purchase items via our Amazon SiteStripe and/or Affiliate links. Thanks for your support!
Louis Garrel and Angelina Jolie in "Couture" - Vertical
Angelina Jolie is simply terrific in director/writer Alice Winocour’s Paris Fashion Week drama Couture. If you have already seen the movie, we have the ending explained and spoilers to dish out. Join CinemAddicts host Eric Holmes and I discuss several of the spoilers in the movie and we also give thoughts on the movie’s finale!
Maxine Walker (Angelina Jolie) is a successful horror director who is hired to helm the opening video of a Paris Fashion week runaway show. It’s a great gig for Maxine, but during her journey she will creatively butt heads with her cinematographer Anton (Louis Garrel). She also is finding it hard to communicate with her daughter, who is probably frustrated that her mother is not home enough to her liking.
Angelina Jolie in “Couture” – Vertical
Upon discovery of her breast cancer, Maxine has to figure out where her priorities truly lie. Couture also features the secondary stories of Ada (a standout Anyier Anei), a model from South Sudan who has just arrived from Paris. Ella Rumph is Angèle, an empathetic make-up artist who is also an aspiring writer.
Leading up to the Fashion Week event, all three women face their respective challenges, and all of our Spoilers are discussed below!!
The Fateful Decision From Maxine (Angelina Jolie)
Dealing with an uncommunicative daughter and learning about her breast cancer has left Maxine understandably stressed on her Paris job. Ultimately she bonds with Anton towards the end of the story as she delivers the news. They end up making love at her hotel room, and the final moments has Maxine going to the bathroom and getting ready to shave her head (in preparation for chemotherapy). The camera pans to the window and then focuses in on a carnival ride (it’s shown in the trailer).
Most importantly, Maxine decided to cancel her upcoming directing job (she was set to shoot a new movie) and spend some more time in Paris for her chemotherapy. By the film’s end, Maxine had only told Anton and Angèle (who was a relative stranger), about her cancer diagnosis.
Ella Rumph and Anyier Anei in “Couture” – Vertical
Does Ada (Anyier Anei) Shine During Fashion Week?
Another big storyline deals with newbie model Ada’s (Anyier Anei) pressure filled job at Fashion Week. She headlines Maxine’s video (where she wears vampire teeth) and also is the opening model for the runway. The previous evening she sprained her ankle practicing her model walk with her fellow colleagues, and the big drama focused on if she would possibly trip during her walk.
The great news is she pulled off her runway performance without a hitch, and even when a storm hit the event and almost everyone (except Maxine) were leaving, Ada stayed to soak in (literally) her accomplishment. The tale ends with Ada gaining her confidence, and now she will either continue her promising modeling career or take that money and go to pharmacy school!
Ella Rumpf in “Couture” – Vertical
Is Angéle (Ella Rumpf) A Discouraged Or Emboldened Writer?
Angèle serves as a confidante to both Maxine and Ada. She gives Ada welcome insights during her model shoot, and thanks to the comfort of strangers, she is a compassionate presence when Maxine delivers her cancer news.
However, Angèle is going through her own trials and tribulations. During a facetime conversation with a writer while she’s taking a break from her job, she gets negative input on her story. The writer, after telling her that her accounts of real life is not interesting, reminds her that he’s owed money (for his words of advice) at the end of the conversation. Angèle gets teary eyed from the whole exchange, but thankfully that does not alter her dreams.
During the Fashion Week event, as the storm continues, she continues to write about the people she has encountered on the job (from my recollection, she is also inspired from her meeting with Maxine and puts that into prose). All’s well that ends well with Angèle.
Garance Marillier co-stars as Christine, a seamstress who is working on Ada’s white dress, and her minor storyline is, with obvious symbolism, a way to “stich” these stories together. With a ton of time spent and dedication, Christine manages to finish the dress in time for Fashion Week.
Check out our full Couture movie review and ending explained/spoilers below!! Also listen to our entire CinemAddicts episode as well:
Couture is now playing in theaters. Share your thoughts on the movie in the comments!
Join our CinemAddicts Movie Club, where we watch a recommended Film each week and I give away a Digital Code or Blu-ray/DVD (discs are viewed only a couple of times) from my libary. This week’s giveaway (ending Sunday, July 5) is Crime 101 4K Ultra HD and we will be discussing The Sheep Detectives.
***We receive a slight commission when you use our Amazon SiteStripe and/or affiliate links for your purchases. Thanks for your support!
