It’s somewhat surprising it took this long for Marc by Sofia (now on HBO Max) to get made, considering the friendship between fashion designer Marc Jacobs and filmmaker Sofia Coppola goes back decades. It now boasts enough platonic intimacy for Jacobs to call Coppola his muse, having employed her during her stint as a fashion model. One can also see Jacobs’ influence on the look and influence of Coppola films such as Marie Antoinette. Considering how aesthetically intertwined their art can be, it makes sense that Jacobs would be the subject of Coppola’s first documentary feature — the question is whether her insider status makes the film better or puts a ball and chain around its leg.

The Gist: Marc by Sofia opens with a Sonic Youth track; it closes with Elastica. So yes, absolutely on f—ing point for Coppola, whose work here adheres to her M.O. of flirting with emotional depth while leaning heavily into style style style (see also: Marie Antoinette, Lost in Translation). Curiously, though, the first sequence in the film to feature Jacobs himself is a blase archival clip of an interview on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in which Jacobs shares an anecdote about how he still rides the subway in New York City. Curious, because the glut of the documentary focuses less on his grounded humanity and significantly more on his campy high fashion designs, the likes of which would make a train-riding pragmatist bristle. Even Jacobs himself marvels at the however many hours he and his crew of however many designers (the doc isn’t big on sharing such details) put into a seven-minute show featuring clothing that’s so overtly impractical that no one will ever see these garments again. Such is the fleeting nature of some art, I guess.

And so we lean over Jacobs’s shoulder for twelve weeks as he prepares for a spring 2024 show that will feature gigantic poofed-out wigs, nutty squared-off oversized garments, and the clumpiest eyelashes ever (note: these are not technical terms). Entire minutes of the film are spent on the eyelash clumps, and much has been and will be made of these scenes, so for better or worse I guess that’s something we’ve never really seen in a film before. Wearing a silver manicure, Jacobs fondles swatch after swatch after swatch of fabric and shares how his artistic vision for a show never reveals itself until he’s essentially muddling his way through the first few weeks of preparation. He starts with a blank page, and dips into lasting images from his favorite films (ranging from The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant to Hello Dolly) and memories of time spent with his grandmother as a child as inspiration.

Occasionally, Coppola asks Jacobs about himself, and he talks about “his father’s early death, his difficult relationship with his stepfather, and his decision to live with his grandmother in Manhattan.” I quote Wikipedia, which regularly offers concise summaries of the content of movies. That’s also the extent to which these topics are discussed, and so close to a direct quote of Jacobs, it’s almost comical. Consider everyone to be rather guarded here, as is their right to privacy, so that’s not a complaint. 

But in those moments we wished there were third-party talking heads in this doc to offer some context and analysis, a remarkable statement considering how exhausted we are by third-party talking heads in documentaries. Coppola covers some of Jacobs’ greatest hits, ranging from the audacious sweaters he designed in 1984 while at the Parsons School of Design to his controversial “grunge collection” in the ’90s to his highly theatrical, dance-oriented 2020 show. And it all adds up to Sofia Coppola’s view of Marc Jacobs, which may be fascinating to only Sofia Coppola.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? The September Issue is a stronger fashion-biz countdown doc; Very Ralph is a glossy hagiography of Ralph Lauren that’s so dull and fawning, it makes Marc by Sofia look better. 

Performance Worth Watching: Jacobs is absolutely a genial and willing documentary subject, giving us a tiny glimpse of his insecurities (he may be famous and rich and better-dressed than all of us, but he’s still human you know) and despite his exacting demeanor, never coming off like the fashion-diva stereotype.

Sex And Skin: None.

Our Take: Marc by Sofia is sort of about the creative process, sort of about how film influenced Jacobs, sort of about his life, sort of about the art of elite fashion, but not fully about anything. It even struggles to function in its countdown to the spring show, tick-tocked via subtitles — either Coppola doesn’t bother to generate tension in the lead-up, or there just wasn’t much tension to capture, and if so, why count down in the first place? As a glimpse into a niche culture (whose critics will huffily pigeonhole as superficial and overblown, a rash judgment I find tempting but actively resist), it makes far too many assumptions about what its audience knows. In this sense, its lack of basic nut-graf information is alienating to those who don’t know Jacobs’ history and influence. Coppola begins a step beyond that and takes another half-step in telling his story, landing on such a narrowly focused narrative that it often feels like the inside-est of inside baseball.

While it’s enjoyable to see archival footage of MTV’s coverage of Coppola’s and Sonic Youth musician Kim Gordon’s X-Girl fashion show on the streets of New York in 1990-something (again, a detail might’ve been nice), which functioned as counterprogramming to Jacobs’ highfalutin pageantry, the doc never illustrates the connection between their art and interests beyond hey, Sofia is into fashion too! — and we know there’s more to it than that, because these aren’t empty people, right? 

There are moments early on when it seems Coppola will funnel her subject’s aesthetic through the lens of film history, which would have been a logical thesis for the doc. Whether it comes to any meaningful fruition is in question – he loved Streisand and Liza and Liz (as in Taylor), and they were influences, and we see it in the designs his models wear in this 2024 show, but such observations feel more rote than revelatory. It could be true that Jacobs and Coppola follow their intuition and struggle to verbalize such feelings, but if so, it doesn’t make for a particularly compelling documentary. 

Our Call: Fashion fanatics may appreciate the insights Marc by Sofia offers — considerably more than the average audience, who likely will shrug their shoulders with indifference. SKIP IT. 

John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.