She hadn’t sung in public for years. Not really. By 1977, Maria Callas was a ghost haunting her own plush Paris apartment, surrounded by memory and the fading echoes of a voice that once defined an entire art form. This is the jagged, beautiful, and deeply somber territory explored in Maria, the new Angelina Jolie film that has everyone talking about whether the "diva" archetype is finally being understood or just further mythologized.
If you’ve seen the trailers, you know the vibe. It’s moody. It’s expensive-looking. It’s got that specific, high-contrast cinematography that makes everything feel like a dream you’re about to wake up from. Directed by Pablo Larraín, this movie completes his unofficial "tragic women" trilogy, following Jackie and Spencer. But honestly? Maria feels different. It’s less about the public scandal and more about the internal rot of losing the one thing that makes you you.
What Most People Get Wrong About Callas (and the Movie)
A lot of folks go into this expecting a standard "rise and fall" biopic. You won't find that here. Larraín and screenwriter Steven Knight (the Peaky Blinders creator) aren't interested in a Wikipedia entry. They focus almost entirely on the final week of Callas’s life.
- The Hallucinations: One of the weirdest and most striking choices in the film is the character of "Mandrax." Played by Kodi Smit-McPhee, he’s a young filmmaker interviewing Maria. Except, he isn’t real. He’s a drug-induced hallucination. Callas was heavily using Mandrax (a sedative) to cope with her depression and the loss of Aristotle Onassis.
- The Voice: People keep asking: Is that actually Angelina singing? The answer is a bit of both. Jolie trained for seven months to learn the breathing and posture of an opera singer. The audio is a digital blend—a "franken-voice"—that mixes Jolie's real singing with restored recordings of the actual Maria Callas.
- The Timeline: While the film centers on 1977, it zig-zags through time. You see the trauma of her childhood in Nazi-occupied Greece and the toxic, high-society whirl of her romance with Onassis.
The Performance That Split the Critics
Look, Angelina Jolie is a polarizing figure. Always has been. In this film, she leans into that. Her Maria is haughty, difficult, and sometimes deeply unlikeable. She makes her butler (Pierfrancesco Favino) and housekeeper (Alba Rohrwacher) move her grand piano from room to room just because she’s bored. It’s petty. It’s also heartbreaking.
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Critics have been duking it out over this one. Some, like Peter Bradshaw at The Guardian, called it "luxurious" and "engrossing." Others felt it was a bit hollow, like a fashion shoot masquerading as a soul-searching drama.
"Jolie’s Maria is a glorious, luminous wreck, looking for peace but drawn inexorably to a world of grand artifice." — TheWrap
Despite the mixed reviews, the "awards buzz" was deafening for a while. She landed a Golden Globe nomination, though the 2025 Oscar nomination for Best Actress famously slipped through her fingers. Some say the film was too "cold" for the Academy. Others think the competition—which was brutal that year—just squeezed her out.
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Why This Film Is a Turning Point for Jolie
This isn't just another role. For Jolie, Maria marks a return to the kind of heavy, character-driven work that won her an Oscar for Girl, Interrupted decades ago. She’s spent so much time in the "Director" chair or doing Marvel movies (Eternals) that people forgot she can disappear into a role this completely.
It’s also clearly personal. There’s a scene where her character talks about her personal life overshadowing her work—something Jolie has dealt with since the 90s. The metatextual layers here are thicker than the curtains in Callas's apartment.
Beyond the Opera: What’s Next for Angelina?
If Maria left you wanting more of this "new era" of Jolie, you won't have to wait long. She’s already moving into vastly different territory.
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- Couture: This one premiered at TIFF in late 2025 and is hitting theaters now (January 2026). She plays an American director in Paris who receives a breast cancer diagnosis while shooting a film. It’s supposedly even more emotional than Maria.
- Sunny: This is the big pivot. It’s a dark survival thriller directed by Eva Sørhaug. Jolie plays a gangster mother protecting her sons from a drug kingpin. Think John Wick energy but with more "gritty realism."
- The Initiative: She’s reuniting with Doug Liman (Mr. & Mrs. Smith) for a spy thriller. It’s being pitched as Training Day meets the world of espionage.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Film Buffs
If you’re planning to watch Maria on Netflix or in a boutique cinema, here’s how to actually enjoy it without getting frustrated by the pacing:
- Listen to the "Vissi d'arte" recording first. It’s the aria from Tosca that serves as the film’s emotional spine. Knowing the lyrics ("I lived for art, I lived for love") makes the ending hit ten times harder.
- Don't expect a history lesson. If you want the facts about her rivalry with Renata Tebaldi or the specifics of her weight loss, watch a documentary. This is a "mood piece."
- Watch for the colors. The film uses color to signify the "present" (1977) and black-and-white for the memories and the "performance" of being a diva.
The new Angelina Jolie film is a heavy lift, but it’s probably the most honest thing she’s done in fifteen years. It’s a movie about the cost of being a legend and what happens when the applause finally stops.
Check the Netflix Top 10 lists to see if it’s still trending, or look for Couture showtimes if you’re ready for the next chapter of her 2026 comeback.