Annette (2021)

Directed by Leos Karax. Starring Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, Simon Helberg, Devyn McDowell. [R]

Leos Carax’s anti-musical rock opera, penned by Ron & Russell Mael of cult pop duo, Sparks, is an ungainly contraption that operates on borderline avant-garde wavelengths in both structural and emotional terms. It’s cluttered with so many highly-questionable ingredients, that it was almost destined to fail for anyone not predisposed to accept everything at surreal, experimental face value: a child performer represented until the finale by an ugly marionette puppet, fantasies of Me Too media accusations and news reporter interludes, Driver doing “edgy” stand-up comedy, a smorgasbord of bluntly underlining lyrics that hold the audience’s hand through every dismal fabrication of the dizzy narrative, and so on. The actors try, but their awkwardness is palpable (even Cotlliard, whose solemnly ethereal opera singer can’t glow bright enough), and the artfully-staged production elements combined with the woozy editing and camerawork produces some memorable imagery, but the thin semi-operatic tragedy is as unwelcoming as it is unrelenting, and plays out over such an arduous length, that its unbalanced extravagance turns wearisome instead of exhilarating. Driver also co-produced.

43/100