Adam Driver gives the performance of the year in "Annette," a positively kooky movie musical that is as visionary as it is bizarre.
It's a story about the impulses that drive one to commit heinous acts of murder, and one major role in the film is filled by a puppet. It's a cracked look at celebrity, marriage and parenthood, a sort-of critique on tabloid culture and a glance at the highfalutin world of the fine arts. Audiences will laugh at times, and they're supposed to. Other times they won't know what to do with themselves, and that's part of the inscrutable experience that is "Annette."
Driver plays Henry McHenry, a bad boy stand-up comedian with a provocative live act. He hits the stage in a green bathrobe and performs off-the-cuff bits where his audiences aren't sure where the bit ends and his confessionals begin. Driver is nothing less than transfixing in these scenes, attacking them with a livewire ferocity; in the credits he thanks Bill Burr and Chris Rock, who must have served as his comic inspiration.
At home, Henry is married to Ann Defrasnoux (Marion Cotillard), a famous opera singer, and they love each other so much that they express it in song, singing back and forth, "we love each other so much." Ah yes, the story and songs here are written by Sparks, the wonderfully quirky American duo of Ron and Russell Mael (themselves having a moment, with this summer's "The Sparks Brothers" documentary winning new converts), whose straightforward approach to songwriting yields sublime moments such as opener, "It's Time to Start." The brothers appear as themselves in the film, setting a tone of surrealism that extends throughout.
Henry and Ann have a baby, and that baby appears on screen as a puppet, a metaphorical expression of how Henry looks at his child. When he later kills Ann, confessing to the crime on stage before he does it, Henry coaxes baby Annette to become a stage performer, and she turns a worldwide singing phenomenon, although she can barely walk.
"Annette" isn't for everybody; if you want ordinary, go see "Jungle Cruise." This is a challenging, satirical, farcical piece of esoterica, and Driver is electrifying in an award-worthy performance. Director Leos Carax (the equally bananas "Holy Motors") blurs the lines between reality and fiction to the point where it's unclear what is honest and what is make-believe. But just try taking your eyes off it.
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'ANNETTE'
Grade: B
Rated: R (for sexual content including some nudity, and for language)
Running time: 2:20
Where to watch: In theaters Friday; streaming on Amazon Prime Video Aug. 20
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