Movie · 2021 · Drama, Romance · 2h 20m · R · French
Curator score: 4.0/10 (24.9K ratings)
As dangerous, as intense, as love.
Overview
In present-day Los Angeles, controversial stand-up comedian Henry McHenry and internationally renowned opera singer Ann Defrasnoux form the façade of a happy couple in the spotlight. Ann gives birth to a baby girl named Annette, who possesses an exceptional gift that will change all of their lives forever.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.0/10
IMDb: 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 72%
Metacritic: 67
TMDB: 6.7/10
Director
Leos Carax
Production
Eurospace, Detailfilm, ARTE France Cinéma, CG Cinéma, Garidi Films, Théo Films
Cast
Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, Simon Helberg, Devyn McDowell, Natalia Lafourcade, Sinay Bavurhe, Franziska Grohmann, Rachel Mulowayi, Christiane Tchouhan, Iman Europe, Lauren Evans, Cindy Almouzni, Danielle Withers, Angèle, Julia Bullock, Claron McFadden, Natalie Mendoza, Kiko Mizuhara, Noémie Schellens, Kanji Furutachi
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A wild, divisive art-pop tragedy that turns celebrity, performance, and self-destruction into something operatic and strangely moving. It’s messy on purpose, but the ambition, visual invention, and emotional audacity make it worth seeing if you’re open to a movie that sings, snarls, and derails in equal measure.
Best for
viewers who like experimental musicals
fans of dark, surreal relationship dramas
people interested in performance, fame, and celebrity satire
audiences who enjoy bold formal risk over narrative neatness
Skip if
you want a straightforward romance
you dislike sung-through or heavily stylized storytelling
you prefer emotional realism and clean tonal control
you’re easily frustrated by abrasive, self-conscious art cinema
Overview
Annette is the kind of movie that announces itself as a provocation and then keeps escalating until it becomes a full-blown fever dream. It uses the language of musical theater, stand-up, and tabloid melodrama to tell a story about love as performance and parenthood as a stage act gone rotten. The result is often funny, ugly, and exhilarating at once.
Worth noting
What makes it stick is not polish but nerve. Leos Carax treats Los Angeles like a haunted soundstage and lets the movie lurch between satire, grief, and absurdity without apology. Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard commit completely, and the film keeps finding new ways to turn their chemistry into discomfort, spectacle, and pathos.
Bottom line
It won’t work for everyone, and that’s part of the point. Some viewers will find it overlong, mannered, or emotionally remote; others will see a rare modern musical that actually feels dangerous. If you like cinema that swings for the fences and sometimes misses spectacularly, this is an easy yes.
Top Letterboxd reviews
f🥀 (5★) · 6087 likes
5 stars because i watched this in the same room as adam driver and he fucking smoked during his standing ovation
frenchfox (4★) · 5751 likes
Adam Driver as Evil Bo Burnham
silkymovies (4.5★) · 4402 likes
Adam Driver growled “it’s tickle time!” and somebody in my audience literally screamed
gabe (3★) · 3036 likes
so basically what La La Land would’ve looked like if David Lynch directed it
davidehrlich (2★) · 2669 likes
the first 10 minutes: CINEMA LIVES!!
the last 130 minutes: i will find and kill thomas edison for his crimes.
breaks my heart not to love a Leos Carax movie, especially *this* Leos Carax movie. but that's what you get for looking forward to things.