2021 Ranking

It pains me how little emotional investment I felt in this film. I don't even despise it or anything - completely apathetic to almost every element in its story, its choice of characters, the musical styling of the songs exacerbated the experience for me: maybe it was the point but not a single memorable one for me, and plenty I thought were downright bad.

Carax's direction which I usually love so much for its off-kilter vibrancy and vigour, left me cold. An obvious comparison point would be the central dynamic in this to say, Lovers on the Bridge . Zero emotional investment in anything that happened, which left a key element of the film an utterly hollow core for me.

And on the note of Henry McHenry...look, I get it, unlikable characters can make for engaging protagonists, but I just had no strong feelings about the guy either way. I could feel the film straining to really get invested in him...but just, nothing. Same with little Annette, for all the fuss about the creepy puppet I just didn't really care about her. Did like Simon Helberg's performance though. He was really the only thing that pulled me in, ever so briefly, in the very scant screen time that was focused on him.