After my hot take of hating Holy Motors, I was nervous going into this. Turns out, I shouldn’t have been, because this is probably my second favorite movie of the year so far.

Are there oddities? Sure. The lyrical style has both benefits and drawbacks. Sparks often uses repetition to subtly change the meaning of phrases, and often it’s kind of joke-y, but sometimes it doesn’t *quite* feel that thought out. It always feels operatic, though, and even if there’s not many “songs”, rather vignette of pieces scattered throughout scenes, it still feels like a full blown musical.

Having only seen one other Carax film, I can’t quite speak to as much on his front. I WILL say that Holy Motors has all the trademarks of what should be a fun movie, but seems to throw it all aside to provoke thought instead, caring very little if what being portrayed is actually entertaining. Here, combined with Sparks, his style is transformed into something a little more off the cuff, a little more in the moment enjoyable. Does this mean there isn’t depth here? Not at all! The ending takes all of the wild elements and wraps it up in a gut punch, in a reflection that takes what should be an obvious theme and makes it even more impactful than you realize. There’s a reason that we use fiction to reveal truth, and Annette manages to utilize that fact splendidly.