Annette
Alamode Film | Release Date: August 6, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 51 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
17
Negative:
3

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Time OutDave CalhounJul 7, 2021
It’s such a loopy endeavour overall that Annette will likely have some audiences running from it screaming as much as it will have others worshipping at its altar. It’s a hard film to adore, but an easy one to thank for its very existence. Read full review
60
BBCNicholas BarberJul 6, 2021
It's kitsch at times and transcendent at others, but the delicate puppetry and the gonzo ambition will guarantee Annette a cult following. Read full review
59
Paste MagazineJacob OllerAug 4, 2021
Like the rest of Annette, the dry humor isn’t funny enough to fully sustain its cool-kid commentary and the filmmaking is never grand enough to fully sell the caricature. Read full review
58
Original-CinKaren GordonAug 5, 2021
If you want to see what it means to a film when an excellent actor fully commits to a role, look to Adam Driver’s performance in Leos Carax’s award winning musical Annette. He breathes life into what is an otherwise dry and emotionally disconnected film. Read full review
55
Vanity FairRichard LawsonAug 6, 2021
It’s a lot of nervy construction built around very little substance. Driver and Cotillard are admirably committed, and the film does occasionally soar to giddily surreal, big-burst musical highs. Not near often enough, though. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyAug 11, 2021
For most of Annette, Carax films the actors singing mainly in long travelling shots that hardly reveal much personality on the part of either actor or director. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 7, 2021
I found it a movie musical that loses its way when it loses its sense of play. Read full review
50
TimeStephanie ZacharekAug 6, 2021
Annette is an extravagant-looking and often inventive film, but it’s not a great one. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyAug 5, 2021
Maybe the most inexplicable thing among the movie’s many inexplicabilities is the near-complete waste it makes of an actress as gifted as Cotillard. Read full review
50
USA TodayBrian TruittAug 3, 2021
Annette attempts to be an avant-garde rock opera, a farce about modern star culture and a tragic family drama all in one bizarre, head-scratching concoction, and not even a revved-up Driver or songs by the cult art-pop group Sparks can lift the film to its lofty aims. Read full review
50
SlashfilmJason GorberJul 7, 2021
Followers of Carax will be warmed by his return if a little disappointed it doesn’t quite recapture the magic, while fans of Sparks (many newly minted thanks to Wright) may appreciate the foray into a different outlet for their art. For those of us open to the experience but without a baked-in attitude to love this sight unseen, Annette proves to be a deeply flawed picture that still has many moments to recommend it. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJul 6, 2021
Carax’s trademark bonkers magic elevates many of these scenes, to be sure. But there’s also a nagging naiveté, even a silliness to the storytelling that kept bumping me out of the sluggish drama. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony LaneAug 9, 2021
Annette is a folie de grandeur, alas, without the grandeur. Read full review
40
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiAug 6, 2021
Annette is extravagant and ambitious, but it’s also frustrating, pompous and emotionally flat. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonAug 6, 2021
Occasionally, he allows his gift for creating poetically beautiful and architecturally elevated cinema to spill out across the screen. The thing that eludes Mr. Carax—as Annette so amply and painfully demonstrates—is balance. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeJul 6, 2021
In this particular cocktail, Carax is boiling lead to Sparks’ soda-pop fizz, sucking all the fun from the root-beer float. What does go well with the French auteur’s honesty-insisting earnestness is Adam Driver’s over-committed lead turn. Read full review
40
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyJul 6, 2021
The ultimate problem with this flamboyant, yet oddly oppressive-feeling film is Carax’s bleakly Romantic world view – even working with exuberant wits like the Maels, he’s unavoidably committed to the dark abyss himself. Read full review
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