French director Leos Carax was honored at Cannes, where the movie had its admirers as well as naysayers.
It doesn’t help that there’s a familiar “A Star is Born” dynamic built into the story, which focuses on the unlikely relationship between a provocateur comedian, Driver’s Henry McHenry, and an opera diva, Ann .
As the fictitious entertainment-news program Showbizz News explains, when the movie begins both stars are “at the pinnacle of their careers,” which makes their engagement and marriage catnip for the paparazzi .
Suffice it to say that the movie gives Driver – who explored a soured relationship in “Marriage Story” – ample opportunity to emote and sing , which is admirable in one respect and an overreach in another.
Although the film will debut in US theaters first, a more logical venue for the curious to see it will be via Amazon, where “Annette” lands in a few weeks.