Leos Carax directs Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard and Simon Helberg in this rock opera where a stand-up comedian’s relationship with his opera singer wife and his puppet daughter disintegrates.

Tried to go into this with as open a heart as possible but this kinda of pretentious, anus gazing just isn’t for me. It almost had me with the sung to camera “let’s start the show” prologue but any goodwill was ground out over the next two hours. Some of Sparks’ full songs stay in your head for days after. Cotillard’s doomed face is always welcome in any context. Though the movie does just seem to want to dress her up like a doll with a never ending wardrobe until the inevitable point where she is killed off. Then we are just stuck in misery with a monotone Driver and a creepy marionette. The lead character’s stand-up routines would never work in reality but someone liked the poetry around the idea that a comedian “kills” and “dies” on stage. So we have to endure them. Where are we by the end? Bored and restless. Really not for me but you might be seduced by the visual big swings it takes… but I’m betting you won’t.

3

Check out my wife Natalie’s Point Horror blog https://cornsyrup.co.uk

We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and/