If there's a silver lining to the bizarre situation that movies have found themselves in for the last year and a half, it's that with so much focus on streaming movie titles, a lot of smaller movies that might not otherwise get noticed are being seen by larger audiences. While it's usually the big blockbuster movies, or their trailers, that frequently get social media talking, sometimes a little movie can come along and be just fresh enough, or bizarre enough, that people haver to talk about it online because they need the world to know what it is that they saw. Such is the case with Annette.
The new movie stars Adam Driver, which may be the main reason that many people sought it out, but they likely got something that they weren't quite expecting. Annette is, without a question, an unusual movie, in just that way that people feel very strongly about it. But it might also be a great one. Here a look at what fans are saying about Annette.
Annette Is Weird, But Good Weird
Whether or not people like Annette or not, what seems very clear is the general consensus that the movie is weird as hell. That's not inherently a good or bad statement, just one of fact. The movie is a romantic drama, but it's also a musical and has one character who is primarily played by an actual puppet, but who is treated as a real person. At a certain point, there's really no way to get around the strangeness of it all. Although, under those circumstances, it's maybe no shock that Adam Driver stars in this movie.
There is a true, and of course, provides [quite intentional surrealness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annette(film) to _Annette. There's a lot going on under the hood that audiences will need to be ok with for the movie to get anywhere. While there are certainly a lot of people online who really didn't like what Annette had on offer, the responses to the movie that are resonating the most are the more positive perspectives. Even those who admit that Annette's underlying strangeness was potentially difficult to overcome still ultimately agree that the movie is something special.
It seems clear that if you can let Annette be what it is, that it can ultimately win you over. It's an emotional experience that's hitting a lot of people surprisingly hard. The relationships between the characters are complex, difficult and frequently toxic. But while there may be a natural feeling of artificiality to Annette, between the fact that it's a musical and the fact that one character isn't entirely human, those emotions are quite real and are resonating with many viewers.
Adam Driver Is Amazing
One thing that is probably a pretty non-controversial statement right now is that Adam Driver is a great actor. He has a lot of fans, and most critics have had few bad things to say about Driver's capabilities as an actor. And it's maybe because Annette is such a strange movie, rather than in spite of it, that Driver is able to show just how good he is here. If he, and it is largely his movie, can get you invested despite the surreal aspects of the movie, then it proves just how good an actor he is.
The term "Oscar-worthy" is being thrown around a lot right now in regards to Adam Driver's performance here. Whether something like that might happen is anybody's guess. The structure of awards season is going to continue to be a work in progress this year to be sure. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing as it pertains to potential Oscar nominations for Adam Driver is pretty difficult to tell right now. However, the Academy Awards do frequently recognize unusual films, so perhaps it is possible.
And Annette certainly wouldn't be the first time that an actor in a movie was recognized even if the rest of the movie isn't necessarily seen as great. Annette is getting mostly positive reviews from critics, so it's possible it is a movie that will be embraced come awards season, but even if that doesn't happen, it's not softening the love that many have for Adam Driver here.
Although, perhaps more interestingly, Adam Driver isn't the only actor getting noticed by fans.
Simon Helberg Is Blowing People Away In Annette
Adam Driver may be great in Annette, but if anything, he's great in a way that we've come to expect. We know Driver is great. The performance in Annette that's so good it's potentially shocking belongs to Simon Helberg. The actor who is still largely known for his role on The Big Bang Theory gets to show a dramatic side that we rarely see, and people really seem to be responding to it.
Simon Helberg plays The Accompanist in Annette. He's a character that doesn't even have a name, which is just one of the smaller elements that makes the whole movie feel strange. Whenever actors known for comedy take a dramatic turn it tends to get noticed, and that certainly what happened here. Helberg isn't just known for comedy, but for television sitcoms, and now he's in a strange musical/drama/puppet movie. He doesn't look like himself and the performance is quite powerful for many. It will certainly be interesting to see if Helberg starts getting a lot more dramatic film roles going forward. Perhaps one day, his comedy will be the outlier in his career.
Could we see two of Annette's actors get recognized in a couple months when award season gets going? Perhaps. There are certainly those that think such recognition would be justified.
There will be some that can't quite get through the unusual way that Annette is built. It's a musical, but not in the Broadway or Disney tradition that many might be looking for. It's a relationship drama centered on a doll. But at its core, the story is there and o are the performances, and if you can embrace all that's non-traditional on the surface, you can maybe find something truly remarkable underneath it all.
