Coco: Lebendiger als das Leben (2017)

Coco: Lebendiger als das Leben: Directed by Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina. With Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach. Aspiring musician Miguel, confronted with his family’s ancestral ban on music, enters the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-grandfather, a legendary singer.

“The art pop band Sparks (Ron and Russel Mael), recently featured in Edgar Wrightu0026#39;s documentary, The Sparks Brothers, has crafted a bizarre, surreal, and all-too-real film that explores the consequences of fame, child exploitation, male stupidity, and marriage. Itu0026#39;s a smart rarity, where the characters mostly communicate in song and nothing is safe, not even love.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHenry (Adam Driver), a successful comedian, loves opera singer, Ann (Marion Cotillard, but fame for both is a deal breaker. Youu0026#39;ve heard it all before (A Star is Born anyone?), and to some extent the disintegration of their marriage is close to a cliché, but their singing and the lack of haranguing or bitter tirades almost has you thinking they can make it. To those adoring fans on the outside, their union is perfect.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWith the entrance of their baby girl, Annette, and Annu0026#39;s exit, Henry is left to his own devices relying on others to care for her but becoming obsessive about Annetteu0026#39;s gifted voice. It doesnu0026#39;t take him long to exploit her talent around the world and for the fates to catch up with him.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDriver is particularly effective as a towering talent (his comedy act is unusually odd and bright), brooding and elusive. Although Cotillard could always carry a picture (La Vie En Rose), this one belongs to Driver, whose character is as charged as his performance.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSpecial credit must be given to the Sparks bros, who wrote the story and the music, evocative of Brian De Palmau0026#39;s Phantom of Paradise and any Sondheim, and to French director Leos Carax, whose off-center vision helps Annette be a wildly different take on the ravages of fame and the hubris of men.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSlow and eccentric for some, just quirky and insightful for others, this romance is artistically enough for anyone wanting a worthy drama that happens to be a musical.”