Scott Walker also composed the score for 'The Childhood of a Leader,' so his work with Corbet is already a fascinating collaboration. An intriguing mix, in particular the Scott Walker-Sia combination. All I knew were four names: Portman, Corbet, and music by two wildly different artists, Scott Walker (not the outgoing Governor of Wisconsin) and Sia, the Australian singer/songwriter. She's really out there on the edge, where she belongs.Įven with the buzz surrounding the film, I managed to go into 'Vox Lux' almost cold. Portman is in a really interesting zone here, fearless in a way that feels reckless. It's not an ingratiating performance, nor is it careful. Whether she's slurping white wine from a plastic cup at a diner, not letting her daughter get a word in edgewise, flipping out when a journalist asks a forbidden question, or collapsing into sobs before a show, Portman rides the unpredictable rhythms of Celeste's life. She whip-saws from tenderness to rage to tears, and she means all of it, so everyone around her, including her teenage daughter (also played by Cassidy), rides that roller-coaster.

Everything she does is honest, and this makes her a nightmare, and yet also irresistible. Celeste lives a life incomprehensible to most people, but it's normal to her. While preparing for a concert in her home town on Staten Island, she spirals into a panic. Celeste is now struggling to repair her reputation after a series of scandals. When Natalie Portman steps into the movie as Celeste 17 years years later, still famous, still with silver fabric around her throat, you never doubt she is the grownup version of the teenager toughened by trauma and experience when she was so young. 'Vox Lux' gives a visceral sense of what overnight fame must actually feel like to those who experience it, the sped-up nature of time, how the earth falls away beneath your feet. But the music industry is not known for protecting the innocence of its young stars. Celeste's older sister Eleanor ( Stacy Martin) does her best to protect her sister, who is, after all, only 14 years old when all this happens. She is then pounced on by a manager ( Jude Law) and a record label executive ( Jennifer Ehle), who look at her and see dollar signs. Unlike Britney Spears or Madonna or Katy Perry, Celeste came to fame through a tragic event (shown in the absolutely terrifying first scene), which launched her into a national spotlight. 'At least she wrote her own lyrics,' says the voiceover, sounding defensive on her behalf. But Britney Spears can be a serious topic, especially when considered as cultural phenomena. 'Her loss of innocence mirrored that of the nation.' 'She was prisoner of a gaudy and unlivable present.' It's like a college term-paper from a student who takes Britney Spears very seriously.

The voiceover keeps reappearing, interjecting commentary (social and political), loading down the film with a sense of portent, almost dread. Celeste is introduced by a voiceover, given by an immediately recognizable voice. How Celeste came to be a famous pop singer takes up the first half of the film (star Natalie Portman doesn't even appear until an hour in). The film is an onslaught, sometimes silly, sometimes profound, but always riveting and emotional, and dazzlingly sure of itself. 'Vox Lux,' written and directed by Brady Corbet, whose ' The Childhood of a Leader' was one of the best films of 2016, mixes small quiet moments like this with hyper-stylized sequences, raw emotional confrontations, music videos, plus an entire concert, complete with backup dancers and a chanting cult-like audience. I just want them to feel good.' She speaks of her recurring dream where she's careening through a long tunnel towards an unknown and probably bad destination, and her vision of a kind of music that makes it all go away. She looks very young and very tired, staring at the camera, delivering a monologue in a flat New York-accented voice, about how she loves pop music because 'I don't want people to think too much. A piece of silver fabric is wrapped around her throat, and her eyes are smudged with mascara. The moment is unnerving: 15-year-old Celeste ( Raffey Cassidy) lies in bed with a man she just met, a man much older than she is who is drifting in and out of pill-induced unconsciousness.

Movie vox lux