Film Forum

1999: teenage sisters Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) and Eleanor (Stacy Martin) survive a seismic, violent tragedy. The sisters compose and perform a song about their experience, making something lovely and cathartic out of catastrophe – while also catapulting Celeste to stardom. By 2017, the now-31-year-old Celeste (Natalie Portman) is mother to a teenage daughter of her own, still in the hands of a sly manager (Jude Law), and struggling to navigate a career fraught with scandals when another act of terrifying violence demands her attention.

USA       2018                       110 MINS                             NEON

Listen to VOX LUX star Natalie Portman and filmmaker Brady Corbet discuss their audacious new film at Film Forum on Friday, December 14 below. Moderated by film critic and journalist Tomris Laffly.

Reviews

“CRITIC’S PICK. An audacious story about a survivor who becomes a star, and a deeply satisfying, narratively ambitious jolt of a movie… Natalie Portman gives the kind of aggressively big performance that teeters precariously, and at times excitingly, on the edge of vulgar indulgence.”
– Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

“A dark fable about fame, image and entertainment that perfectly captures our culturally chaotic moment. It’s the art-house flip-side to ‘A Star Is Born…’ A heady experience, a canny pop critique set to an ominous beat.”
– Rafer Guzman, Newsday

“Portman has never explored the darker side of celebrity as provocatively as she does in VOX LUX, a mesmerizing brew of pop-star psychodrama and cultural history, as well as a corrosive rejoinder to Hollywood’s latest burst of ‘A Star Is Born’ mania. Brilliantly directed and written by actor-turned-filmmaker Brady Corbet.”
– Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

“EXTRAORDINARY… A riveting performance of fiercely mannered bravado by Natalie Portman, as a kamikaze electropop diva running her Faustian fame off and under the rails, VOX LUX paints a sharp, shellacked portrait of a ghost in the celebrity machine.”
– Guy Lodge, Variety

“(Portman has) never played a character like the one she does in VOX LUX, a movie that comes on like the evil twin of A STAR IS BORN… This brash, wildly inventive, and occasionally assaultive movie is the most ambitious film I’ve seen so far in Toronto… (The film) bristles with ideas and cinematic invention, be it the interplay between Sia’s catchy songs and brilliantly discordant score by Scott Walker; funny riffs on modern America and the creation of ABBA; the audacious casting of Cassidy as both Celeste and Celeste’s daughter, Albertine; or Celeste’s final, extravagant concert, whose heavily costumed, robotic dance moves are choreographed by Portman’s real-life husband, Benjamin Millepied.”
– John Powers, Vogue

“(A) darkly glamorous postmodern fairy tale... A deliciously rich treatise on toxic fame and weapons of mass seduction… The joyous spectacle of Natalie Portman throwing weapons-grade bitch-queen tantrums is just one of the guilty pleasures in actor-turned-director Brady Corbet's stylish, original and ambitious second feature. Spanning almost 20 years, VOX LUX makes an audacious attempt to understand post-Columbine, post-9/11 America through the life story of a superstar pop diva who is both a victim of random violence and unwitting catalyst for further tragedy… rich in meaty performances, novelistic texture and stylistic verve… The busy soundtrack throbs with EDM glitz-pop stompers by Sia, the Australian singer-songwriter who has penned hits for Beyonce and Rihanna, and more. In counterpoint to them is a stridently unsettling orchestral score by cult avant-garde composer Scott Walker, himself a former teen-pop idol… Corbet invests early scenes with great energy, visual poetry and sardonic humor… Climaxing with a superbly staged full-scale dance-pop show, featuring Portman encrusted in body glitter, Corbet's high-caliber melodrama combines food for thought with sense-blitzing spectacle.”
– Stephen Dalton, The Hollywood Reporter