Vox Lux (2018)

An unusual set of circumstances brings unexpected success to a pop star.

Director:

Brady Corbet

Writers:

Brady Corbet (story by), Mona Fastvold (story by)

Stars:

Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Stacy Martin

2 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Natalie Portman	...	Celeste
Jude Law	...	The Manager
Stacy Martin	...	Eleanor
Jennifer Ehle	...	Josie the Publicist
Raffey Cassidy	...	Young Celeste / Albertine
Christopher Abbott	...	The Journalist
Logan Riley Bruner	...	Cullen Active
Maria Dizzia	...	Ms. Dwyer
Meg Gibson	...	Celeste's Mother
Daniel London	...	Father Cliff
Sahr Ngaujah
Micheál Richardson	...	The Musician
Matt Servitto	...	Celeste's Father
Leslie Silva	...	The Stylist
Allison Winn	...	Therese

Storyline

Vox Lux follows the rise of Celeste from the ashes of a major national tragedy to pop super stardom. The film spans 18 years and traces important cultural moments through her eyes, starting in 1999 and concluding in 2017. In 1999, teenage Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) survives a violent tragedy. After singing at a memorial service, Celeste transforms into a burgeoning pop star with the help of her songwriter sister (Stacy Martin) and a talent manager (Jude Law). Celeste's meteoric rise to fame and concurrent loss of innocence dovetails with a shattering terrorist attack on the nation, elevating the young powerhouse to a new kind of celebrity: American icon, secular deity, global superstar. By 2017, adult Celeste (Natalie Portman) is mounting a comeback after a scandalous incident that derailed her career. Touring in support of her sixth album, a compendium of sci-fi anthems entitled Vox Lux, the indomitable, foul-mouthed pop savior must overcome her personal and familial struggles to ...

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Plot Keywords:

pop star | year 1999 | year 2017 | pop star as protagonist | terrorist attack | 

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Taglines:

A Twenty-First Century Portrait

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Genres:

Drama | Music

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Certificate:

14A

Did You Know?

Trivia

The opening scene of the film references the real Columbine High School shooting several times. Outside of both take place in 1999, the image of a student helping another out of a second-story window is a recreation of an infamous photograph from Columbine, and the shooter's plan (and failure) to detonate a lethal car bomb comes from the Columbine perpetrators' attempt to do the same.

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Goofs

In the voice-over at the beginning, the year 2000 is described as "the dawn of the new millennium". In fact that year was the last year of the second millennium, which would make 2001 "the dawn of the new millennium.

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Quotes

Young Celeste: I'll nail that, then we can get started on Body Talk.
Music director: I'm sorry, what section is that?
Young Celeste: It's the next track.

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Crazy Credits

End credits roll downwards which only include post-production credits, score and music credits and business credits.

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Connections

References Perry Mason (1957)

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Soundtracks

EKG
Written by Sia (as Sia Furler) and Al Shux (as Alexander Shuckburgh)
Produced by Al Shux
Performed by Natalie Portman

User Reviews

A Wasted Opportunity

The subject matter and overall meaning behind this story is great; a girl who is involved in a terrible, topical tragedy and finds unexpected fame as a result. It's a wonderful story to examine and discuss fame, pop culture, etc, but unfortunately the overall presentation of this idea falls flat.

The performances were strong, especially and expectedly from Natalie Portman (although I don't agree with casting the same actor for multiple parts). That's kind of where the positives stop. The inconsistent pacing and 'throw everything at the wall and see what sticks' mentality made engaging in the movie difficult. One could argue that the hectic nature of the film is representative of Celeste's thought process, but the execution seemed unintentional and rather unnecessary at times.

I wanted to love this film, and I give kudos to Brady Corbet for exploring this story, but I feel it had a lot to say and ended up not saying much.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Croatian Chinese

Release Date:

20 December 2018 (Kuwait)

Also Known As:

Vox Lux

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$155,714, 9 December 2018

Gross USA:

$727,119

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,399,272

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bold Films, Killer Films, Andrew Lauren Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1