Vox Lux (2018)

I had remembered seeing the title of the film I chose for today somewhere before and I wanted to see it in theaters, but like a lot of independent films it was never released. The film that I am talking about is 2018's Vox Lux which was written and directed by Brady Corbet (The Childhood of a Leader). After surviving a violent tragedy, Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) gets catapulted into super stardom that turns her into a pop hero. We follow Celeste over the course of her career until we get to 2017 and older Celeste (Natalie Portman) is trying to get over a scandal that sort of put a halt to her career as she tries to make a comeback with her new album Vox Lux, but can she survive all the other stuff that comes with it like motherhood? The film also stars Jude Law (The Talented Mr. Ripley) as The Manager, Stacy Martin (All The Money In The World) as Eleanor, Jennifer Ehle (Beneath the Blue Suburban Skies) as Josie The Publicist, Christopher Abbott (It Comes At Night) as The Journalist, Logan Riley Bruner (Orange Is The New Black) as Cullen Active, Maria Dizzia (Martha Marcy May Marlene) as Ms. Dwyer, Meg Gibson (Sex And The City) as Celeste's Mother, and Allison Winn (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) as Therese.

Going into this film, I definitely wasn't sure what to expect out of it, but what we did receive was social commentary on the powers that pop stars possess over fanbases that gawk at them like they are Gods and Goddesses. They tried to do this thing where you take a train wreck like Britney Spears and you write a film about her comeback and hopes that she rises again, but what they did with this was look at the side of fame you don't see. Natalie Portman definitely puts on a performance in this film that is unforgettable and you see this childish side of her because she has never had anyone in her life tell her that things were not OK to do especially Jude Law's character. You also see her struggle with motherhood and how bad of an influence she is on her own daughter throughout the film as she struggles for normalcy among the Gods. The one thing about this film is that the individual performances in this film greatly outweighed the overall picture and what I mean by that is while the performances were great, the story was just OK in my book. There is really nothing they are providing in this film that people don't already know about pop stars, but the other saving grace is the amazing soundtrack provided by Sia who does a terrific job in the music department. The film is available on HULU as we speak and if you are a fan of Natalie Portman then this might be one you want to check out at least once for how great she was in the film. Other than that, I am going to give the film an B for a final grade.