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Vox Lux (2018)

2018 | Drama | Musical

110 mins

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

Produced by	GEM Entertainment
Director	Brady Corbet
Writer	Brady Corbet
Cast	Natalie Portman, Jude Law and Willem Dafoe

Images And Data Courtesy Of: GEM Entertainment.
This content (including text, images, videos and other media) is published and used in accordance with Fair Use.

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Andy K

Added this item on Oct 26, 2018

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Vox Lux (2018) Reviews & Ratings (4)

9-10			0.0% (0)
7-8			50.0% (2)
5-6			25.0% (1)
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Andy K (10823 KP) rated

Sep 18, 2019

Vox Lux (2018)

2018 | Drama, Musical

5

6.3

(4 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Black Swan 2: The Return of Durant

In 1999, a middle school teenager Celeste has survived a horrific school shooting which has left multiple students and teacher dead. Through tragedy, the wounded girl triumphs through the singing of a tribute song which goes viral and becomes an anthem for heartbreak throughout the world.

She achieves instant success with her song, so much so, she gets a recording contract and her and her sister are whisked away to Sweden to record it officially and make a music video. Her manager chaperones her time there, but does not have much success. The girls have a good time partying and choosing every excess including the consequences. The video is a success and she becomes a star.

Eighteen years later, the aging pop star is trying to make a comeback and show she can still keep up. Her relationships with her sister, teenage daughter and sister as she has lived the ego-driven life of a celebrity now for too long. One the eve of a concert performance, another massive multi-person shooting happens at a beachfront, the perpetrators donning masks used in one of her videos making her the target of paparazzi and media scrutiny at a pivotal time in her life.

She tries to salvage her relationship with her daughter who is going through her own teenage angst with mixed success. It seems she is her own worst enemy questioning her choices and continuing leading the lifestyle of a demanding celebrity.

The movie seems like a tale of two halves with the teenage Celeste and the "grown up" version even having screen captures saying so. For me the first half was way more interesting than the second. The teenage Celeste was more believable, maybe because you didn't know her, but the screenplay was more interesting for her as well.

One can only imagine the emotions of having to live through such a tragedy and having to rebuild your life afterwards. Then adding on top of it, her instantaneous global stardom could not have done well to heal her physical, but emotional scars as well.

I felt Natalie Portman seemed out of place and her acting felt very wooden and dry to me unlike most of her portfolio. She even was an executive producer on the film along with her costar Jude Law, so she may have been focused on that instead of her acting performance. She doesn't appear in the film until close to an hour in and filmed her scenes over 10 days. It is unfortunate, but I really didn't believe her and took me out of several scenes as a result.

It is hard to empathize with the celebrity lifestyle of excess and demands having never lived it myself. It has certainly been portrayed onscreen much better than it is here and it really felt like the two halves of the film were disconnected and not resolved.

I certainly don't mind, or even encourage, the vague open-ended type of film generally speaking if it is left you to think about the plight of the characters their decisions, and ultimate destinations; however, this film accomplishes this only through bad writing.

The concert footage was well done and Portman certainly delivered on transforming into a Madonna/Britney Spears type icon. I was just hoping for more of a payoff and felt disappointed in the end.

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Erika (17789 KP) rated

Dec 20, 2018

Vox Lux (2018)

2018 | Drama, Musical

8

6.3

(4 Ratings)

Movie Rating

When I saw the trailer for this film, I knew immediately that I had to see it. While I was entertained by this film, I don't feel as though it actually had a climax in the plot. I kept expecting something to happen, and nothing ever did. Natalie Portman is one of the best parts of the film, and she's maybe in it for half of the time. I was pretty disappointed when this was the case, Jude Law had more screen time than her.
I was entertained ultimately, but the seemingly lack of plot was slightly disappointing.

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The Craggus (360 KP) rated

May 10, 2019

Vox Lux (2018)

2018 | Drama, Musical

4

6.3

(4 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Vox Lux (2019) kinda sucks

Like its subject, “Vox Lux” is demanding, pretentious and self-congratulatory, although the film takes these traits to the point of cinematic onanism. Occasionally arrestingly shocking, it almost feels like, having grabbed your attention, it doesn’t really know what to do with it beyond hitting you over the head with its achingly obvious allegory for American cultural decline.

FULL REVIEW: bit.ly/CraggusVoxLux

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Jonah Hill recommended (curated)

Vox Lux (2018)

2018 | Drama, Musical

6.3

(4 Ratings)

Movie Favorite

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Vox Lux (2018) reviews from people you don't follow

Nadine Shah recommended (curated)

Vox Lux (2018)

2018 | Drama, Musical

6.3

(4 Ratings)

Movie Favorite

"Natalie Portman plays a young teenage pop artist, Celeste, who starts making music after surviving a school shooting. Then it becomes a film about what the pop industry can do to people, what not to do within it, and about messiah complexes. It’s a really over-the-top, sinister film – it becomes almost alien. But it also reminds you to keep your ego in check, pull your baseball cap down, don’t get lost in the madness, and just keep working."

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Oct 26, 2018

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