This film suffers from the same kind of poor choices which would cause someone to, say, make a 9/11 disco musical. It wields an enormous subject and chooses to focus on the most irrelevant aspects of any reaction to that subject.

It doesn't really matter what you want to say - the bizarre, unresolved context for the setup feels faintly obscene and eventually bankrupt. If the point of the film is to illustrate the shallowness of reactions to terror and violence, then it failed to say that. Instead, it looks more like a statement about the parallels between self-expression, terrorism, self-obsession, or losing your identity to celebrity, or something... By the end of the film I was deeply annoyed.

Hats-off the all of the professionals who clearly know how to make an impressive film here. But this story however, is a mess of intensity looking for a point. I believe that it fails eventually because of the indigestible premise.

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.

Seeing the trailer shortly before its release, "Vox Lux" seemed to me a cross of "Black Swan" (2010) with "A star is born" (2018). The allusion to the first film was clearly related to the fact that it also starred Natalie Portman as an artist. There, a ballerina. Here, a pop star. Already the comparison with the second film came more for the subject of talking about a pop singer.

"Vox Lux", however, talks more about the decay of a star, while "A star is born" is more about the rise of a singer in the midst of the fall of her boyfriend also singer.

Roughly speaking, that's what the movie is about. The difficult thing is to find in Brady Corbet's work a narrative structure beyond this cliché vision. And also a reflection on what the director intended to say with all the elements he gathered in this film.

Lack depth to "Vox Lux". What did Corbet mean by associating attacks and the brutal violence of terrorism and mass murder with the story of a girl who soon became a pop star? Is Celeste the result of violence for being in a school attacked by a boy in the same mold of Columbine? Is that why you want to become a pop star? To bring joy to the fans in the midst of the violence?

Violence is always present in your career. The beginning of the attack on the school, the middle during the attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 2001 and the rebirth when it has to deal with an attack in Croatia that closely resembles that of a Tunisian beach in 2015. And what this all has to do with a young star who turns into a very young mother and becomes an inconsequent adult, drugged and alcoholic, but at the same time a pop diva full of fans?

Corbet is not clear on what he wants with his film. And it is not even intended to leave on the air subjects for the spectator to reflect for itself. In fact, "Vox Lux" is a big mess that does not point in one direction at all.

Meanwhile, Natalie Portman tries to defend her character with claw. We've never seen her so full of trifles. Her Celeste is a caricature of the pop stars, but the way of the sarcasm seems only taken by her and not accompanied by the film, that still counts on a Jude Law rarely apathetic in the paper of the manager of Celeste.

"Vox Lux" still ends with a long take on a show, which reminded me of the embarrassing ending of "Bohemian Rhapsody". If there was any message to give at that moment, whether through the performance or the messages on the big screen, they were not clear. Or even symbolic. It was a big nothing.

The feeling that remains is exactly that void that "Vox Lux" has passed. It could have been better, but it was a waste of time.

Didn't know a whole lot about this film, so this was basically a film that benefited from the AMC stub list membership. Decided to go in completely blind; no trailers, no reviews, just that poster of Natalie Portman in blue glitter. From that, i was expecting some type of sci-fi futuristic musical. That's not what the film is, as you will find out within the resounding first five minutes or so. I found this film to be a bizarre mess that doesn't exactly know what its doing.

The film is about a teenager who is a victim of a school shooting. From that event he and her sister gain popularity from a musical performance at a memorial service which eventually molds into a music career. Soon, Celeste (the adult lead played by Natalie Portman and Raffey Cassidy in her youth) falls into the pitfalls of super stardom which includes promiscuous behavior, drugs, and mass interaction with an unrelenting media. The film also stars Stacy Martin (who I loved in Nymphomaniac), and narrated by Willem Defoe.

The film starts off with a bang and the first twenty minutes or so are rather incredible in its build because of its mix of shock and intense drama. However, when Celeste starts her rise as a pop star the film starts losing its soul much like Celeste in her career. Oddly, enough as soon as Celeste the star grows up and Natalie Portman enters the fray, the film starts losing its plot and derides itself into a messy piece that doesn't connect with its viewers. The acting is great all around, especially from Portman but she is let down by a script that doesn't know what its trying to be or what its trying to prove.

I left the theater kind of bewildered by the end product. I may have preferred a futuristic musical space opera then what we got. I think there will be a crowd out there that will go to bat for this work but it doesn't resonate with me unfortunately. The positive that comes from this film is that now I can use the term Vox Lux as a word the way I want. i have truly been luxed by this experience.

6/10

Everything about this film is average but particularly Portman's tedious uninteresting dialogue, her overacting & cringeworthy lack of stage precence or rhythm. What a shame the shooters bullet didn't hit the target & save us all wasting time & $ on this cinema drivel.

Young writer and director Brady Corbet, delivers a magnificent and terrifying craft with Vox Lux, as it follows a dramatic rise to a stardom of a teenage girl who is a survivor of a school shooting. The unusual circumstances that can turn a victim into a cultural phenomenon with millions of followers. The film is so brutally honest in its portrayal of the modern pop trash culture that its painful to admit but so hard not to follow. Overall weirdness and art-housey approach of the film may scare general audience off and derail from wider recognition by shutting down any chances for the film's commercial success. Natalie Portman, who plays the superstar Celeste in the movie, is deserving of her second Oscar more than ever.

Director knows exactly what he is aiming for with his skillful directing and insightful writing, unafraid to take risks. Having Willem Defoe to gradually narrate your story into a Sia song is a guaranteed classic alone. Brady Corbet never puts a foot wrong with either the visuals or the music, making Celeste's story feel like the story of modern America. Truly one of the highlights of the recent years.

Honestly all I can say by the end of this film is: What was Natalie Portman thinking? If someone had come to me with this script I would have told them to go away and work on it some more. The story made no sense. It starts off as a moving story of a young girl who faces the trauma of surviving a school shooting and from this her musical career takes off. It then jumps 15 odd years into the future where we see the girl, is now a spoilt rock star with no regard for anyone's feelings including those of her sister and daughter. This isn't so bad but nothing is resolved, nothing happens and it has this bizarre ending with watching her sing song after song at her rock concert. Admittedly Portman's performance is brilliant. But there really is not point to it at all.

As a filmmaker myself, I value watching quirky independent films and as a fan of Natalie's, I was utterly disappointed with this mess. I almost want to ask her, what the heck was she thinking with this film?! The script felt like it was two badly written scripts merged into one, kind of like that episode in Friends, when Rachel got the beef dinner and trifle recipe mixed up!

I started to enjoy the first part of the story, but up until the Stockholm part with the sisters, it completely lost me. I also thought it was a very weird choice to cast the same actress to play both Natalie as younger and her daughter. The end part with all the singing and dancing was also very weird, as I felt this time could have been more wisely used to answer questions about the relationship of the sisters.

An absolute rushed disaster of a film - I never thought I would write this for a Natalie Portman film. Very overacted also! Please stick to the quirky nerd girl films and don't be a pop star in your next projects!!

Natalie Portman stars in this very unusual, intriguing but flawed film that explores several different genres in tackling pop culture and its sordid grip on the national consciousness at the dawn of the new millennium. Is this a satirical bombardment? One could argue. Is it a tragic indictment? Definite possibility. One thing it is not is straightforward.

This film gets by on the strength of its performances and its committed portrayal of the poisonous celebrity lifestyle and the emotional toll it exacts. Portman is explosive as the grown-up pop star who came from humble beginnings and found her survival of a horrific school shooting catapulting her into national prominence when she performed a song at a televised vigil. Jude Law is sharp as her gruff, street-smart manager who early on helps transform her from a victim of tragedy into a gaudy, commercialized monstrosity. Raffey Cassidy shines in dual roles as the pop starlet in her younger days, and as her teenage daughter in the film's second half.

There are drawbacks. A dry, detached voiceover narration by Willem Dafoe is more often a glaring distraction than an enhancement. And the film's simplistic juxtaposition of acts of terrorism and concert tours only tentatively conveys the theme of the intertwining of tragedy and pop culture. The film is obviously trying to echo its plot thread that takes hold in the beginning but it seems so faint by contrast.

Thought-provoking but more for the thesis that it tackles than for its actual achievement, this film is worth watching. How well it succeeds depends on how you view Portman's performance. Does she eviscerate the entertainment industry as immoral with a lightning-rod portrayal of wasted youth? Or does she dilute the film's impact by giving a performance that is too much of a caricature to constitute an allegory? Decide for yourself.

I freely admit that this film is not for everyone while acknowledging that I myself found it quite compelling. Finally, a splendid array of well-performed songs and a sterling soundtrack add to the film's favor. Recommended.

One of the few movies I walked out of. It was like an expensive student film trying too hard to be inventive. It went from one inane scene to the other with no cohesiveness just one attempt to be shocking after the other . Maybe the end was the payoff but I doubt it and just did not think it was worth anymore of my time

Disjointed mess. Would have walked out but was stuck there.

Brady is a handsome fellow, he is no sort of director, and this movie proves it, how he got any of these actors involved with such drivel is beyond me, not everything that glitters is gold, and here all you get is fools gold, sloppy, irregular and not an enjoyable film, not because of the subject matter but the film itself, one gigantic mess.

wait to rent it if you must pay to see it, otherwise do yourself a favor and skip this one, you're not missing out.

A script that is equal parts pretentious and superficial. Repeatedly explicit about its obvious allegorical critique of America even while also decrying the dumbing down of Americans. Lazy and self-congratulatory cultural critique. The very best example of why voice over is often just a sign of inept character and plot development. Characters have indiscernible motivations and incoherent personalities, not because they are played by bad actors, but because they are played by good actors who cannot save a script that only manages to communicate a director's sense of self-importance. I would not trust anyone who likes this movie.

Vox Lux made me so angry that I created this IMDB account just to dump on it. People deserve better than this pseudo-intellectual trash.

It's written in a really weird way. There are two parts to it, a past and a present and it is just such a train wreck. It was very boring and a hard plot to follow. Stereotypical portrayal of the hard life of an artist. There were so many musical performances that were so long that it felt like a musical. No real/good story line here. Only sat through it because we paid for it else it was torture to sit through. Not sure how Natalie Portman could do such an awful movie with no real storyline or clear path. It just did not make any sense.

One of the worst movies of the year.. Natalie Portland is a overacting performer. Casting is really confusing.. Way too much stupid and unnecessary scenes.. A real garbage truck production. They love themselves with massive credits before and after the film..A waste. Wish I read the reviews before..Oh well !!

I waited nearly 4 days to write this review/reaction because I genuinely wasn't sure how I felt after seeing Vox Lux. I'm not the first one to say this but it's quite the pairing with A Star is Born for what could be the best double feature of 2018, with both portraying such a vastly different take on rise to stardom. Much like other 2018 films Hereditary and 22 July, there are a few scenes in Vox Lux that I will never forget in that they are some of the most haunting and terrifying sequences I have ever seen on film. However, a film like 22 July had an easier plot to follow and a much more direct narrative, whereas Vox Lux is a dark interpretation of fame, and an interpretation that doesn't give the clearest clues as to how your supposed to feel after viewing. The performances are extraordinary, including yet another star-making turn from Raffey Cassidy and expectedly great turns from Jude Law and of course, Natalie Portman. Even if I'm not totally sure on how I feel about this film, I know that I want more films to be this bold and daring.

7.4/10

I gave it a chance but it's really just a mess. A total mess.

Vox Lux is bold, thought provoking, and objective; everything that you would expect from a great film. Corbet was able to take defining events from the past 30 years and show how our defining moments as a nation have been illustrated through tragedy.

Although there were some moments of confusion and what seems to be superficial conversations, Corbet delivers a powerful message that will cause you to think about his film more than you will with any other one.

This film is worth a watch.

I went into this film and felt blindsided by the subject matter. There were so many aspects to the film I didn't enjoy; the narration over sped up clips, the use of the same actors for different characters, the many in resolved story lines. I left this screening feeling extremely uneasy and disturbed.

From the trailer I expected to like this , now having seen it, it's just a huge disappointment. Well acted, but direction, story and editing are all off. It seems to be trying to make some statement about the entertainment industry and terrorism but in the end you won't care because there are no characters here to feel anything about. Entire segments of the movie were filmed in fast forward. Another movie that relies on narration to tell parts of the story, but why not just film those scenes? In this case there are scenes and individual shots that go on way too long. The director needs to know when to say cut, or someone needed to decide that a scene that goes on 6 minutes only needed 2. For a potentially fascinating subject , it was putting me to sleep. To add to it and I assume it was done on purpose, the music is horrendous. If that was suppose to be music to make people buy the soundtrack, well good luck with that. The movie was bad, the music was worse.

The reviews and trailer for this film promised a strong performance by Natalie Portman as a troubled pop star. While some of the praise for her role in "Vox Lux" may be somewhat overhyped, she does give a generally good performance in this drama directed by Brady Corbet. She plays Celeste, a now-famous pop star who survived a school shooting in 1999. The film gives viewers a grip on how those who get too all-consumed in the superficiality of pop music culture can lose control over their lives, although sometimes the dialogue and writing during these scenes can sometimes feel almost too on-the-nose to be truly impactful on the viewer.

The film is stunningly shot, and its score is often stirring and potent. Jude Law's supporting performance is outstanding, providing a powerfully subdued complement to the main narrative as Celeste's manager. With the exception of the memorial song sung by a young Celeste at a vigil for the shooting victims about ten minutes after film's commencement, the rest of the film's songs (which are pop-based) are generally not too appealing. However, this is likely intentional, as Corbet's direction is intended to make the viewer critique popular culture and its effects on music and society, as well as the possibility that our social obsessions may breed tragic and wretched acts. Despite such potentially-thoughtful commentary, it's not clear by the end of the film what Corbet really wants to say or offer as a message to the narrative besides simply saying that excess tackiness is bad. While superficiality is an important topic, for a film that poses far deeper, existential and angst-filled questions, the film's attempts to thread loose ends of its messaging before the film's finale (a pop concert) feel somewhat skimpy. The film's stronger elements would make it worth of recommending to those who like Natalie Portman and can appreciate sometimes-audacious and challenging films. 7/10

Natalie Portman transcends in the most challenging and unshakable film I've seen this year.

*spoilers!*

Brady Corbet's Vox Lux has an "angle" unlike the other post-Columbine, post-911 films that simply objectify traumatic events (think Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003)).

Corbet gives terrorism an origin story.

obviously, his aspirations are doomed from the get-go. No one can present some catch-all to explain how terrorists develop their thinking.

the only thing we can be sure of is that our news-media platforms will scrape every variable together in one place, inevitably dissolving the barrier between infamy and fame.

I was discouraged seeing dozens of people walking out of the 41st-Annual Denver Film Festival premiere but I understood their decision.

Vox Lux's subject matter is difficult, and I don't think I'll watch it again soon, but it provides an indescribable feeling of media-saturated hysteria that's uncomfortable for most people to try and process, myself included.

this film captures the existential dread you sometimes feel when every image in your Instagram/Apple News feed feels like it's not only connected, but also reinforcing the worst aspects of society. You open up your phone: another mass shooting, Kanye West hugs Trump, California wildfire burns, etc. This movie proposes that these things are all closely related, and directly influencing one another.

in Celeste's "21st-Century Portrait", space and time are rendered meaningless, as her geography (physical distance) does nothing to separate her from the emotional repercussions of her work, and 17 years (tangential distance) has failed to separate her from the trauma of her childhood. She feels like she's been travelling on a straight highway road, but history/media indicate that she's only moving in cycles.

the way events/subjects blend and juxtapose, having Celeste's private thoughts manifest themselves in public arenas, and vice-versa, is a very unique, very 21-century type of disorienting angst. Kudos to Corbet.







wasn't a good date night flick, however.

The sophomore effort from actor turned director (boy is this becoming a trend) Brady Corbet is dying to be inventive. The ambition to break conventions certainly plays as charming, but in the "look at the adorable child ad libbing this karaoke song" brand of charming. His experimenting begins early on with half of the end credits appearing over a long shot documenting a static scene of our protagonist bathing in the tragedy that will ignite the jumpy life events shown later. This is only a couple scenes deep into the movie, and it is also ineffective (partially because there's no apparent intended effect). Even so, this quirk remains the most forgivable of Corbet's decisions.

The voice of Willem Dafoe acts as a Virgil figure narrating Celeste's (Natalie Portman) fortunate misfortunes that led to her pop stardom. Celeste's crucible event occurs in a middle school classroom with musical notations plastered all over the walls. She sits attentive and diligent, eager to be trained by her clarinet-totting teacher. A boy adorned in glam mascara and eclipsed eyes enters, interrupting the roll call with more than words. What follows has been labelled as "birth" by a handy title screen demarcating the film's Act One. Divided into a prologue, two acts, and a finale, we're hardly treated to an essential utilization of the segmented narrative that filmmakers such as Lars von Trier have perfected.

Teenage Celeste is played by the rather mechanical Raffey Cassidy, who also plays (drum roll, kind sir) Celeste's daughter Albertine. This would initially appear as rather cunning way of allowing a substance-dependent adult Celeste to be maternally reminded of her squandered youth and innocence, however, the film makes no effort to support this surrealist reading. In fact it has the gumption to re-use yet another actress once the timeline shifts from 1999 to 2017. Eleanor, Celeste's older sister, is played by the less rigid Stacy Martin both as a teen and a 30 plus year old adult. To recap: Celeste gets to hop into a Natalie Portman body after 18 years, but Eleanor stays put. Much credit to Martin here for differentiating teen from adult in tastefully understated ways; the growth and grime that Celeste shoves her through shines through as adult Eleanor withstands verbal barrages one moment, then caresses her tormentor sister's head backstage in the next.

The young sisters compose a song to perform at a prayer vigil being held for the community torn asunder by the act of evil that has placed Celeste in a neck brace, an accessory that will change into scarfs and chokers as her fame blossoms. Eleanor deserves total writing credits, but Celeste is the one being wheeled out onto the church's stage. Local news recording the vigil cracks open the lid of possibilities, and the sisters have an anthem on their hands once they adjust the lyrics changing "the I's to we's". Immediately (and I mean immediately; no transition) the girls are led into a recording studio by The Manager (Jude Law). This is actually how he is credited, signifying how one-minded he acts in relation to Celeste. He uses all means necessary to build and maintain Celeste's pop royalty. Celeste's father appear once, and his face is obscured nailing in the reality of no parental nurture available to the budding star.

Her legal guardianship is ultimately pushed onto Eleanor, who will also take on that role for Celeste's own daughter. The film plants this as one of several consequences when one decides to sell their image. This act of self-marketing is compared curiously to radical nihilism with Dafoe decoding the film's intent over well executed camcorder montage footage implemented to advance the sister's slide into a vicious cycle of reliance upon one another. Celeste is nothing without Eleanor, completely unstable without her caring touch and intimate knowledge of her sister's greatest curse. Eleanor, however, is entirely supported financially by her hollow sister, and Albertine might be the only daughter she may ever have. All of Eleanor's talent and wisdom isn't stolen by Celeste, but given away freely. Reminiscent of the documentary Whitney revealing the relentless blood pact within the Houston family, the sister's entanglement carries the emotional heft of a film that otherwise blindly stabs at shocking imagery.

I will briefly mention an intriguing reading introduced by the narrator in the film's closing minutes. Without giving any detail, it's one of those scapegoat twilight revelations that can give Corbet an out for some of the issues I have expressed here. Strangely enough, I am grateful for this bit of spice for it allows the mind to wonder, combing through all the previous events. You're encouraged to view them with a surrealist lens, and some devious theory might pop up. This by no means corrects all the prior flaws, but it does allow you to imagine a better film within the otherwise static one that was ultimately delivered. Special mention to the pop songs crafted for Celeste by Sia, providing the vapid lyrical representation of a genre designed "to make people feel happy". What is unknown is that these hit-makers are far from happy.

Vox Lux has a daring + clear vision by Brady Corbet, it doesn't sugar coat real tragedies that effect our society. and with Natalie Portman's performance you feel the weight of the choices and circumstances of where a person can end up. It's has pretty dark moments, that if you pay attention to Brady's vision, it should create a bigger discussion. Raffey Cassidy stands out giving an even more memorable performance than in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, you feel for her as a young Celeste, trying to figure out her next journey in life with very little guidance. A woman's journey through tragedy told in a stylistic dark approach. Vox Lux has become one of my favorites of the year.

I saw this movie at the Swedish Premiere, during the Stockholm Film Festival in November 2018. Director Brady Corbert introduced his work, prior to the viewing. More memorable than the movie itself was the discussion with audience and director afterwards. Brady Corbert is a young, talented man with a sombre approach to the world, to people and to humanity. He is also, on top of that, rather self-important. During the Question Time, he received courteous but constructive criticism. An answer I will remember is this: "If there's any shortage in my movie at all, it might be that it can be seen as in some parts slightly entertaining." That statement says a lot about the director's view of life, people, art and the audience, paying to be entertained. Sorry Brady, but this is just not good enough, in fact it's not even worth the price of a Cinema ticket.