Vox Lux *** (2018, Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Stacy Martin, Raffey Cassidy, Jennifer Ehle) – Movie Review

The 30-year-old writer-director Brady Corbet’s second film Vox Lux (2018) is his edgy, ambitious, confident and stylish follow-up to his The Childhood of a Leader (2015). It is equally provocative and dynamic, as well as ultimately elusive.

Vox Lux is best to be enjoyed as a visceral experience, as it is rather baffling as a message movie, though Corbet helpfully explains: ‘The movie is about the desire to be iconic’. Yes, a pop star rises from the flames of violence, but what does it all mean? Is it wrong to be a pop star or to desire to be iconic?

It is a film-maker’s film, but Corbet has assembled an excellent cast around him. Natalie Portman and Raffey Cassidy play the two Celestes, the 30something version and the young one. They are convincingly the same person, and both actresses are obviously in sync with each other and Corbet’s vision.

It starts in 1999, when the teenage Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) survives a violent Columbine-style tragedy at school, then sings at a memorial service, and becomes a pop star with the help of her songwriter sister Eleanor (Stacy Martin) and talent manager (Jude Law).

But in 2017 Celeste (Natalie Portman) is kind of burnt out and having to mount a comeback after a scandal that derailed her career. Touring with her sixth album, a compendium of sci-fi anthems called Vox Lux, the foul-mouthed pop star finds the work of a copycat brings her unexpected success, helped and managed by her publicist Josie (Jennifer Ehle).

The show must go on, and the movie ends with Celeste’s triumphant concert, as an indomitable survivor, in a set magnetically performed by Portman. You can’t help but thrill to this concert, even if this is perhaps not your kind of music. Certainly Portman establishes that Celeste is iconic, and of course that is fitting because Portman is a bit if an icon herself.

The first half of the film is all Cassidy, and Portman has part two. Cassidy is good, but Portman is the star as we wait patiently for her to arrive on screen and impress us. That she does, greatly, and in a largely unsympathetic, alienating role that you could easily turn your back on. Portman makes her character compelling and her performance memorable. It is a tour de force, dwarfing the other actors on screen with her.

The film has huge energy and a lot of hurt, rage and anger. It is a compelling, often riveting experience but not an easy or pleasant one. Overall, it is another feather in Corbet’s cap, and undoubtedly a triumph for Portman.

Scott Walker (1943–2019).

It also has the benefit of the third and final music score by Scott Walker [Noel Engel] before his death on 22 March 2019, aged 76.

Vox Lux is strong material, rated R for strong language, some strong violence, and drug content.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Movie Review

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com