Vox Lux

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Vox Lux

R

Released Dec 7, 2018

1h 50m

Drama

Music

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Popcornmeter

62%

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253 Reviews

37%

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1,000+ Ratings

Celeste is a 13-year-old music prodigy who survives a horrific school shooting in Staten Island, N.Y., in 1999. Her talent shines through during the memorial service when she sings a song that touches the hearts of the mourners. Guided by her sister and a talent manager, the young phenom transforms into a rising pop star with a promising future. Eighteen years later, Celeste now finds herself on the comeback trail when a scandal, personal struggles and the pitfalls of fame threaten her career.

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Critics Consensus

Intriguing albeit flawed, Vox Lux probes the allures and pitfalls of modern celebrity with intelligence, visual style, and an assured Natalie Portman performance.

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Mark Kermode

Kermode & Mayo's Film Review

Very strange, not wholly successful, but Jude Law is fantastic in it, and I'd always rather watch a filmmaker take a risk..."A Dark Star is Born."

May 6, 2019

Full Review

Wendy Ide

Observer (UK)

It's episodic by design. Even so, the plot is prone to unnerving lurches, like a baked and boozed Celeste struggling to walk on high heels and spaghetti legs.

Rated: 3/5

May 5, 2019

Full Review

Kevin Maher

Times (UK)

Beautifully directed by the former actor Brady Corbet...this is a dark and sometimes unnerving dissection of contemporary culture, and the violence and sensuality that drive it.

Rated: 4/5

May 3, 2019

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Calum Cooper

Source (Scotland)

Going alongside its interpretive story are strong visuals, a vivacious soundtrack, and some stellar performances, particularly from Cassidy and Portman.

Rated: 3/5

Jul 14, 2024

Full Review

Brittany Patrice Witherspoon

Pop Culture Reviews

When the film isn’t too hung up on its overzealous strategy of connecting violent tragedies and pop music, there are some beautiful moments in the film, though overshadowed by abrupt disruptions.

Rated: 3/5

Jul 11, 2024

Full Review

Serena Seghedoni

Loud and Clear Reviews

What makes Vox Lux so unique and perhaps even provocative is that it is up to us to establish when, how and in what way exactly her insecurities took over. The most important moments of [...] the whole film - are the ones we don't get to see on the screen

Nov 4, 2023

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Chris O

It's one of those movies where you wonder if she died in the beginning and the rest are her last thoughts before dying. I wonder if the narration by Willem DaFoe was tacked on last minute to try to pull the film together with some message. Not sure what it was. All I know is we better do everything to stop school shootings or we'll be inundated with very mediocre drug-addled pop stars. I mean if anyone survives. From the poster I was thinking it would be more like a rock opera. I was expecting Phantom of the Paradise or Hedwig and the Angry Inch. This was not that. No sense of humor at all. Passed the time but not essential.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

09/19/24

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Alec B

Lots of vague ideas about "culture" are raised but by the midway point it becomes clear that the movie has little to say about anything. Its just a beautifully photographed vanity project.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/08/24

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Matthew P

Those who rated this poorly, clearly didn't get the deeper meaning: america as a pop culture figure, the "performance" of america in light of the tragedies since 2001, how "america" is an idea being sold to the world rather than the truth of what it really is, america not holding itself accountable and tackling the tough truths of what it really means to live in here. how the performance of freedom and liberty is just as evil as the terrorism we see so fiercely fight against.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

12/14/23

Full Review

Joe S

This is a whole lot of movie with a lot of holes in its logic and through-line, including that Bronx accent Celeste seems to have acquired once Natalie Portman enters as an addled mother who is also an arena spectacle as a pop star with a serious drug problem. The people who were around young Celeste (played wonderfully by the lovely Raffey Cassidy) have oddly not aged (manager, agent) when they're around the adult Celeste played by Natalie Portman, who chews the scenery up but in the end delivers a strangely intense song and dance in concert. Flashy kaleidoscopic montages act as time-frame transitions as Celeste matures, and they actually work.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

12/08/22

Full Review

Audience Member

Started hot... then they went to Germany and it became like any other fictitious rock star film. Thankfully, it reroutes... but sadly returns to a typical fictitious rock star film. What it did was keep my attention and make me curious enough to see how it ends. And then nothing happens. And more importantly, it left me not knowing what exactly happened.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The worst 01 hour: and 50 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The worst of Natalie Portman ever!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

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Brady Corbet

Director

Natalie Portman

Adult Celeste, Act II

Raffey Cassidy

Young Celeste, Act I

Jude Law

The Manager

Stacy Martin

Eleanor

Christopher Abbott

The Journalist

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Vox Lux: Trailer 2

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Synopsis

Celeste is a 13-year-old music prodigy who survives a horrific school shooting in Staten Island, N.Y., in 1999. Her talent shines through during the memorial service when she sings a song that touches the hearts of the mourners. Guided by her sister and a talent manager, the young phenom transforms into a rising pop star with a promising future. Eighteen years later, Celeste now finds herself on the comeback trail when a scandal, personal struggles and the pitfalls of fame threaten her career.

Director: Brady Corbet
Producer: Andrew Lauren, D.J. Gugenheim, Michel Litvak, Svetlana Metkina, David Litvak, Brian Young, Gary Michael Walters, Robert Salerno, Christine Vachon, David Hinojosa
Screenwriter: Brady Corbet
Distributor: Neon
Production Co: Killer Films
Rating: R (Language|Drug Content|Some Strong Violence)
Genre: Drama, Music
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 7, 2018, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 4, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA): $727.1K
Runtime: 1h 50m

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