Cinematic efforts that take audiences inside the world of music super-stardom are some of the most fascinating musical-centric movies out there. Back in October, A Star is Born—Bradley Cooper’s stunning directorial debut—arrived to dazzle audiences and critics alike. Now in theaters we have Vox Lux. It follows Natalie Portman’s Celeste, a prima donna pop princess drama that, tonally, could not be further the Cooper and Lada Gaga starring flick.
For fans of this subgenre, movies that take viewers behind the sold-out crowds, paparazzi pursuits and the like of the music industry, having two films arrive within months of each other such as A Star is Born,and Vox Lux is a blessing.
At the end of the day, Vox Lux is truly a tale about a million things other than Celeste and her ascension into the higher echelons of pop culture stardom.
All one must do is experience writer-director Brady Cobet’s opening moments. They are beyond difficult to watch and the horror of the film’s first 10 minutes contain imagery that will certainly strike a raw nerve in the United States. Celeste is 14-years-old when a gunman enters her school and massacres her music teacher and her entire class. Somehow, she survives a bullet to her spine. During the memorial service, she expresses herself in the best way she knows how—through a song she wrote. With the attention of the nation on her hometown, the track becomes a national moment of musical mourning. She, literally, is an overnight sensation.
Her family enlists a manager who keenly knows how to work the music industry. Jude Law portrays the part, only known in the film as The Manager. After recording the song that she performed at the service in a studio, the single is a smash. The Manager whisks Celeste and her older sister Eleanor (Stacy Martin) to Sweden to work with a power pop producer. Their collaboration sends the singer into the stratosphere.
About 60-percent of the film takes place in the early days of Celeste’s story and finds Raffey Cassidy riveting as the younger pop star. It is the final 40-percent that fast forwards 17 years and has Portman taking over the role from Cassidy—who changes things up and portrays the singer’s 14-year-old daughter.
It is a fascinating method of casting meets storytelling. Portman turns in a hurricane of a performance that grabs you by the lapels from the moment she arrives on screen until those credits start rolling. Cassidy’s take on Celeste is much more sublime and reserved. After all, she is a young woman thrust into a world that is unabashedly adult. Her personal evolution is metered and in the hands of the young actress, a triumph.
Take that character, add 17 years of massive (think Mariah Carey plus Lady Gaga) fame, success and global domination and what you get is Portman’s Celeste. As played by the Oscar winner, she is overly entitled and some would argue, a spoiled brat. That is legions away from what Cassidy presented as Celeste. Add in 17 years of unchecked PTSD from surviving something so many didn’t, Portman’s take on the character is firmly someone who is insanely fragile while simultaneously a celebrity of the highest order who basks in the glow of millions of adoring fans who hang on her every word and note. It is an explosive character and Corbet deserves a ton of credit for tackling the narrative in such a manner.
In only his second full length flick, Corbet shows a lot of promise. Not only in how he penned and filmed this character, but for the crackle-with-life-feel of his film. There’s an aesthetic to Vox Lux that is utterly electric. Cinematographer Lol Crawley has essentially captured two films and done so in a way that could not be more congruent. It is truly an accomplishment. There is the pre-fame Celeste and post-fame Celeste and the former is gritty, emotively explosive and the latter feels as if it is laden with glitter and a color palette that is impeccably pleasing. What is fascinating is that underneath all that glitters is that horrific past incident. It defines Celeste (as it should) and yet psychologically it feels as if fame has replaced mourning and that can only sustain you mentally for so long.
Cassidy and Portman work Celeste like a pair of volleyball players. The young thespian serves up Celeste and the veteran swoops in with a seismic spike. Audiences have never seen Portman like this prior and yes, that is saying something. Earlier this year, she gave us a mesmerizing turn in Annihilation.
Cassidy, meanwhile, must pull double duty. She does so in a manner that one can see a bit of a mini-me in her daughter of Celeste portrayal. Yet, the script calls for—and Cassidy brilliantly delivers—a relationship that feels reversed. Celeste is a mess and her daughter frequently has to serve as the more mature one in this tandem. As young Celeste, Cassidy is a haunted, ever-interested youth whose innocence was shot out of her with fame finishing the job. Keep an eye out for this young talent.
Law dazzles yet again. The British actor seems to only be beginning to hit the cusp of his potential with his recent lot of roles (he’s in theaters now riveting as the young Dumbledore in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald). Our only complaint of him in Vox Lux is that we don’t get to see more. Sure, this is not The Manager’s story. It is just that Law is so incredible as the resolute, devoted and dynamic soul that it feels as if he is underused.
Vox Lux has a great series of songs, penned by Sia (who also serves as one of the film’s producers, along with Portman and Law). It is unlike anything that is being played now on the pop landscape and yes, that is largely because there is not anyone out there like Sia! She does a masterful job creating tracks that are, in many ways, meant to be sideshows to the emotional evolution of this survivor of the worst tragedy imaginable—the mass murder of children. Vox Lux has a score and soundtrack that adds just the right touch to accompany the scope of Corbet vision.
Besides needing more Law, Vox Lux sadly missed a bit of an opportunity. The film could have delivered a searing societal narrative. Instead, the film is merely nice to look at, sounds terrific and features powerful performances by all involved. It could have been much more.
Grade: B-