DVD Review - Vox Lux

This independent, sophomore feature by Brady Corbet focuses on a pop star whom we follow from her humble beginnings to the height of her stardom. It came out last year in the wake of other, more mainstream features about pop stars, including A Star Is Born (2018) and Bohemian Rhapsody (2018). The success of those latter two films eclipsed even the acknowledgment of this film by most audiences. While those latter two deal with heavy subject matter, both are extremely more uplifting than Corbet's second film as director. A Star Is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody are buoyed due to either love between the characters or love of the real-life characters. A Star Is Born takes on alcoholism and mental illness. Bohemian Rhapsody takes on AIDS and homophobia but yet both are still more positive than this film, which has at its core the issue of mass shootings and terrorism.

Natalie Portman (Black Swan and Jackie) stars as Celeste Montgomery, a thirty-something pop star who is unmarried but has a daughter. She's currently in New York City promoting her new album. She also has a concert in the city that she's preparing. That afternoon, her manager tells her that there has been a mass shooting and the terrorists used masks that were the same as were used in one of Celeste's music videos. Her publicist arranges a press conference and journalist interviews. In the press conference, she's given questions about the shooting. The journalist gives her questions about issues in her past, including a car accident, which she might have caused. Celeste is almost the stereotypical, tough-as-nails, Staten Island chick who says sometimes offensive things off the cuff but also she's able to shut down anyone.

Now, as an acting vehicle for Portman, it's fun to see her go bold and over-the-top here. Seeing her bounce off the other various actors like Jude Law who plays her manager, Stacy Martin who plays her sister and Raffey Casssidy who plays her daughter is great. It might lean more toward scenery chewing, but Portman handles it all fairly well. As a vehicle for anything else, I'm not sure Corbet pulls it off. By the end, I was left rather cold. The ending like Bohemian Rhapsody is one, long, concert performance where a lot of it is watching Portman sing and dance almost into exhaustion. In that, it's not too unlike the ending to Black Swan. Unfortunately, this movie doesn't have the same emotional impact or thrill.

Portman doesn't even enter the film until half-way through it. A hour goes by before we even see her. The first hour is more about the aftermath of a mass shooting and a young girl recovering from a trauma and finding her voice in music. However, that first half feels very disconnected from the second half with Portman at the helm. The first half is the source of a lot of the trauma that haunts Portman's character in the second half, but we didn't need to wallow in it for a hour before Portman appears.

Pacing is a bit of an issue. The first hour of the film depicts a couple of years in Celeste's early life. The second half though with Portman only depicts one day in her life. I would have preferred to see more than just one day. I would have preferred to see more of her relationships as an adult developed. I also would have preferred more of a connection as to what the mass shootings have to this behind-the-scenes, pop-star story or how it informed and affected Celeste's life. I know that Ariana Grande had a terrorist attack at her concert in 2017, but that link is never really developed or maybe the point is that it can't be developed.

Rated R for language, some strong violence and drug content.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 54 mins.