★★★☆☆
(Alessandra Luciano) Vox Lux is the 2018 A Star is Born we deserved.
Whereas Vox Lux by Brady Corbet premiered in 2018 a few months before the release of Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born, it has only recently hit the traditional cinema circuit in Europe.
There have been many iterations of A Star is Born that tackle the complexity of stardom, the consequences of living in the public eye and hardships that come from fame. Every version of the film thus has exposed how society consumes artists, chews them up and spits them right out once they are done with them.
(c) Neon
Whereas the latest A Star is Born updated the theme and movie to fit today’s social and media landscape, exposing where the power of becoming famous resides – having Ally (Lady Gaga) perform a terrible tacky pop song at SNL for example, Vox Lux is actually more successful and way more camp in creating the context and often grotesque and superficial atmosphere in which the rise of pop stars occur, how fame can be toxic and can falter easily, and what it actually means to be that famous. Indeed, both films portray the rise to fame of two talented young women who suffer from the stranglehold of the music industry on their private and public lives, but diverge greatly in how the trauma makes itself visible, is expressed, and how ultimately both protagonists deal with it.
Vox Lux is told in chapters and narrated by Willem Dafoe (storytelling devices Corbet has taken from Lars Von Trier for whom he has worked). It spans from 1999 to 2017 and follows the life and career of Celeste, a precocious teenager (Raffey Cassidy), who survives a horrific event, which unexpectedly triggers her rise as the ultimate pop star (Natalie Portman) of the post-9/11 and YouTube generation.
(c) Neon
The strength of the opening chapter is unfortunately not maintained throughout the movie despite a strong finish. As spectator you are not quite sure how to rate the movie, just as you aren’t sure about Natalie Portman’s singing. Nevertheless, the soundtrack by Scott Walker and the original songs by SIA that Portman performs are amazing and worth the ticket entry!
Thus, the film may not be a masterpiece, but raises some questions, the most gnawing of all being: how much are we responsible for the seemingly vapid pop culture, its rise, and how much do we enjoy watching it fail. You may not consider pop an art form but there is an undeniable bravery of putting yourself out there for the world to admire but also to ridicule and mock. It is extremely vulnerable and from this vulnerability, I believe, comes the beauty but also the fascination our modern day world has with pop culture.
Whether the shimmering, glittering and over the top world of Vox Lux is your aesthetic or not does not actually matter, as Celeste and the like offer themselves to us, not only out of narcissism, but also for our own pleasure of consumption. They do it in the most harrowing way possible only to be judged by people who most likely will never understand what it means to dare greatly. Vox Lux reminds us that pop music and culture are a form of cannibalism that we all partake in and to certain extend enjoy witnessing, which is why at the end of the movie as Celeste prepares for her comeback you cannot help but be enthralled by what she, and by extension the film, is offering you.
(c) Neon
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