Film

Vox Lux

Director
Brady Corbet
Certificate
15
Running Time
115 mins

Featuring a score by the late Scott Walker and narrated by Willem Dafoe, Brady Corbet‘s follow-up to Childhood of a Leader is an ambitious, decades-spanning pop star satire that divided US critics. Laced with social commentary and inevitably billed as a darker A Star is Born, it charts the career of fictional popster Celeste – one of those stars who’s so enormous that she needs just the one name.

The teenage Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) survives a 1999 Columbine-style school shooting, which inspires her to write a song that captures the attention of both the nation and a manager (Jude Law) who propels her to stardom. By 2017, the adult Celeste (Natalie Portman) is a Madonna/Gaga-like superstar who’s embarking on a comeback tour after a scandal. “A towering film, a uniquely uncompromising vision,” enthused one cheerleading critic. “A giant pile of shining gift-wrapped garbage,” was the opinion of a dissenting reviewer.

By robin askew, Monday, Apr 1 2019

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