Vox Lux | Rotten Tomatoes

Vox Lux

R

Released Dec 7, 2018

1 hr. 50 min.

Drama

Music

TRAILER

for Vox Lux: Trailer 2

List

62%

254 Reviews

Tomatometer

37%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

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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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

Full Review

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

hardy c

Is there anything more vapid and self-indulgent than a film about the celebrity of celebrities? Mind you, I adore Natalie Portman and her performance in and of itself is outstanding, but the film itself is weak, aimless and an ode to narcissism. I tried watching a taped version and wound up zipping through most of it, so i'm not sure I can give a totally objective view, but that should tell you all you need to know.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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

1:53

Vox Lux: Trailer 1

2:22

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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

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

Full Review

Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

However superbly shot, acted, and well-intentioned its message, Vox Lux remains somewhat puzzling, if admirable for its commitment to unconventionality.

Rated: 3/4

Mar 4, 2022

Full Review

Taylor Baker

Drink in the Movies

Episode 23: Vox Lux / The Guilty / Shoplifters / The Mule / Rififi

Rated: 18/100

Sep 3, 2021

Full Review

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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
Executive Producer: Joshua Throne, Mark Gillespie, Ron Curtis, Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Sia
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

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