Vox Lux (2018)

“That’s what I love about pop music. I don’t want people to have to think too hard. I just want them to feel good. ” – Celeste

Number of Times Seen – 1 (27 May 2019)

Brief Synopsis – Following a tragic shooting, a young girl is propelled into the powerful and difficult to control world of pop music.

My Take on it – As a fan of Natalie Portman movies, I was intrigued last year when I heard about this film and the Awards buzz it generated.

When it failed to garner any significant award nominations, I totally forgot abou this film until recently when I was reminded of it.

This is a film that tries to show how life can take some very unexpected turns along the way which can either lead to success or failure and we never know which direction we may be taking.

This film actually starts of really well and then it unfortunately unravels much too quickly into a real mess.

I have been an admirer of Portman’s acting abilities ever since she starred in Leon: The Professional (1994) when she was 12.

She is truly a great actress, but her performance here doesn’t suit her well and something constantly feels off about the way that she portrays this particular character.

The story itself is presented in a very disjointed way and that hurts things a lot when trying to tell a narrative like this one.

I understand why they split the story between two varying timelines in this character’s life, yet by doing so, it lessens the real impact of the story because it causes much too many distractions along the way.

This is all quite unfortunate since the story itself has lots of potential that is wasted because it fails to keep things interesting throughout the entire story, which is quite a shame.

Bottom Line – Movie that starts off well but quickly unravels into a complete mess. Portman is a great actress, but this role doesn’t really suit her well enough. The story is quite disjointed and I understand why they chose to have two distinct timelines but that takes so much away from the impact that this kind of story has the potential for which is quite a shame.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The director claims that “Vox Lux” means “voice of light” in Latin. The correct Latin translation would be “Vox Lucis.” In Latin, a word’s ending depends on its role in a particular phrase. “Vox Lux” is simply two nouns, “voice light”. (From IMDB)

Rating – Razzie Worthy (4/10)

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