Mubi Monday: Vox Lux (2018)

The second feature from writer-director Brady Corbet, who has a filmography that also contains a number of acting roles from the past few couple of decades, Vox Lux is a film that suffers from a lack of focus. The annoying thing is that two central points that the movie revolves around are definitely a focus for the characters, but they're ultimately left too far in the background as we're left with a mediocre character study that doesn't have enough brilliance in either the script or the acting department to lift it up.

Having survived a horrific school shooting, Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) manages to use her new-found "fame" to build a career, one that has her singing alongside her sister, Eleanor (Stacy Martin). The first half of the movie shows the development of the two girls, as Celeste grows more and more into her role while Eleanor seems to fade into the background. We then cut forward by many years. Celeste (now played by Natalie Portman) is a bag of rock diva clichés, struggling to contain her nerves, her anger, and struggling to be the mother she might want to be to her daughter (Albertine, the second character played by Raffey Cassidy).

Although there may be a variety of influences here, the main ones would seem to be Nicolas Winding Refn (particularly in the third act, seeing how Portman's character performs her songs) and, strangely enough, Wes Anderson. Some people have already mentioned recognising the former, few have noted the latter, so it may just be my brain working improperly again. But the Willem Dafoe narration throughout, the problematic parenting, the low-key nature of scenes that could have easily been executed more bombastically, the mature behaviour of the young girls who are front and centre for the first half of the movie, and the very deliberate movements and carefully-considered speech of Portman (almost like a puppet at times when she has to be "on" for others) certainly had me thinking that there were enough similarities here with Anderson's usual checklist to make it worth noting.

People have been praising Portman's performance. I'm not sure why. She is bordering on the terrible here, helped in no way at all by the script. Celeste is that cartoonish idea of the personality you give a celebrity after you've met them once while they were having a bad day. Yes, there are darker depths and more interesting elements of her personality worth exploring, tied in with how her career began and what she has done to keep it going, but they are left aside as Corbet contents himself with moving from one soap opera moment to another. Both Martin and Cassidy do much better work, the latter excellent in both of her roles, although the second role is a much lesser one (where she feels like little more than a sounding board for her mother). Jude Law does alright with his turn, a savvy manager, and Jennifer Ehle does well in the few scenes that she has, playing the PR person handling a fairly difficult day. Both of those characters are also underdeveloped, but that's fine because they simply revolve around Celeste.

Corbet seems to be aiming for something more here. I'm sure there are others that have taken more from it. His biggest problem is his inability to identify and separate the better points to make from the trite moments. Indeed, he seems to absolutely confuse the two, spending much more time on the stale, weaker, material than on anything more thought-provoking and confrontational.

It looks pretty good throughout, and the very heart of the film makes it at least worth a watch, but this is ultimately a disappointing experience. I would recommend any of the movies from the other directors mentioned ahead of this, if you like their work, and I wouldn't be averse to the idea of someone one day taking this premise and reworking it into something more focused, and much better.

4/10

You will be able to buy it here.
Americans can buy it here.