Vox Lux

This garish, gaudy mess of a musical melodrama begins on Staten Island in 1999, when teenage Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) sustains a life-threatening spinal injury trying to talk down a shooter during a harrowing school massacre. Comforted by her older, more talented sister Eleanor (Stacy Martin), the pair write “Wrapped Up,” a tribute ballad mourning the tragic violence. When the song goes viral, they are courted by a sleazy manager (Jude Law) who seems both paternal and predatory. Confronted by sudden fame and fortune, Celeste and Eleanor are plunged into a glitzy world that is totally foreign: they’ve become pop stars, recording in Stockholm and shooting videos in Los Angeles. “I don’t want people to have to think too hard,” Celeste says, “I just want them to feel good.” Skipping ahead 18 years, scandal-ridden, substance-addicted Celeste (now played by Natalie Portman) has done a Britney Spears-like crash-and-burn. But she is determined to make a comeback with an extravagant show to promote her new album Vox Lux. Foul-mouthed, leather-clad Celeste—still wearing a neck brace—now has her own estranged teenage daughter, Albertine (also played by Raffey Cassidy), who has more rapport with resentful Aunt Eleanor. On the morning of Celeste’s spectacular comeback show, a foreign tragedy takes place that is tied to Celeste’s work. Writer-director Brady Corbet’s cynical, overly ambitious script at times seems almost incoherent, which seems to be why the plot points are dutifully narrated by Willem Dafoe. Flashy, deeply flawed, pretentious poppycock, this is an optional purchase. (S. Granger)