“Natalie Portman’s Greatest Performance to Date” VOX LUX Opens Friday at AFS Cinema
VOX LUX opens Friday at AFS Cinema. Buy tickets.
VOX LUX, A 21st Century Portrait, begins in 1999 when teenage Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) survives a violent tragedy. After singing at a memorial service, Celeste transforms into a burgeoning pop star with the help of her songwriter sister (Stacy Martin) and talent manager (Jude Law). Celeste’s meteoric rise to fame dovetails with a personal and national loss of innocence, consequently elevating the young powerhouse to a new kind of celebrity: American icon, secular deity, global superstar. By 2017, adult Celeste (Natalie Portman) is mounting a comeback after a scandalous incident almost derailed her career.
Here’s what critics are saying:
“Natalie Portman’s greatest performance to date.” – Cinemalogue
“a deeply satisfying, narratively ambitious jolt of a movie.” – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
“Starring a ferocious Natalie Portman as a pop diva in freefall, Brady Corbet’s sophomore feature is a bold, often brilliant trip through the celebrity spin cycle.” – Guy Lodge, Variety
“A film with this much style, ambition and potency shouldn’t be dismissed with lazy, empty words like ‘pretentious.’ It should be celebrated as prophecy.” – Andrew Lapin, NPR
“Portman is in a really interesting zone here, fearless in a way that feels reckless. She’s really out there on the edge, where she belongs…There’s not an uninteresting moment in the whole thing.” – Sheila O’Malley, RogerEbert.com
“‘VOX LUX is 2018’s big cinema event…an insidious little masterpiece.” – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
- Contributed by Henry Graham