Vox Lux - Review

Release Date: December 7, 2018​​​​​​​​

Wished it was Better

Biographical films are usually about real people. To then have that same style applied to a fictional character is slightly jarring. Vox Lux is just that, a film about a fictional pop star in 2017 and how they became who they are. I went into the movie completely blind, only ever seeing the poster that was released months before the trailer came out. I did not expect to be slightly puzzled coming out of the movie, but here we are.

Vox Lux starts with the main character as a child. From the very beginning, you can tell that something is off. That feeling of uneasiness is validated when a kid walks into a classroom and shoots the teacher point blank. They proceed to unload their automatic machine gun into their classmates while the car they parked in front of the school blows up. Its actually directed pretty well, displaying a very realistic feeling scene that makes you jump a little. 

The main character survives and their rise to fame as a pop star starts. As the movie leads you through their life, nothing seems exaggerated. It's the best thing about 

the film, being able to present all the events happening as reality. Nothing is blown up to be bigger than it could be in real life. I wouldn't blink an eye if this were a biographical piece about a real person; there is no reason to believe that the movie is fictitious. 

The main problems that this the film encounters should have been an easy fix. They have the actress who plays the young version of the protagonist also play the daughter of that same character when the movie has a time jump. Its a really odd choice that is compounded by the fact that only the main character switches actors for the time jump. Everyone else is still playing the same person and look exactly the same even though there was supposed to be a 20-year gap.

The second problem was the editing. This problem is really only egregious at the start of the movie, but the way the narrator continues to give information throughout was an odd choice.

Overall, Vox Lux was about a modern day pop star. With music written by SIA, the soundtrack was pretty good. The biggest claim to fame for the movie was that it seemed real and its actors did a pretty good job. It didn't need the 20-minute concert section at the end, especially since it seemed like the cheapest part of the film. With some better editing, this movie probably would have been an awards contender since Natalie Portman does such a good job. It could have been better, and for that reason, there is no reason to see this in theaters.

7/10
As flashy as it is, I always wanted more from it. The musics real good though