So glad I was assigned this one. I reviewed for Rogerebert.com.
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Phone call for Jessie …
hahahahaha oh no! I read it when you posted it and had it marked in my head to come back and say how enthused your review got me (also, Scott Walker, are you KIDDING?!!). People have actually been mentioning it to me and I’ve been saying, yes! it looks so interesting! I have a buddy who says it’s really excellent! And then they ask so what’s it actually *about* and I’m like uhhhhhhhhhhh there’s a singer. lol. So your EOY sum-up where you said it was clearly ABOUT stuff but more in the sense of ideas and themes thrown in the sky like a handful of glitter confetti — it tickled and excited me.
And she’s such an interesting performer. What people make of her always varies — forgive me, I can’t remember — have you seen Jackie? And I’m enjoying the way her face is changing. No one has tapped the full potential of her eyebrows since Aranofsky so I’m hoping that’s a feature of Vox Lux too. (I recognise that this is a ridiculous sentence but she doesn’t have, you know, one of those faces — so there’s a kind of doll-like to-be-made-use-of quality in her (this is aside from her emotional facility and spontaneity) but her face can be kind of — uncanny in its tight-skinned perfection).
I’m really glad to hear you liked it so! I’ll be back after it comes out over here….
// And then they ask so what’s it actually *about* and I’m like uhhhhhhhhhhh there’s a singer. lol. //
hahahaha
It’s also so interesting having this and A Star is Born come out in the same year. It’s almost the anti-A Star is Born – although A Star is Born also has a pretty strong critique of the music industry embedded in it. But yeah I honestly don’t know what Vox Lux is about – hahaha – but that’s one of the reasons why I can’t get it out of my mind. The narrative is tied to two terrorist attacks – so there’s some comment being made about celebrity and the connection to criminality – maybe? – or that our world is so void now of meaning and violence is so random that we put our focus on celebrities – whose “fame” is somewhat empty and yet it keeps going, because what else are ya gonna do if you’re already famous – step away?? I don’t know – this sounds all over the place and the movie really is all over the place – and yet it’s also really focused. There are almost no people in it except her “inner circle” because that’s her only points of contact outside her millions of fans.
I’ll be VERY interested to hear what you have to say about it.
// No one has tapped the full potential of her eyebrows since Aranofsky so I’m hoping that’s a feature of Vox Lux too. //
This is so hilarious.
and yes, I have seen Jackie!
There’s been a wave of “Natalie Portman is not a good actress” bullshit in “Film Twitter” which just makes me realize how much I am NOT a part of that scene because I honestly don’t know what their criteria is for what is and is not good acting. They don’t know what they’re talking about half the time. Angelica Bastien (a big Natalie fan) said as much on her own Twitter feed: “This is why I don’t listen to y’all when you talk about acting.” COSIGN.
Also to do Vox Lux and Annihiilation in the same year – on the heels of Jackie … she’s MAJOR and she’s taking HUGE risks.
// doll-like to-be-made-use-of quality in her (this is aside from her emotional facility and spontaneity) but her face can be kind of — uncanny in its tight-skinned perfection //
what a fascinating observation!
and interesting in re: her eyebrows. One of the character’s “things” as a star is this half-mask she wears – which goes over her eyes, nose, and brow – turning her into a bot-like creature. Otherworldly. like an android. But then when the mask is off – she’s got this ferocious self-consciousness (her persona is “on” at all times) and yet also a vulnerability – and it’s that mix that makes her character compeltely believable as a star. and it’s interesting – because that’s NOT the brand of stardom that Portman herself has. She’s not Angelina Jolie, who has a persona more like Mick Jagger or a rock star than anything else – and she’s amazing with it. Portman is different.
But here – I don’t know, it seems like there’s some commentary here about fame – pop fame – not Oscar-winning fame – the shallowest of kinds of fame but one that can pull in millions of fans if the music is good enough – and Portman’s mix of braggadoccio and vulnerability seems to be reflective of what that fame is all about. And how much of it is real? Is it ALL manufactured? I don’t think so. Britney Spears tapped into something – and maybe it’s not our proudest moment that she tapped into something – but she DID – and she has paid a price for it, and yet she also remains beloved by those who loved her then.
I don’t know, it’s such a mix of things you kind of can’t even believe the movie exists. With a score by Scott Walker, appropriate for some gigantic historical military epic.
It’s glorious!
I went and looked up Bastien’s article on Portman — very astute! That is such a bummer about the latest cycle of discussion. There is something about her successes in childhood — Leon and Beautiful Girls, & to a much lesser extent Everyone Says I Love You — that people cannot let go. Like she’s betrayed them by not remaining a precocious innocent. And then there’s the flip side of that, the whole “she’s wooden and doesn’t have range” thing, which baffles me. Like, probably her most-seen film is Thor and she is delightfully present and responsive — smiling, sparkling, thinking.
Anyway — interested to hear about the mask! The poster is a curious one — I see a deadness in that expression, not the explosion of triumphant energy once might expect from a singer/concert/pop poster. It gives me Velvet Goldmine vibes.
Looking forward to chatting in a million years after it opens here!
Sheila, we just got back from seeing it, I am REELING still. During the first credits sequence, with that eerie choral track floating over that endless drive, I leaned over to L and whisper-screamed I fuckin LOVE this. We both loved it!
Scattered initial thoughts:
1. Audiences. We were in absolute hysterics over parts of act ii. the way she was sucking down wine in that diner scene! post-bender collapse into the hallway and then tottering out of the van like Patsy Stone! DEAD silence from everyone else in the cinema. Equally dead silence after the end. I have no idea if they loathed it or if they were feeling as stunned and empty as us.
2. Direction. The shifts to video in the pre-2017 sequences gave me so many bandom shivers. Of crawling youtube watching terrible behind the scenes clip compilations. A brilliant choice, I thought — to transition her from a civilian to a star. Brutally elegant NYC architecture and editing. Those slo-mo sections where the narrator busts in like the Y Tu Mama Tambien guy went off to write about pop culture for Vox — that one during the press conference flattened me. Where did Portman go in that, what was she doing?
3. Your review and notes here and there are bullseye. There is so much here just thrown up in the air here that refuses message or concrete meaning. She’s like a bird swept up in a torrent, just a relentless flow of money and culture and history and people and social trauma. Sometimes swimming with the current, sometimes fighting it, always being moved downstream. The whole film is just crowded with all this stuff. Bumping shoulders with Themes.
4. Costume. That chokehold around her neck and the way everything else subsequently borrowed from bondage gear. Ehle’s change in clothing saying EVERYTHING.
5. Casting. How PERFECT was Cassidy! Her vocal work, her makeup (the moles!). The post-coital scene where she talks about her dream, front-on on her side, I honestly wondered a time or two if they’d layered Portman’s face over hers. Great as Albertine too. Portman, extraordinary. Law, perfect. Everyone was fabulous.
6.. We were puzzling over the concert sequence on the way out. There was something so restrained and distant about it. Beyonce she (Celeste) is not. Lip-syncing. An average, inexuberant dancer. I was expecting there to be a revelation and catharsis about who she is as a performer but she was more alive off stage. The more I think about it the more I feel like the prelude and epilogue echo and unsettle each other.
Gosh. It was so cool. I’ll be thinking about it forever.
Ooh this comment is an embarrassment of riches. I’m so glad you went back and found this post to comment. You make me want to see it again. I’m so glad it affected you like it affected me – but you have also given me some food for thought!!
// During the first credits sequence, with that eerie choral track floating over that endless drive, I leaned over to L and whisper-screamed I fuckin LOVE this. //
Ha!! I had the same reaction. It was so BOLD – not safe – so many films play it safe – the tone was just so HUGE right from the jump. The style was so interesting – one of the things that strikes me is that we are so used to seeing movies about famous people where it is clear the famous person is extraordinary. That the famous person was recognized early for being extraordinary.
This was different.
She was just a regular kid. And it wasn’t like she sang at the wake and sounded like Christina Aguilera. But it was still totally believable that it would strike an amazing chord (especially since it took place before the time where school shootings have become – disgracefully – so common.)
I guess her extraordinary-ness was seen (for me) only in the moment where she decides to speak to the shooter, reach out to him. That, to me, was the only indication that this was a person who wanted to communicate, who COULD communicate with others.
// DEAD silence from everyone else in the cinema. Equally dead silence after the end. //
hahaha oh no!! I thought her performance was very funny too – but also like … disturbing. The way Gena Rowlands’ characters were sometimes disturbing in the films with Cassavetes. Like, my GOD woman, take a nap!
What I loved was her sincerity. You may WANT to laugh at her getting out of the van and staggering down to the water. And of course it is absurd – but her feelings about the event were very real. It had that great mix of sensibilities – she was very unpredictable and I loved it.
// that one during the press conference flattened me. Where did Portman go in that, what was she doing? //
I need to see it again to refresh my memory.
I absolutely loved Willem Dafoe’s voiceover. It was so BIZARRE – a perfect choice – and then mixed in with Scott Walker’s score – and yes, the shots of New York – just chilling. But not at all didactic. I loved how NOT didactic it was.
(sorry for breaking up my comments … but I like to address things separately.)
That the famous person was recognized early for being extraordinary.
yes!! and when you think back to the opening home movie scenes as well, where there are two girls in outfits performing for their parents — in retrospect, the older child who is the focus, looking at the camera etc, is actually her sister, not Celeste.
That, to me, was the only indication that this was a person who wanted to communicate, who COULD communicate with others.
100% — and by the end what is it that she’s communicating?just (“just”) the fact of her own continued existence? it’s so interesting.
What I loved was her sincerity.
her sincerity is absolutely key! everything felt and meant completely and entirely. her persecution complex, her saviour complex, her anger, her love. you can see why people like her daughter forgive her — her stumble down to the sand for a moment of silence was completely genuine.
Defoe’s vo was perfectly delivered! I read he was a late sub — no idea who it was initially but he somehow was dispassionate and ironic and a true believer too. what a great device.
// There is so much here just thrown up in the air here that refuses message or concrete meaning. //
I think that might have been my favorite part.
I get so tired of being told what to think. Pauline Kael joked that the second an artist makes something that’s successful, they whip out a soapbox. It’s so true. And half the time, the messages they want to impart are boring and banal.
This was just so WEIRD. It resisted making connections for us – 9/11 – terrorism – school shootings – it’s all a part of the mix, but in the meantime, life goes on – and who of us can say “Here is the Time we are living in, and This is How It Affects Me and Our Civilization” – most people don’t have that kind of perspective.
But we are informed by world events. I always say as a Gen X person that my generation was formed – or coalesced – whatever you want to call it – around a series of events – Kurt Cobain’s death, the Challenger explosion, and also – going from the exhausted 1970s into the exuberant shallow 80s – we were born into a time of great economic anxiety (I just saw a headline saying “Millennials are the first generation to not do as well as their parents” or something like that and I was like What on earth has happened to extremely short-term memory?? Gen X got press like that all the time. This is why we were “slackers.” But I digress.)
So I can look back and say that those who experienced 9/11 of course are different than those who came after. But those who came after will be formed by OTHER things. And on and on.
It’s all a muddle – because the world happens whether we stop to analyze it or not.
And this character was FORMED by an event which eventually would become so symbolic in this country – and get worse and worse until it is literally a national emergency. Guns and crazy white boys. So this symbolism was placed on her – and it has lasted almost a whole generation – which is unique.
Does it weigh on her?
Does she resent it? Does she fear she can’t live up to it?
One of the things I LOVED is that those questions were floating around (I kept thinking, “How does she FEEL about her fame??”) – but they WEREN’T answered.
Because our world is crazy and fast and it’s hard to know what’s happening – to ourselves, let alone in the world.
I dont’ know – it’s a huge HUGE movie, without announcing WHY it’s huge or how we should feel. I ate that UP.
I am not an enormous Jennifer Ehle fan – HOWEVER, last year alone she gave amazing performances – in this film, and then in Miseducation of Cameron Post – where she was, frankly, brilliant. She’s moving into a very interesting phase in her career and I am all for it.
I never liked her Lizzie Bennett and it’s always bled into my reaction to her other performances! But the prim thing she does with her mouth worked really well here lol. I thought she was great. And it was so funny how the only thing about Law that seemed to change was his hair and a couple of wrinkles.
// There was something so restrained and distant about it. Beyonce she (Celeste) is not. Lip-syncing. An average, inexuberant dancer. I was expecting there to be a revelation and catharsis about who she is as a performer but she was more alive off stage. The more I think about it the more I feel like the prelude and epilogue echo and unsettle each other. //
This is amazing. I felt the same way about the concert. I touched on it briefly – I think? – I haven’t checked – but it was definitely less than thrilling. It wasn’t Bette Midler in The Rose, or Gaga in A Star is Born – where a performance comes out of pain and trauma and is so brilliant that we all get catharsis.
Nope. Not this.
It was so highly choreographed – and her words seemed so rote – self-empowerment type words – which her audience clearly loved – but … they felt empty. I thought this was an amazing … choice? Not the right word. It was clearly deliberate, I’m just not sure what it all means. And I love that.
It’s eloquent to me that not once did I think, “God, I wish this woman could just go back and live a normal life.” A lot of times I think that watching biopics or stories about showbiz. I felt that in A Star is Born, with both characters. Like, they’d be totally better off if they could dial back the fame a bit, live on a ranch, be normal.
I didn’t feel that way here. I felt like this character was a complete creation – by a well-honed media machine that leapt on her as an opportunity, and then it took on a life of its own. And yet I didn’t feel like SHE was phony. The fame was something that had happened TO her. She didn’t set out to get it. She didn’t even want it. But it arrived and there was a passivity in her acceptance of it (that monologue by Cassidy in the bed!) that was … disturbing.
Even with the drinking and bad behavior – I didn’t feel like Portman’s character was a pawn. I didn’t feel her yearning to give it all up and be a regular mom. She would have ZERO skills for that. It didn’t even seem to exist for her as a possibility.
and yet … I didn’t find her tragic.
Did you?
I don’t know, I’m still working it out.
so glad you loved it too!
And yet I didn’t feel like SHE was phony. The fame was something that had happened TO her. She didn’t set out to get it. She didn’t even want it. But it arrived and there was a passivity in her acceptance of it
I know, this is so interesting! I didn’t find her tragic at all — I mean, I was moved by her tears and so on — but I didn’t feel like there was tragedy that she became who she was. Even though it was evident that she had slept with her manager at some point it just didn’t feel like she was a victim. Am I too caught up in it? I don’t know! There’s a level at which she feels like an expression of or the sign of all the cultural and interpersonal forces that shape her but there’s also that, I dunno — quicksilver sincerity, spiky agency. But there’s also the feeling that I don’t think things are gonna go so great for her. The whole thing is just laced with unease!
I haven’t seen Corbet’s other film (that he directed) but it’s definitely on the list now. This was such an interesting and absorbing work.