A Star is Born might not be the only Oscar contender about a singing sensation. There has been a ton of buzz surrounding Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux, an ambitious film starring Natalie Portman as a pop singer who experiences a breakdown as she copes with a failing career.
As you’d expect, the trailer focuses heavily on Portman, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Corbet’s film is basically divided up in halves, with Raffey Cassidy playing a younger version of her character, Celeste, as she survives a violent school shooting. Stacy Martin plays Celeste’s sister who helps her overcome that traumatic event, and use it to become an overnight sensation. So we’re talking mass shootings and the dark side of fame that Corbet is looking to explore here. Ambitious stuff, indeed.
Here’s the synopsis: VOX LUX begins in 1999 when teenage sisters Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) and Eleanor (Stacy Martin) survive a seismic, violent tragedy. The sisters compose and perform a song about their experience, making something lovely and cathartic out of catastrophe — while also catapulting Celeste to stardom. By 2017, the now 31-year-old Celeste (Natalie Portman) is mother to a teenage daughter of her own and struggling to navigate a career fraught with scandals when another act of terrifying violence demands her attention.
Also starring Jennifer Ehle and Willem Dafoe, Vox Lux opens December 7th.
