While moviegoers are still swooning over Lady Gaga’s earnest turn in the latest A Star is Born remake, another film about pop star culture is on the horizon, and it has a much sharper edge to its chorus. Indeed, advance word on Vox Lux puts it as one of the sharpest (and darkest) films of the year, and this new trailer only begins to hint at where the film drags its star, Natalie Portman.
Rocking a thick Staten Island accent, Portman plays Celeste, a pop star who was once America’s sweetheart following a horrific tragedy. However, as the years pass and her number one hits pile up, so does her ego and neuroses, especially regarding her teenage daughter Albertine (Raffey Cassidy). She also has a devil on her shoulder in a manager played by Jude Law, who met Celeste when she was a child (also played by Cassidy), but who’s relationship with her now is much more ambiguous.
The film is a wicked drama-comedy-horror-satire hybrid from writer and director Brady Corbet. Suggesting Celeste may not only be the idol of her age, but also the face of it, the film picked up rave reviews at the BFI London Film Festival (and at the Tribeca International Film Festival and Venice Film Festival before that) and was quickly picked up for distribution in the US. There’s no word yet on when it’s due out over here, but expect it to fit in somewhere during the run up to awards season.