Natalie Portman is trapped in the stars in Lucy in the Sky trailer

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Last year Natalie Portman ventured into the trippy unknown and had a bit of a mental breakdown in the movie ANNIHILATION, and this year things don’t seem to be getting any easier for her in the movie LUCY IN THE SKY. In the directorial debut from Noah Hawley (FARGO, LEGION), Portman plays astronaut Lucy Cola who is having trouble re-entering normal life after getting to experience the vastness and majesty of space firsthand, and soon her life falls out beneath her while her head remains in the stars.

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While I can already see LUCY IN THE SKY being a movie audiences don’t exactly flock to, for the right crowd this is one to keep an eye out for. On the visual front, LUCY looks arresting, meshing ethereal imagery with grounded, dramatic scenes. The music cues and that claustrophobic t 4:3 aspect ratio also go a long way in emphasizing the dark paths the movie may go down, and from start to finish, it looks like a jarring, surreal experience on all fronts.

Hawley has made a name for himself with some other mind-bending projects like FX's LEGION, so a movie like LUCY IN THE SKY sounds like the perfect vehicle for him to tackle in his directorial debut. Portman, who has been turning in some of the best work of her career between JACKIE, VOX LUX and ANNIHILATION looks to be turning in yet another captivating performance here as Lucy, a woman who cannot cope with returning back to Earth and dealing with a cheating husband. While the visuals and story look strong, her performance is perhaps the biggest draw of the whole movie. 

Written by Brian C Brown, John-Henry Butterworth, Elliott DiGuiseppi and Hawley, the movie also stars Jon Hamm, Dan Stevens, Zazie Beetz, Ellen Burstyn and Nick Offerman and is in theaters sometime in 2019