Natalie Portman's performance as a pop superstar in Brady Corbet's upcoming VOX LUX has been attracting some major awards buzz, and it's easy to see why in the recently released trailer for the film. VOX LUX is actually split into two parts, the first of which follows a teenage Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) and her sister Eleanor (Stacy Martin) as they survive a shockingly violent school shooting. While performing a song about their experiences at a memorial service, Celeste is catapulted to stardom. The second half of the film finds an older Celeste, now played by Natalie Portman, struggling to navigate her scandal-filled career as well as trying to be a mother to her own teenage daughter, who, in a neat twist, is also played by Raffey Cassidy.
Our own Chris Bumbray caught VOX LUX at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year and praised the film as campy cult spectacle with "one of the most memorable denouements" he'd seen in years. Although Bumbray found Natalie Portman's performance to be impressive, he believed that the film really belonged to Raffey Cassidy, as it's "through her we see the rise, with her as the young Celeste, and then as a witness to the older Celeste’s decline."
The official synopsis for VOX LUX:
In the year 1999, on the eve of the 21st century, teenage sisters Celeste and Eleanor 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 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.
VOX LUX will open in select theaters on December 7, 2018.