Natalie Portman transcends in the most challenging and unshakable film I've seen this year.
*spoilers!*
Brady Corbet's Vox Lux has an "angle" unlike the other post-Columbine, post-911 films that simply objectify traumatic events (think Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003)).
Corbet gives terrorism an origin story.
obviously, his aspirations are doomed from the get-go. No one can present some catch-all to explain how terrorists develop their thinking.
the only thing we can be sure of is that our news-media platforms will scrape every variable together in one place, inevitably dissolving the barrier between infamy and fame.
I was discouraged seeing dozens of people walking out of the 41st-Annual Denver Film Festival premiere but I understood their decision.
Vox Lux's subject matter is difficult, and I don't think I'll watch it again soon, but it provides an indescribable feeling of media-saturated hysteria that's uncomfortable for most people to try and process, myself included.
this film captures the existential dread you sometimes feel when every image in your Instagram/Apple News feed feels like it's not only connected, but also reinforcing the worst aspects of society. You open up your phone: another mass shooting, Kanye West hugs Trump, California wildfire burns, etc. This movie proposes that these things are all closely related, and directly influencing one another.
in Celeste's "21st-Century Portrait", space and time are rendered meaningless, as her geography (physical distance) does nothing to separate her from the emotional repercussions of her work, and 17 years (tangential distance) has failed to separate her from the trauma of her childhood. She feels like she's been travelling on a straight highway road, but history/media indicate that she's only moving in cycles.
the way events/subjects blend and juxtapose, having Celeste's private thoughts manifest themselves in public arenas, and vice-versa, is a very unique, very 21-century type of disorienting angst. Kudos to Corbet.
wasn't a good date night flick, however.
*spoilers!*
Brady Corbet's Vox Lux has an "angle" unlike the other post-Columbine, post-911 films that simply objectify traumatic events (think Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003)).
Corbet gives terrorism an origin story.
obviously, his aspirations are doomed from the get-go. No one can present some catch-all to explain how terrorists develop their thinking.
the only thing we can be sure of is that our news-media platforms will scrape every variable together in one place, inevitably dissolving the barrier between infamy and fame.
I was discouraged seeing dozens of people walking out of the 41st-Annual Denver Film Festival premiere but I understood their decision.
Vox Lux's subject matter is difficult, and I don't think I'll watch it again soon, but it provides an indescribable feeling of media-saturated hysteria that's uncomfortable for most people to try and process, myself included.
this film captures the existential dread you sometimes feel when every image in your Instagram/Apple News feed feels like it's not only connected, but also reinforcing the worst aspects of society. You open up your phone: another mass shooting, Kanye West hugs Trump, California wildfire burns, etc. This movie proposes that these things are all closely related, and directly influencing one another.
in Celeste's "21st-Century Portrait", space and time are rendered meaningless, as her geography (physical distance) does nothing to separate her from the emotional repercussions of her work, and 17 years (tangential distance) has failed to separate her from the trauma of her childhood. She feels like she's been travelling on a straight highway road, but history/media indicate that she's only moving in cycles.
the way events/subjects blend and juxtapose, having Celeste's private thoughts manifest themselves in public arenas, and vice-versa, is a very unique, very 21-century type of disorienting angst. Kudos to Corbet.
wasn't a good date night flick, however.
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