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VOX LUX

"Unfulfilling Tale of Tragedy and Fame Leads to New Age Christophobia"

NoneLightModerateHeavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

VOX LUX follows an American girl from her teenage years to adulthood while struggling with tragedy and fame. Miraculously surviving a school shooting, Celeste becomes famous when her memorial song about the shooting becomes popular across America. Thrust into the spotlight at a young age, Celeste becomes a voice for violence and tragedy. She tries to maintain her innocence and faith during the instant fame, including dealing with a lifelong spinal injury. These struggles take a toll as she gets older. Another horrific shooting thrusts Celeste into the spotlight, forcing her to return to her tragic past.

VOX LUX brings up some important issues in a sometimes interesting way, but the way it ultimately handles them doesn’t satisfy. The movie perhaps works best as a metaphor. Celeste tries to turn tragedy into spectacle, but she replaces her Christian faith with a New Age, humanist attitude. This may be an accurate though devastating depiction of some Americans during a violent decade, but the movie seems to advocate this godless attitude. VOX LUX also contains strong foul language, drug abuse, and sexual behavior sometimes involving minors.

Content:

(PaPaPa, HHH, AbAbAb, C, B, LLL, VV, SS, N, AA, DD, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:
Strong pagan, humanist worldview as well as anti-biblical ideas of people becoming their own god and “coming to their senses” after believing in God, though main character begins as a Christian who tries to make sense of tragedy and evil;

Foul Language:
At least 25 obscenities (including 13 “f” words, five profanities (including one “for Christ sakes” and swearing to god), and a character vomits into the toilet.

Violence:
Strong violence includes a sequence of a school shooting including two people getting shot as well as an aftermath with bodies and blood on the floor and multiple masked gunmen open fire on a beach (the scenes are disturbing but not bloody in a strongly graphic way);

Sex:
Strong and light sexual content includes a character walks in on two people sleeping in bed apparently after fornicating, 13-year-old girl takes an older guy (assumedly in his 20s) back to her hotel room, and he’s in his underwear as they cuddle (sex could be inferred but isn’t shown), teenager grows up to have a daughter of her own and makes references to getting pregnant very young out of wedlock, same woman’s 16-year-old daughter confesses she lost her virginity, and Celeste makes her take a pregnancy test, and woman tells man he can sleep with her while she’s high (viewers see them getting close but nothing is explicitly shown);

Nudity:
Woman wears a bra getting ready for a performance, and a guy in his underwear lies next to a clothed Celeste;

Alcohol Use:
Younger female protagonist Celeste and her sister go out partying while she records an album, various instances of underage drinking, mother drinks wine at lunch and tries to hide it from her daughter, various references to older protagonist becoming an alcoholic;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:
Woman’s manager smokes or uses an E-cig in almost all of his scenes, a sequence shows two characters doing a significant amount of drugs and partying in a hotel room followed by an aftermath of trying to sober up and barely able to stand, and narrator references a time in female protagonist’s when she went blind from ingesting too many cleaning products as a way of getting high; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:
Disturbing thematic material involving shootings, the World Trade Center terrorist act and other tragedies.

More Detail:

Split into three acts, VOX LUX follows the story of Celeste from her teenage years to adulthood, as she struggles with tragedy and fame. A haunting opening scene follows Celeste as she confronts a school shooter and gets brutally shot in the process. Miraculously surviving, she and her sister write a song in memory of those who weren’t so lucky or blessed. They perform their ballad at their local church, and it ultimately sweeps the nation as the anthem of the tragedy.

As a teenager, Celeste deals with emotional, spiritual and physical conflict. She’s thrust into the spotlight at a very young age, forced to be a voice for violence and tragedy, and tries to maintain her innocence and faith among the party scene of fame, not to mention dealing with her life-long spinal injury.

The movie’s second half picks up with Natalie Portman as 31-year-old Celeste, who lives in the wake of her life as a pop star. She still has the spotlight and loves being famous, in spite of a life filled with addiction, lost innocence and rejected faith. When another horrific shooting brings Celeste into the spotlight, she’s forced to return to her own tragic past and be a voice for violence and victims, even though she may no longer be the best spokeswoman for the job.

VOX LUX is much more than a rising to stardom story of a pop star. Beginning with a school shooting reminiscent of Columbine, referencing 9/11 and continuing the theme of violent tragedy throughout, the movie provides an interesting correlation between fame, tragedy, exploitation, and responsibility. The movie works best as a metaphor, as Celeste personifies the idea of turning tragedy into a spectacle. She becomes famous for a song she wrote about a shooting. Consequently, at various times in her life, she’s asked to speak out about the violence, even though she personally might not be the best one to do so. It actually becomes clear later in the movie that she has no interest in speaking out on violence but rather just wants to make music that makes people feel good. By the time her sixth album is about to drop, her own personal life is such a mess of drugs, alcoholism and failed relationships, it seems the real tragedy in Celeste’s life is what fame has done to her. Or, perhaps it’s the choices she made along the way. Or, perhaps her troubled life goes back to the violent tragedies she experienced growing up as an American in the early 2000s.

No one watching the movie would question the importance of the issues it brings up, just the way it handles them. Sadly, the movie asks more questions than it answers, leaving a contemplative yet unsatisfactory jumble of events that never quite bring its point home. This may be a good thing, though, considering the movie’s bleak outlook. Also, Celeste eventually makes it clear she’s dropped her Christian faith and has turned herself into her own god. As an adult, she speaks out against the shooters by saying, “I used to believe in God, too. And, if they ever come to their senses like I did and want to believe in something else, they can believe in me. I am the New Testament.” Even the other characters in the movie think these comments are borderline inappropriate and offensive, but they are exceptionally offensive to media-wise people of faith.

It’s also very sad to see the deterioration of a life so focused around the tragedy that abandons faith instead of pressing into God to find meaning in it all. A girl who starts out by standing up to a shooter by saying, “You don’t have to do this, let’s pray together” becomes a swearing addict who puts faith only in herself, and she’s suffering from it. There’s even a reference to Celeste having only survived because she made a deal with the Devil, and he’s the one who has given her so much fame.

The movie ends on a high note of a performance by Natalie Portman’s Celeste character, presumably saying Celeste managed to rise above it all, but its denouement is exceptionally empty. If anything, the movie works too well as a metaphor for the nation’s loss of faith and shifts to a post-Christian culture in the years following such tragedies, although the filmmakers may or may not directly say the loss of faith in America is particularly a bad thing.

Finally, VOX LUX jumps all over the place, hopping from issue to issue and theme to theme without a strong through line or any final redemptive qualities. It seems to be trying to say so much that it ultimately doesn’t say anything beyond some interesting notions of fame and tragedy. In addition, explicit content such as foul language, drug use, sexual content sometimes involving minors, and, of course, the heretical references against Christian faith turn VOX LUX into a movie that media-wise viewers and other moviegoers will reject.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


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