To call this film anything other than perfect would be a disservice to the people behind it. "Perfect" not in the sense that it's the greatest film, deserves awards, or is completely flawless. "Perfect" in that it achieves exactly what it sets out to do. It truly is a twenty-first century portrait. It makes you think, it mesmerizes you, it stuns you, it makes your stomach churn, and it makes you stare in a sequined, glitter-covered mirror. Provocation at its finest.

I feel it would be easy to dismiss this film's darker themes as cheap and for shock value. It would also be easy to say that the filmmakers are trying to draw a correlation between pop music, fame, and terrorism. While there may be those who find reason to argue such a claim, I think this film is trying to show how futile such conquests really are.

We're always trying to make sense of our world, to tie all the pieces together and spread the blame in an effort to change it. I think this film recognizes that, lays the pieces, and builds a foundation for such an argument. It leads you along its breadcrumb trail and teeters on the edge of a knife before the film's final ten minutes make you realize that all of this is just exactly what it is: a show.

It's just pop music. No more, no less. Her friends, her family, the world...all the darkness that surrounds them is pushed away when she performs. This isn't to say that music is healing, that it connects us, it saves us, or any of that BS. It's just to say that music is, maybe, just music. And evil is, unfortunately, evil. It just so happens that they're both more prominent than ever in today's world.

P.S. - Best ensemble cast in years. Portman is magnetic in a way that Fassbender was as Steve Jobs and the rest of the cast explode around her, especially Law.

P.S.S. - There's one shot in the beginning that is absolutely brutal and made me feel sick for the rest of the movie. I still don't know how I feel about it, but I don't think I'm as against it as I thought I'd be.