A Star is Born

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SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

     Bradley Cooper directs A Star is Born, the third remake of the 1937 classic Hollywood film. Through each of its incarnations—including a 1954 musical starring Judy Garland and a 1976 musical starring Barbra Streisand—the basic story has remained much the same: an established celebrity discovers a struggling young performer and catapults her into fame and fortune. The two fall in love along the way, but the pressures of life in the spotlight threaten to undermine their relationship.

     In the 2018 rendition, it’s Lady Gaga’s turn. She plays Ally, a singer-songwriter whose life turns upside down when she meets Jackson Maine (Cooper), a famous singer. The dynamic between the two sets the stage for the movie in more ways than one. Obviously, the plot turns on Ally and Jackson’s relationship, but the interplay between Gaga and Cooper—who both deliver Oscar-contender performances—gives A Star is Born its lifeblood.

photo courtesy of cnn.com

     Gaga steals the show. She’s acted before (some bit parts, and some highly stylized roles in American Horror Story), but in A Star is Born she takes on a real, complex, demanding role and knocks it out of the park. Also, I’m not sure if you were aware, but Lady Gaga isn’t too shabby as a singer, and the movie gives her plenty of opportunity to use both skills at once—to sing in character, informed by her emotions, insecurities, desires, etc. Cooper, for his part, makes a highly convincing rockstar, and together, they have that kind of effortless chemistry that every worthy romance needs.

     Cooper’s best contribution, however, may be his direction. A Star is Born is often visually striking, but there’s a naturalism to the way he approaches scenes that makes them feel fluid, realistic. More than once, a shot he composes sends tingles down your spine or raises the hairs on your arm. And Cooper seems confident and thoughtful as a storyteller. Even though A Star is Born has a very deliberate—indeed, predictable—narrative development, Cooper lends the movie a certain spontaneity. The story goes where it wants, lingering in one moment and moving on quicker than expected in the next.

photo courtesy of bbc.com

     On the whole, A Star is Born is a remarkable triumph, a fruitful reimagining of its classic story. Many of its component pieces are beautiful on their own—stunning cinematography, captivating music, rich themes—so it’s not a surprise that in concert, they produce such a gorgeous, moving film. It’s easy to be dazzled by its glossy, ultra-Hollywood (read: big budget) sheen, or to get swept up in its melodrama, but these aren’t what makes A Star is Born a worthwhile retelling. It’s the movie’s ability to present these characters with honesty, authenticity, and vivid detail that keeps the audience invested, even when they know where the story is going (as they likely do, especially if they’ve seen the previous versions).

     Even so, the movie’s storytelling doesn’t carry the same power throughout. The first half, which recounts Ally and Jackson’s meeting, early romance, and success in show business, is nearly flawless on its own. It features all of the movie’s best qualities, and some of its scenes, like Gaga’s “La Vie En Rose” and their subsequent supermarket parking lot conversation, are pure cinema bliss. The second half, which chronicles the strains on their professional and personal lives, represents a half-step drop in quality. There, Cooper (and his co-writers) delve into the “plot” of the story, but they also dip further into cliché and melodrama. Their relative lack of imagination (or perhaps, re-imagination) in regard to the story’s second and third acts keeps the film’s conclusion from being quite as meaningful as they intend.

photo courtesy of complex.com

     Put simply, we have seen this examination of addiction/self-destruction before, and we’ve seen it in more than just the previous iterations of A Star is Born. Powerful though it may be, it’s the chink in the movie’s armor, where the movie feels the most familiar and where it would benefit the most from deeper imagination. Still, for many viewers the misstep will be indistinguishable, and for many more, it will be forgivable. For the record, this reviewer sits in the latter camp; to me, A Star is Born’s old-fashioned, cinematic sense of wonder, its perceptiveness, and the strength of its performances and music easily make it one of this year’s best. 

A Star is Born is rated R.

TRAILER

Watch the trailer here. 

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