A Star Is Born

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A Star Is Born seemed like it had everything going against it. The movie is directed by Bradley Cooper (who has never directed a movie before this film). It’s the third or fourth adaptation of A Star Is Born. For further proof of how easily these kinds of movies can fail, see 2005’s House of Wax, 2017’s The Mummy, 2016’s Ben-Hur, and 2011’s The Thing. But, against all odds, this movie seems to succeed. Singer Jackson Maine (played by Cooper himself) discovers an unknown singer named Ally (played by Lady Gaga). Ally herself is a struggling artist. Before long, the two begin to fall in love with each other. First off, Cooper gives an excellent performance as a musician struggling with his alcoholism and all of his other demons. He has fantastic chemistry with leading lady Lady Gaga. I knew Gaga could act thanks to her stint as the Countess on American Horror Story. But, I didn’t know she had this in her. The biggest surprise about her performance his the fact that I never actually saw Lady Gaga. All I saw was Ally. One of the things about all of the performances in this film (not just Cooper and Lady Gaga) is the fact that everybody actually feels like real people. The relationships Ally shares with both Jackson and her father (played by Andrew Dice Clay enjoying something of a career resurgence between this and Blue Jasmine) are genuine. Clay was something of a surprise to me given the negative stigma around the man and his career. Cooper really does understand what he’s doing behind the camera. Much of his direction feels raw. It doesn’t feel overly showy. He seems more interested in just telling the story of Jack and Ally. I love the way he lights some of the characters (Ally in particular). There are a lot of cliches that this movie could have easily fallen into that it manages to avoid, even if it doesn’t avoid all of them. They could have easily shown that Jackson was jealous of Ally in the very beginning. Instead, he’s actually supportive of her growing as a star. I also like that while Ally wants to do what’s best for her, that doesn’t necessarily make her selfish. She does admit to worrying about the man she loves. It took me a couple of seconds to recognize Dave Chapelle (the man gives a fairly restrained performance given what he’s know for). For as much as I really liked this movie, I did have some issues with it. I don’t think the movie needed to be 135 minutes. There’s a scene where Jackson talks to Ally’s manager, and I don’t see the purpose it had on the story. I feel torn about the Saturday Night Live scene. I get why it’s there, but I kind of didn’t like it at the same time. Overall, A Star Is Born isn’t perfect, but it truly is emotionally powerful. 

8 / 10