A Star Is Born
The last time that I cried in a movie theater was when I saw Arrival for the first time in 2016. The ending was so surprisingly, incredibly well written that tears rolled down my cheeks like a waterfall. Since then, there hasn’t been any film that has gotten that much emotion out of me (I better managed my tear ducts while watching Coco), but while I was alone in the theater for A Star Is Born, there was so much water in my eyes that I couldn’t see the screen. An obvious Oscar contender, A Star Is Born is sure to bring home a lot of awards but unlike 2016’s La La Land, most of them will be deserved.
A remake of the 1937 film of the same name, this marks the directorial debut for Bradley Cooper, which he completely nails. There’s an intimacy that is captured in every scene that forces everything to be 10x more emotional than it would be otherwise. The film is instantly compelling once it starts and it holds onto you for dear life even when it falters. It begins with Bradley Cooper’s Jackson Maine walking on stage and performing to what seems to be a packed house. Prior to viewing, I was a little worried that Gaga would have to do all of the heavy lifting where the singing was concerned, and while she does do most of the work, Cooper is more serviceable than expected.
After the show, Maine exchanges niceties with his driver while really being more concerned with where he’ll be able to get a drink. He stumbles into a drag bar and after some more polite, seemingly unwanted conversation with some bar dwellers, he is immediately infatuated with Ally (Lady Gaga) upon seeing her rendition of “La Vie en Rose.” Their moments together after this, their first conversation and sitting in parking lots under the night sky, are some of the best of the film. This is obviously a high-end production, and the musical numbers confirm that, but the scenes of them getting to know each other that first night are filled with such naturalistic movement and dialogue from Cooper and Gaga (and great cinematography from Matthew Libatique) that for a moment I forgot that I was watching a fictional story.
There’s nothing out of the ordinary or unexpected after their first meeting and the film is unfortunately very top heavy. So much happens in the first half that the second half feels a little barren in comparison. We watch their love story unfold and we see how Ally goes from performing with her hands covering her eyes to becoming a legitimately entertaining part of Jackson’s show. Everything is perfect for the couple (though she does get used to Jackson’s drinking a little too quickly) until she is approached by manager Rez (Raffi Gavron) and is given the chance to record her own album. This causes a rift between them that isn’t fixed until the end even as we watch them get married (with the help of a wonderful Dave Chappelle) and pretend that things aren’t a little broken. Ally is no longer “herself” as she transforms into a popstar instead of the folk singer that everyone, especially Jackson, expected her to be. Her first single isn’t great (though the audience in the film seems to love it) and the film never really decides if we are supposed to be happy for her or upset but these sequences will undoubtedly get more burn from audiences questioning Gaga’s thoughts on her own career as she is “basically” Ally in reverse.
As close to perfect as I think the film is, there are a few glaring issues that should have been addressed. For one, the movie is 2 hours and 15 minutes long but should have realistically been longer in order to tell a more complete story. The “Star” referenced in the title is obviously Ally but her story is never told. Jackson is the main focus and Ally is treated as less important. She doesn’t even get a last name. We know about Jackson’s childhood and all of the things that have ailed him and why. We never find out about Ally’s background or even what prompted her to be a singer in the first place. There are also a few other moments (that I wont spoil) that had to be dealt with in the film’s universe that we never get to see or hear about and those moments would have added another level of complexity to the film.
Then there’s the issue of calendars and clocks not existing within the universe created here. There is no point during the film that time is acknowledged at all. Besides the sun rising and setting, there is no way to know how much time passes from the first scene to the last. It could be a few weeks, it could be a few months, it feels like a few years but how many, we may never know. Watching Ally go from unknown to Grammy winning artist is fun but it would have been easier to invest had I know how long it took her to get there.
A Star Is Born is genuinely one of the best films that I have seen this year and it may be due to the ending. As I watch more dramas, I am always waiting to see one that has a tragic ending that actually makes sense. Unlike some of this film’s biggest supporters, I have never seen any rendition of this story before, so as the end drew closer I hoped for more than a smiling romp through the flowers. What I got was an emotional series of scenes that mark the final moments of Jackson’s life. Bradley Cooper’s performance is not one that sends you running for tissues but instead he captivates you as you watch the pain in his eyes as he realizes that his actions have begun to hold Ally back and killing himself is the only way to propel her to the heights of her promise. The suicide is handled with a calm intensity and Gaga closes the film with one of the best vocal performances I’ve heard from her to date. Bradley Cooper has been nominated for an Oscar three times before and has never won. That changes this year.
I give it 4 out of 5 trash cans.
