A Star Is Born (2018)

          Some random thoughts on the new, fourth incarnation of A Star Is Born.

• This is only the second version of the story I’ve seen. The version I’ve seen is the most famous previous version, George Cukor’s 1954 stone cold classic singer/movie star version featuring Judy Garland’s absolute greatest screen performance. It’s a film I love. The second most famous previous version, and seemingly most maligned, is Frank Pierson’s 1976 rock version made as a vehicle for Barbara Streisand. This is where the new Bradley Cooper film takes the majority of its thematic inspiration.
• While both these previous versions took fresh approaches to the same basic outline, with their spins on the movie industry of the 1950s and the rock industry of the 1970s, the new film is less ambitious in its scope, content to just update the 1976 version to a contemporary music industry setting. It also has nothing new or revelatory to say on the matter.
• In the current #MeToo era, as a story about an (older) man being the saviour of a (younger) woman’s life and career, the film is perhaps a tough sell. No reference is made to the paradox, but the female lead is very much a ‘person’ role, well defined. But as a film directed by a man, and written by men, the male lead still gets the most focus. It is not an even split.
• It has all the hallmarks of a first film, being Bradley Cooper’s introductory foray behind the camera. It is very competently directed, which is a compliment, but is also full of some occasional directorial flourishes that distractingly draw attention to themselves.
• The theme of the camerawork throughout seems to be tight close-ups, everywhere. There are barely two or three establishing shots in the entire film. While perhaps on the self-conscious side, it does give the film an almost claustrophobic intimacy, which helps give the central romance heightened intensity, as well as adding to the addictive rush of its introductions to the music industry.
• As an actor too, Cooper is good, even quite good. But never entirely outstanding.
• He is routinely upstaged by the great character actor Sam Elliott, here playing the Cooper character’s much older brother. He shows the depth of a decades long brotherly connection in the barest of gestures and line readings. He is the type of actor to authentically enhance any film he is involved in. Which he richly does here.
• The songs are all fine, but there is nothing entirely fascinating in this department. They will invariably sound much better and more appropriate on film than as individual listens on the soundtrack album. The film is perhaps aware of this since very few songs play out in their entirety.
• All except for the already most well known song from the film, ‘Shallow’. As a song it is very distinguished, but as a sequence in the film, being the Lady Gaga character’s first time on a packed stage, it is revelatory. It has a rush and an energy that makes it easily the film’s unimpeachable highlight; worth buying a ticket for all on its own.
• And lastly the undisputed Star (forgive me) of the film, and reason enough for the entire project’s existence in the first place: Lady Gaga herself. We all knew she had a killer voice, one of the best and most ferociously expressive of any singer around today, but as an actor, she is remarkable. She sells the part completely. And this is very much a character, a real acted part; this is not Gaga playing Gaga. She carries the entire film, and every scene she is in is a highlight, every one she’s not is a low.
• Overall, well made, well acted, and passionately character driven. Story first, music second. As it should be.