A Star Is Born
Directed by: Bradley Cooper
Written by: Eli Roth and Bradley Cooper & Will Fetters - Based on a story by William A. Wellman and Robert Carson
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, Dave Chappelle, Rafi Gavron, Anthony Ramos, Ron Rifkin, Eddie Griffin, Greg Grunberg, D.J. 'Shangela' Pierce
Drama/Music/Romance - 135 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 1 Oct 2018
Written by: Eli Roth and Bradley Cooper & Will Fetters - Based on a story by William A. Wellman and Robert Carson
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, Dave Chappelle, Rafi Gavron, Anthony Ramos, Ron Rifkin, Eddie Griffin, Greg Grunberg, D.J. 'Shangela' Pierce
Drama/Music/Romance - 135 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 1 Oct 2018
Directing your first film must be challenging enough without throwing up additional roadblocks in your path. Bradley Cooper didn’t do himself any favors his first time out. First, he co-wrote a screenplay around a story which has already been made into a motion picture three times. Second, he cast himself as the lead, setting up eyebrow-raising commentaries about an actor arrogant enough to believe a first time filmmaker can effectively direct himself. Finally, he cast an inexperienced actress as co-lead, a role requiring serious emotional chops and screen presence. The result is far from strike three and you’re out, Cooper’s A Star Is Born is engaging, crafted with skill, and may even have you accuse someone of cutting onions in the theater.
Much of A Star Is Born is set on various arena stages from the musician’s point of view. This is contrary to the typical setup where we behold the spectacle from the audience in a wide shot. The first time we see Jackson Maine (Cooper, Avengers: Infinity War), he pops some pills, swishes them down with booze, and a handheld, shaky cam shadows him in a close-up to his guitar and microphone. The rest of the film’s performances follow a similar pattern - backstage narcotics and liquids, shaky cam of the singer and the band, and sweat and nerves. Cooper ups the authenticity of these intimate moments in front of thousands of screaming fans by singing live. There is no miming a track in his ear, it’s really him center stage belting out these impressive tunes sure to rattle around in your head for the next few days.
Much of A Star Is Born is set on various arena stages from the musician’s point of view. This is contrary to the typical setup where we behold the spectacle from the audience in a wide shot. The first time we see Jackson Maine (Cooper, Avengers: Infinity War), he pops some pills, swishes them down with booze, and a handheld, shaky cam shadows him in a close-up to his guitar and microphone. The rest of the film’s performances follow a similar pattern - backstage narcotics and liquids, shaky cam of the singer and the band, and sweat and nerves. Cooper ups the authenticity of these intimate moments in front of thousands of screaming fans by singing live. There is no miming a track in his ear, it’s really him center stage belting out these impressive tunes sure to rattle around in your head for the next few days.
Seeing the film in an upgraded Dolby theater, I was not expecting to be hit harder than the previous film I saw in one of those spaces, Blade Runner 2049. A Star Is Born is louder than that sci-fi extravaganza, it may be one of the loudest films I’ve ever encountered. Jack is an alcoholic loner drinking himself from gig to gig while avoiding the daylight hours until he can feel alive again on stage. He figures he’s seen it all, gives off a going through the motions vibe, and conjures a convincing triple take when he stumbles upon Ally (Lady Gaga, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For), belting out “La Vie En Rose” in a drag bar. Ally is 31, old enough to accept her dreams of a life in music are a pipe dream after the gatekeepers tell her she doesn’t have the look, code for not pretty enough.
Smitten Jack has other news for her. She’s beautiful, and far more important, she has something to say in the lyrics she improvs in a grocery store parking lot as Jack and Ally experience perhaps the best night of their lives getting to know one another and realize they may have stumbled upon a special connection here, the kind you only get once, maybe twice, in a lifetime. While the concert settings feel real, these one-on-one, confidential times come off just as genuine. Cooper and Lady Gaga have chemistry, even though the film’s pinnacle is its first half prior to the gradual descent into addiction story, humiliation, recrimination, and a will they or won’t they redemption.
The script is a push and pull between Jack and Ally’s story. Is Jack the hero or is Ally? They each struggle through familiar dramatic romance themes: Will the promise of love stem Jack’s self-punishing ways before it’s too late and will Ally succeed in a world of fantastic opportunities with the weight of a failing lover by her side? When they first meet, Jack and Ally are going in two different directions. Jack is on his way down, but pauses to lift Ally up to where she should have been all along; can he climb back up with her? With such strong original songs like “Maybe It’s Time,” “The Shallow,” and “Always Remember Us This Way,” the audience will instinctively find themselves in rooting mode. The song lyrics address how Jack and Ally feel right at that moment, first off hopeful and inquisitive, later forlorn and pained.
Welcome surprises like Dave Chappelle, Andrew Dice Clay, and a couple of guys from “Alias” pop up in various supporting roles, but it’s Sam Elliott who nonchalantly steals the show as Jack’s brother, Bobby. When Jack first talks, I guessed he was mimicking Sam Elliott’s voice, because it’s clearly an octave lower than Cooper usually talks. However, when Elliott shows up on screen, the voice choice make sense. Jack and Bobby are two people who cannot talk to each other even though there are no two people closer in the film and they are the two who need to talk the most.
Cooper may have had this boiling urge to remake A Star Is Born because he discovered a contemporary spin he knew would make it work, but to brazenly attach your name to those like George Cukor, David O. Selznick, Judy Garland, Barbara Streisand, and Kris Kristofferson takes a healthy dose of moxy. It’s the fourth time around this cinematic carousel, but the songs are bona fide, the lead actors connect, and the ending stings. Jack never grew up from his traumatic childhood and Ally nurtures an inferiority complex disguised as realism. These two are made for each other which is why the first half of A Star Is Born is one of the best film’s of the year. It’s the more sober and plot-saturating second half which dims the magic of the first half’s glow.
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