Written by: Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Andrew Dice Clay, Dave Chappelle, Sam Elliott
Rating: [4.5/5]
Unless a generational talent, the life cycle of a musical artist has its peaks and troughs before eventually fizzling away for the introduction of something new. A reality anyone who enters the entertainment industry must contend with but still remains difficult to fully accept, which we see in full swing in A Star is Born. A tremendous directorial debut by Bradley Cooper hitting you right in the soul not only through its story but also its tremendous music.
Country rock singer, Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) has found success in his arena but deals with substance abuse with alcohol. Upon attending a drag show, he meets the extremely talented Ally (Lady Gaga), who he brings onto one his shows to perform. As their romantic relationship blossoms, so does Ally’s professional career as Jackson’s begins to dwindle right before his eyes.
Utilizing a story structure of the same title in the past, A Star is Born attempts to bring a 21st-century spin on a timeless tale. It fits into any era because the rise and fall of stardom knows no time period as well as the ego of individuals within the music industry. Through this feature, we see two graphs on display with Ally’s rising towards the top, and Jackson’s trickling down to the bottom and with this fresh relationship they have developed, it will put be put to the test all wrapped up in the personal demons the latter must already contend with. Therefore this feature takes us right into this world and does so exceptionally well.
Nothing can quite bring an energetic jolt into your life than watching the initial performance of “Shallow” that is feature wonderfully employs. A masterful union of all aspects this feature has to offer displaying the absolute zenith of this entire movie where you have Jackson introducing to a massive audience a song in collaboration with this unknown woman he invited to the show. He asks her to sing the song with him, which she initially appears terrified to do because it is the first time she ever dares to perform at that level. The scene well and truly shows the best of Lady Gaga as we can see through her face the fear and then realization that this moment serves as the opportunity to change her life forever, to make something of the beautiful singing voice she has. No longer will the singing find an audience with just the shower, but rather a crowd of thousands and she belts it with all she has massively impressing everyone. A scene so powerful and impactful that it gives me goosebumps just writing about it. Everything of note gets encapsulated through this scene because it shows the true nature of these characters at their core despite where the feature goes later down the road. At that moment, nothing else matters, and pure artistic bliss reigns supreme.
Ally’s character development throughout this feature marks something beautiful but also quite personal to Lady Gaga, the actor bringing this character to life. As Ally explains, people often like the way she sounds but not the way she looks. Something Gaga has spoken about before thus making this role, something she has rightfully received plenty of adulation for, makes it beautifully poetic as this feature fully embraces Ally and Gaga for all of the beauty they inhabit both inside and out. Not only does she absolutely own each scene demanding her to use her singing voice, but she also manages to deliver a heartbreaking performance through her characterization of Ally. Going through the emotional peak and trough of this woman as her stardom rises at the same time her lover begins to whither right in front of her demands a complexity she more than delivers on showing her bountiful talent. She bears it all emotionally in this feature and we stand as the beneficiaries of it.
On the other side, we have Jackson Maine, who finds himself falling into a downward spiral only accelerated at seeing Ally’s rise in ways he would not prefer. Cooper does a tremendous job in the portrayal of this gruff but also quite a lovable man as in his sober moments he has an enormous heart, especially when it comes to Ally. From their first interaction to the last one, everything Cooper does here as an actor astounds in how he can make and break this man into someone battling so much in his mind and heart that it begins to trickle out onto the surface in a manner he can barely control.
Then we can turn the table to his exceptional direction of this feature in the sharpness and visceral direction of this feature. In collaboration with the cinematography of Matthew Libatique and the editing by Jay Cassidy, they construct some impeccable scenes and cutaways crafting hard-hitting moments integral to the narrative. It baffles me this serves as Cooper’s directorial debut as he takes a familiar story but adds such a punch in the delivery allowing for the concurrent rise of Ally and the fall of Jackson to crescendo in the right moments.
Filled with incredible songs from “I’ll Never Love Again” and the aforementioned “Shallow,” A Star is Born comes in and steals your heart. A film both inspiring and heartbreaking in the parallel stories it tells through this couple. Gaga, through her performance, could make anyone feel like they can fly as she takes off through her characterization of Ally. Everything in this feature culminates into something incredibly impactful and hitting all of the right buttons as an unbridled success across the board.
Films with Josh 
