A Star is Born
Directed By: Bradley Cooper
Grade: A-
A Star is Born had a ton of hype all of which I was soaking up. I love movies or anything about artists and I love music and I’ve been waiting for this one since the first trailer dropped so there was no way in hell I wasn’t going to be checking this one out opening weekend.
I do think it was a little overhyped. It also could have been shorter. There were these long lingering shots where I couldn’t help but think of Blade Runner 2049 and just wanted to yell, “Move it along already!”
On a completely shallow note some of Ally’s costumes were just mind-numbingly bad. Like there’s one performance where she’s wearing cowgirl business casual or something but it was actually distracting. I think I would have preferred some of Gaga’s nuttier costumes.
But I did enjoy it the film.
It goes without saying Lady Gaga can sing and she was fine acting wise. Bradley Cooper proved to be a really good singer as well and they had nice chemistry together throughout the film. I liked that Ally wasn’t sucker punched she knew from day one he was a drunk.
Seemingly everyone did.
And besides the music that’s the best part of the movie.
Cooper does a really good job of unraveling in the throes of addiction and loss. I have never had any interest in the other versions of this movie so I don’t know if they compare and I don’t know their endings but scenes like the embarrassing bit at the Grammy’s were truly hard to watch.
Also the ending was rough for me (and might bother a lot of people as well.) I expected something else entirely was going to happen so when the film played out I got more and more upset. And I have to say that affected my view of the movie.
While enjoyable I also feel that some of the celebrity stuff is totally been there done that. If you’ve ever seen a film or a book about fame and its downfalls you probably have seen the bad manager doing whatever they can, the wise friends who got out of the business, etc.
Though I did like when Ally told that cashier it wasn’t okay to take his picture without him knowing her punching the cop who had asked felt kind of out of character from what see of her.
So overall elements of this movie made it a rough one for me personally. But it does boast good performances, fun music, likable characters and a brutal look at addiction and its costs just keep into account. I think its definitely a film you can dig into and talk over. Though I don’t know about the raptures it had been receiving since the Venice Film Festival.
Recommend: Yes. Plus it’s always nice to have a break from the superhero stuff.