Two stars are born
Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born is a traditional Hollywood romance crafted to summon tears and woo Oscars.
This is no small aspiration or achievement. Actor-turned-filmmaker Cooper and his co-star, Lady Gaga, make for inspired collaborators, doing much more than play the star-crossed lead couple. It’s Cooper’s first time as director and Gaga’s first major movie role, but you’d never guess it from the skill and passion they bring to the project.
He plays a veteran rock star on the way down; she’s a singer-songwriter ingénue on the way up. The two connect romantically and musically, as they take an all-too-familiar tale of love, ambition and fate and make it seem as fresh as a first kiss.
The movie is set in modern times, but it feels timeless, befitting a tale that has been filmed three times previously.
Cooper and Gaga have lovingly tended to all aspects of the production, including contributing to the songs and musical performances that have been written and staged to enhance the tale. There’s no question that the music entertains — and nobody can seize the spotlight like Gaga.
Well-chosen supporting star Sam Elliott, who plays Cooper’s older brother and manager, and comedian Dave Chappelle, who plays a close friend and musical associate, contribute to the awards kudos buzz that this film is destined to attract.
This new A Star Is Born hews closely to the rising star/falling star story established by the 1937 original version starring Fredric March and Janet Gaynor, as well as the first remake in 1954 starring James Mason and Judy Garland, and the second remake in 1976 starring Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand. Like the 1976 version, Cooper’s tale is set in the world of music, not movies, and it’s by far the better of the two musicthemed films. (The Mason/Garland version may exceed this one in terms of pure pathos.)
Cooper plays Jackson Maine, a country rocker with a soulful approach to lyrics, a fiery way around a guitar fret and a destructive attraction to drink and pills. Jackson’s at the top of his game — as is Cooper,
who also sings, plays guitar and shares writer and producer credits — but multiple addictions and tinnitus have Jackson looking over the edge of a cliff.
Gaga is the proverbial young striver, a singer-songwriter named Ally who doubts her abilities and disparages her looks even as she’s knocking audiences dead with her tremendous performances — just like the real Gaga, in other words, but with a lot less makeup and flash.
Jackson’s quest for a bottle, along with the caprices of fate, takes him to a drag queen nightclub where Ally is doing an Edith Piaf impersonation and unwittingly auditioning for a future career that will see one star rise and another fall, with many kisses and tears in between.
Ally sings Piaf’s “La Vie en rose,” but life hasn’t been so rosy for her. She’s a woman of abundant talent but low selfesteem, waiting on tables and living at home with her smothering dad (Andrew Dice Clay), who fancies himself an undiscovered Sinatra. He warns her of the unfairness of fame: “It’s not always the best singer who makes it.”
Jackson sets out to make Ally’s timid dream a shout-out-loud reality.
A cynic may read his support and flattery of Ally as being intended to propel her in the direction of the bedroom rather than the spotlight, but the Cooper/Gaga chemistry is real enough to inspire belief that he sincerely wants to mentor her — both onscreen and in real life.
In a nod to digital times, Ally’s rise to fame begins after Jackson pulls her onto the stage at one of his shows to sing her tune “Shallow” and someone uploads the performance to YouTube.
The rising stars of today now need to go viral to reach their apogee.
But this is also the story of a downward trajectory and, once again, the Cooper/Gaga team proves up to the challenge.
A Star Is Born heralds the birth of a dynamic new movie star in Lady Gaga, but also a great new director in Bradley Cooper.
The Cooper/Gaga chemistry is real enough to inspire belief that he sincerely wants to mentor her