On film, Lady Gaga gives a stellar performance
Music is essentially 12 notes between any octave – 12 notes and the octave repeats,” Sam Elliott’s gruff industry veteran advises Ally (Lady Gaga), A Star Is Born’s singer on the rise. “It’s the same story told over and over, forever. All any artist can offer this world is how they see those 12 notes. That’s it.”
This isn’t just a neat summing-up of an entire art form: it’s also a nifty rationale for the existence of this fourth version, and third remake, of Hollywood’s archetypal rise-and-fall romance. The first, starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, came out in 1937, and was repurposed as a musical in 1954 by George Cukor, with Judy Garland and James Mason as the dewy ingénue and dwindling matinee idol whose professional trajectories bisect as their love-lives converge. The 1976 take, starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, moved from the film world to the music business – and it is there, on spotlit stages and in hushed recording studios, that the 2018 version also unfolds. Happily, director Bradley Cooper has taken his own script’s advice to put a personal spin on those 12 notes – it is electrifyingly fresh, a well-known melody given vivid, searching new force.
In addition to making his by-anymeasure extraordinary directorial debut here, Cooper co-stars as Jackson Maine, a country music superstar whose career seems to be cresting as the film begins. After a swig of vodka and a handful of pills, he strides on stage and plays a crunchy blues rock number to a capacity crowd. Afterwards he unwinds in a secluded dive bar, and watches Lady Gaga’s Ally, a waitress moonlighting as a cabaret singer, croon La Vie En Rose. His face lights up with a mix of admiration and desire: he wants to see this young woman in his bed, but also wants to see her thrive. They leave together, wander the sleeping city, and talk about their lives in a deserted car park. It’s a scene most films would skim through, but Cooper luxuriates in it.
The following day, she and her best friend/chaperone Ramon (Anthony Ramos) are whisked to Jackson’s next gig by private jet. He ushers her on stage, and destiny beckons.
What follows is exactly what you would expect: Ally’s career lifts off. Meanwhile, Jackson’s own star begins to wane, through alcoholism, paranoia, the toll of selfie-snappers, and an inability to face down the ghosts of his past. But though it hews to a familiar, arguably predictable shape, it is from an exhilarating ringside perspective.
It helps that Cooper and Gaga – real name Stefani Germanotta – are so well-matched: they have serious yowch-my-fingers chemistry, while her performance more than measures up to it and has a rawness and freeness that roughens up his more actorly approach.
The new songs were written by Cooper, Gaga and a handful of industry names, including the country singer Jason Isbell and the record producer Mark Ronson. Gaga’s big final number, performed almost entirely in a singletake close-up, gives the film the knee-weakening send-off it earns. This is a musical for lovers and loathers of the genre alike: deluxe studio entertainment like they used to make.