‘STAR ’ POWER
Lady Gaga, Cooper hit some high notes in musical remake
The musician, actor and performance artist Lady Gaga, who has made appearances on red carpets in the past weeks impersonating a Mardi Gras float, takes on a role previously played by Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand in “A Star Is Born.” Greeted rapturously by celebrities and festivalgoers, this fourth version of the story, directed, co-written by and costarring Bradley Cooper, is a crowdpleaser for very good reasons.
Its theme of a woman struggling against judgmental, deeply flawed men is very topical, even if the film was preceded by three earlier versions. At times, this new “A Star Is Born,” which is not the best of the four versions, is very good. At others, it is maudlin and sappy with indifferent music.
Yes, the single “Shallow” might break out. But after hearing it two or three times in the film, I still don’t know what it is about. Cooper inherited this project from his “American Sniper” director Clint Eastwood, who tried to cast Beyonce.
This “A Star Is Born” tells the story of Ally (Lady Gaga, aka Stefani Germanotta), a New York City restaurant worker and aspiring musician of Italian-American heritage, who meets country rock star Jackson Maine (Cooper) when he hears her sing in a Lady Gagafriendly gay bar with a transvestite song-and-dance show.
Ally, the only female performer, wears scimitar eyebrows made from black tape and sings the Edith Piaf standard “La vie en rose” and knocks the drunken, pill-taking “Jack” for a loop. After he arranges a song of hers he hears that night, Jack invites Ally onstage to perform “Shallow” and the crowd goes wild, if not gaga.
Ally’s star rises. A whirlwind and sodden romance blossoms. We get to know
Ally’s chauffeur father
(Andrew Dice Clay), a cliche who can’t stop talking about Sinatra. Ally is adopted by annoying, big-time producer Rez (Rafi Gavron), who