A STAR IS BORN

Cert Running time

Extrovert pop star and now actress Lady Gaga gives a 21st-century gloss to this dated, ego-driven and tone-deaf musical drama. This fourth version of the 1937 original cleaves closely to the Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson 1976 version in story, tone and nuclear-grade levels of indulgence, courtesy of the multitasking Bradley Cooper.

As producer, director, co-writer and star, Cooper offers a mumbling and stumbling turn as ageing alcoholic rocker Jackson Maine, who thrusts a waitress called Ally to singing superstardom after he discovers her performing in a drag bar. Cooper is clearly indulging a long-held ambition to unleash his inner rock god, which is never a good look for a man over 40, as my seven year old will tell you.

Known to her parents as Stefani Germanotta, Gaga is a magnetic and affecting presence in her first lead role as Ally, and is unsurprisingly at her best when she unleashes her awesome vocal power.

These are the film’s best and most successful moments, something even beyond Cooper’s ability to get wrong.

A relationship develops between the pair, and we see how the self- pitying man-child, Jackson, is unable to cope with Ally’s growing success, with her having to manage his controlling and bullying manner. There’s no reflection on how the music industry has massively changed since Streisand’s day and social media is almost entirely absent.

Worse, the script demonstrates a tin ear for contemporary issues such as the #metoo movement. There’s an astonishing lack of judgment in romanticising the behaviour of a rich, famous and powerful older man who marries and abuses his wife and protege, only to offer his character a note of nobility.

From tinnitus to a sad back story, Cooper pulls out every stop to afford Jackson sympathy but he’s seemingly unaware the singer’s behaviour is cowardly, making the signature tune, The Shallow, unintentionally appropriate.