A Star Is Born (2018)

February 18, 2019

A Star Is Born (2018)

Best Picture Nominee

The Awesome: Getting to see the real Stefani Germanotta a.k.a. Lady Gaga out of make-up and crazy costumes and although she has abandoned the crazy shtick for a while, it was still nice to see her not wearing cardboard. The chemistry between the leads is good although I did chuckle A LOT at moments when Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) is giving singing advice to Ally (Lady GaGa) because in real life I knew it was just the opposite while they were making the film. I really believed their love, especially early on where it isn't always lovey-dovey, like real-life and kept me from saying, "Come on, big time singer gonna hook up with a nobody." ----and since he really has no friends, little family, and is barely a functioning alcoholic, their chemistry is enhanced by all that and it worked for me, for the most part. My favorite thing in the movie was Ally's journey to stardom, especially the moment when she is delivering the lines about her being rejected because of her nose, she almost had to do any acting for those scenes since I remember reading something about Lady Gaga having to choose a gimmick to get her foot in the door IRL and is why she went with the whole Monsters theme and I say it worked out really well for her, although If i was one of those fans and see her being "normal" now, I would be a bit disappointed, anyways that had nothing to do with the film so lets move on. Watching Ally being transformed into the artist she never saw herself as but at the same time fulfilling her dream justifies the contradiction of her on-stage persona. The acting by all the supporting characters is very good although I found Ally's father, Lorenzo (Andrew Dice Clay) kind of annoying when we are introduced to him but he became less annoying as the film goes on.

The Good: The music was good, I didn't find the songs annoying or sappy or out of place and in fact I kind of liked how the entire movie has no score and the only time we hear music is when there is singing and I think this was brilliant because we don't hear cheesy music in the back in the love scenes or dramatic moments, we aren't told what to feel and I really appreciated that and by the way, I think not having a score helps the songs they sing really stand out and make you pay attention to the lyrics they are singing. My fear was that this was going to be a semi-musical with tons of singing but the film is actually very balanced in that sense as the music and songs have a purpose. The contrast of both singers in the movie was tremendous as we see one rising and another trying not to fall into drunken oblivion. The cast is very good and enjoyed the cameos by entertainers playing opposite roles to their real lives. For a first time director, Bradley Cooper does a decent job and will only improve. The film is beautifully shot and I think Lady GaGa was lit beautifully as she looks great in every scene, under every lighting technique used. No spontaneous choreographed cast dancing and singing making it really feel like I was watching a film about real life singing careers.

The Bad: Being that this is a remake, the story is predictable so the climax won't surprise you if you are familiar with the other versions. Being told time and time again that the film was a tear-jerker and waiting for that moment to come but since i expected something sad and in my opinion, when it happens it was handled so poorly that it felt like a death in a horror story. The scene where Ally punches the cop at the cop bar was so dumb in my opinion (and it's a shame because what comes before that is her talking about being rejected by the music executives because of her nose size) after all she initiates physical contact with a guy who was not even talking to her in the first place and Jackson had already approved the photo-op. Perhaps this scene would have fit later in the film as it would have made more sense and held more impact, since by then we had a reason for Ally to need to protect a spiritually fragile Jackson; now I accept that perhaps the scene served to foreshadow what Ally would be experiencing way later for herself when she finds fame but the sequence was just awkward for me. We see that Jackson is having tinnitus issues and I kept thinking, oh this is what is going to make him play out of tune and have fans demanding money back at his concert but it actually goes nowhere and just becomes this inconsistent plot device and just becomes a red-herring instead. The last scene is basically just a current-LadyGaga performance that for me went on too long and maybe using the flashback sequences earlier would have drawn me in more and by that point i was ready for the film to be over. There is a heavy-handed foreshadowing in the opening act that had me saying, “oh come on, really??? You are hinting at certain form of demise, already??” and that’s because unless you look away at that moment you won’t be able to miss this image that was probably meant to represent alcoholism but I interpreted as something else and I was correct. I think perhaps a more subtle version of that image would have had a better subliminal impact.

The Ugly: There is a scene where Bobby (Sam Elliott) accuses Jackson of "stealing his voice" and there is a moment where the audio seems to get loud just so we can hear the 'gravelly' nuance in the voices of Bobby and Jackson and it just made me laugh as to me it came across as two actors trying to out-gravel one another and I know most people will think that scene was powerful but I felt it was silly as we learn that Jackson is such a throbbing-drunk that he forgot he was told about his father's grave, you know his "drinking buddy", but nevertheless confronts his brother in that manner, I thought his brother was stealing or sabotaging him and I think using drunken-paranoia to drive a divide between brothers would have worked better than the way the scene was written. There are some serious pacing issues because once Ally's career starts you have no concept of how much time is going by, I mean she wins an award and then is on SNL and I had no clue how long had passed between those things so I found myself working hard to figure out what the story timeline had become and I thought, hey they got a puppy when they first moved in with one another, maybe if they show us the dog we will see how big he is and use that as him to measure the passing of time, but nope, when they get the puppy it is already mid-size and the dog doesn't seem to grow throughout the film. Again, why is pacing important to me? I like to follow along with subplots throughout the film and I like to think ahead about the characters so not knowing if it's weeks later or years later in the story always throws me for a loop. I saw Lady GaGa win a Grammy and she said something about the movie revealing things about mental illness but I thought alcoholism was a bigger reason for the tragedies in the film. At no time did I sit through it and said, man, this guy has a mental health issue or he is struggling with a bipolar episode. I did find myself thinking how bad Jackson's drinking and popping pills addiction was and I didn't see him as a drug addict , in fact I can only think of one scene where he is doing cocaine. Another thing that bothered me was the timing of everyone finally deciding that Jackson had hit rock-bottom, wasn't anyone watching him before him and Ally attended the Grammys? I mean, this famous singer was waking up on sidewalks because he would get so drunk the night before, forgets things he has been told about people he claims to love, and is shown drunk or drinking so much that I began to feel drunk myself anytime he came on screen.

Did I Cry ? - spoiler

You probably heard that this film is a tear-jerker and I get very immersed when Im watching a film, I really try to absorb everything I see and hear, so when a film makes me shed a tear it's because it has done everything perfectly, from having me invest in the characters and convinced me of their relationships, crafted a believable set-up of the moment of loss or gain, and if I can relate to the character's experiences the more the tears will just drop, but here, it just didn't happen, tears did not come at all....*****please stop reading here if you haven't watched the film and don't want to read exactly why I probably didn't cry which could spoil some of the climax for you*****.........okay, I think the main reason I did not cry was that the moment of suicide came across so convoluted, here is how I remember things going down, Jackson gets out of rehab, Rez (Rafi Gavron) tells Jackson that he is affecting Ally's career in a negative way, Jackson goes to the garage. Ally Maine sings the song. First, I felt that the reason Jackson does what he does is he feels guilty about almost derailing Ally's career but by the time he gets out of rehab, it seems that Ally is in full blown stardom and nothing Jackson does will affect her popularity because it isn't her making a fool of herself, he would be making a fool of himself like he did at the Grammys, so i found it too exaggerating and actually funny that it would take Ally's manager to convince Jackson that his life is worthless and that he will destroy Ally's already award-winning career. I might have cried if Ally had viciously lashed out at Jackson instead of Rez and I would have believed Jackson's reasoning to do what he does then. Secondly, I felt that not seeing at least some of the deed took away the impact of the loss since again I was not convinced Jackson would have put that much value into what Rez had said to him. Lastly, the tribute wasn't sad for me and it wasn't until the flashbacks towards the end of the performance that I felt some sadness.

Final Verdict ...4/5...The technical craftsmanship and inspired performances presented in Bradley Cooper's directorial debut are outstanding. Films about singing and singers aren't films I instantly gravitate towards so keeping me interested in this genre isn't easy but I had no problem staying with these characters for their entire journey and that was because the cinematography really brought life to slow romantic moments and thrills to the performance scenes then add to that some really strong committed acting and great balance between conventional film and musical. Too much singing and I would have probably played with my phone. I did not watch La La Land so I will spare you any comparisons. I think if someone were to ask me to recommend a love story about two singers or which remake of "A Star Is Born" to watch, I'm pretty sure I will say this one and that is why i'm giving it an almost must watch for the casual fan of material like this.