Movie Review: "A Star Is Born"

"A Star Is Born": B+.  After watching my oldest granddaughter, five year old Rosie, make her ballet debut recently at the beautiful Masonic Heritage Center, the thought occurred to me that I never posted my review of A Star Is Born.  In a way, the film's title serves two purposes.  First, it is a succinct summary of the story's arc.  Secondly, in real life it reflects the revelation of Lady Gaga as a legitimate actress, one who has already gained international fame as a multi-faceted singer.

A Star Is Born is a love story about two singers trending in opposite directions.  Bradley Cooper, who produced, directed, and co-wrote the script, plays Jackson Maine, a country super star.  He fronts his own band, performing before huge adoring crowds.  But Jackson clearly has his demons even though professionally he's at the top of his game. Jackson's M.O. is to cool down after each show by having his limo driver cruise the city streets while he mixes hard drugs and booze in the back seat.

It is during one of these late night binges that he stumbles into a drag bar.  There, he becomes fixated by the featured singer, Ally (Gaga), and uses his celebrity status to insist that the bar's manager introduce him to her.  She is star struck and he is smitten.  As their relationship grows stronger, he coaches her vocal efforts and invites her to join him on stage, thus putting her in a position to display her talents to arena and stadium crowds versus small clubs.  He even writes songs for her. This is the real deal, not just infatuation.

Every successful cinema love story requires the chemistry to work between the leads.  This has proven to be one of Cooper's skills as an actor -- witness 2012's Silver Linings Playbook (reviewed here November 24, 2012; B+) with Jennifer Lawrence.  No doubt his matinee idol good looks is a valuable starting point.  Gaga, an inexperienced actress, might have been a surprise casting decision, but as it turns out, a brilliant choice.  She has just the right charisma to mold into the character of Ally, a rags-to riches ingenue possessing outstanding vocal talent.

Aside from the discovery of Gaga as an exceptional actress, the greatest strength of the film is the wonderful music, one keeper followed by another.  Some of the concert footage was shot at Coachella, a humongous annual outdoor concert.  With several cameras situated behind Jackson and his fellow band members, we get a sense of what they are seeing and feeling as they go through their set list.  It impressed me as being similar to an Imax experience, without the Imax screen.

Ironically, even though the soundtrack is a definite plus for A Star Is Born, the "music side" of the story also is responsible for most of the negatives.  Biggest among them is the change in direction championed by Rez Gavron (Rafi Gavron), who becomes Ally's agent.  He convinces her to change her genre from folk/singer-songwriter tunes to a pop/dance party sound.  I could not buy into this shift, but alas, Ally did.  In the last stages of the movie, Rez also has a private conversation with Jackson which leads to unfortunate consequences.  Why anything said by Rez, a person Jackson has no reason to trust and whose opinion he'd be unlikely to respect, should have any impact on Jackson is a puzzle and defies logic.

The Cooper-Gaga version is the fourth remake of the original 1937 movie of the same title.  The challenge for Cooper as director and script co-writer is to maintain the interest of the thousands of viewers who are probably already familiar with the story's conclusion.  The aforementioned conversation between Jackson and Rez is problematic, but to give credit where it's due, the last ten minutes of the film partially make up for it.

Unlike my daughter Jill who has seen this film twice in rapid succession and may even go again, I predict that I will not feel the urge to rewatch it, but many songs from the soundtrack merit inclusion on one or more of my go-to playlists.