There are three previous versions of A Star is Born that Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut will be measured against. Let’s just start by saying he makes one of the greatest directorial debuts in some time. It doesn’t hurt things that Lady Gaga delivers an elite movie star performance that the film’s moniker easily describes.
Cooper also stars in the film, as Jackson Maine, a veteran rocker whose star is starting to fade—ever so slightly. Gaga is Ally, a waitress who has long dreamed to live the life of a singer-songwriter. The only singing she does is once a week as a featured songstress at a drag queen show in Los Angeles. The “business” has her questioning her looks and therefore, belting out Edith Piaf is all she will do in public.
That all changes when Maine walks into the bar, desperate for a drink or five. Ally’s BFF Ramon (Anthony Ramos) sees Maine standing outside the establishment—knows immediately who the superstar performer is—and ushers him into the bar for a few drinks and the show. Even the comradery between Ramon and Maine is delightful to witness and as such, the audience keenly knows at this early stage that we are in for a treat. Maine is in for a delightful experience himself when Ally takes the stage and blows the crowd away.
Maine and Ally talk, sing and connect all night. The sparks between the two are palpable. It’s hard to recall a cinematic chemistry more electrically immediate and intense than what Gaga and Cooper deliver in the opening moments of A Star is Born. That’s the key to this story working. Isn’t it? It worked for Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson and certainly was with Judy Garland and James Mason.
What is so fascinating is that for so many, Kristofferson and Streisand are the gold standard for searing on the silver screen. When this remake was first announced, appreciators of the 1976 film made it clear that there is no one on Earth that could remotely reside in the same universe of movie heat as Streisand and Kristofferson. Turns out that these two—Gaga and Cooper—are the only pair in the world that could make us forget about those other two.
No easy task and it’s done in the most organic, romantic and endearing ways.
Maine could not believe in Ally more, and while the emotions are still simmering for their first “date,” he sends a car service to pick her and Ramon up and bring them to the airport where a private plane is waiting. They are to be whisked away to Maine’s gig where the rock star has big plans for his new muse. He has taken the song she wrote and sang with him the previous night and spruced it up a bit. Maine has his band ready to perform the track… with Ally joining him. From waiting tables to singing in front of thousands in a matter of hours. And you know because it’s 2018 that the moment will go viral. That is exactly what occurs.
How that entire sequence is shot is legendary. So much so that it is hard to believe a first-time helmer is behind the camera. Cooper makes a statement with his directorial debut and could not have done it on a larger stage—a remake of a beloved classic tale. He gets a performance out of Gaga that is equally as stunning. It’s easy to anoint her as the early favorite to win an Oscar for her breakout part. That brings us to how the title could not be more apt. Sure, it is a moniker that has been congruent through four films now. In this case, it is prophetic.
Years from now, when Cooper is directing films that are destined to be deemed classics, we will look back at A Star is Born and decisively mark where that greatness commenced. A directing star was born with this effort. After Gaga has produced a gaggle of film credits that has her considered among the best of her generation, we will look back at A Star is Born and realize it was this role that gave birth to her being taken seriously as a thespian. A Star is Born works on both levels and besides that fact, it is a rock and roll romance that is a tear-jerker that will haunt you, long after the film’s credits have rolled.
The soundtrack is sensational. Songs belted out by Gaga and Cooper are varied and stunningly reflect the emotional tempo of the film itself. Music supervisor Julianne Jordan has gone over and above and, in the process, crafted the year’s first must-have scores and soundtracks.
The script by Eric Roth, Will Fetters and Cooper is beyond beautiful. It is rich with emotive power that slowly, but surely, pulls us in and firmly intertwines the audience in the lives of these two and the satellite of friends and colleagues that encircle them. Dave Chappelle shines as Noodles, Maine’s longtime friend and fellow musician. Sam Elliott shows levels of emotion as Maine’s much-older brother that just blew us away in the most heartbreaking of turns from the screen legend. Then, there is Andrew Dice Clay as Ally’s dad Lorenzo. Yes, the “Diceman” delivers a heartwarming turn that injects the film with an element of soul that is like the icing on a cake that is already divinely delicious.
Yes, the role is firmly in Gaga’s wheelhouse. She’s a singer, sure, but that is where the similarities begin and end. The landscape that Ally inhabits is multifaceted. How she interacts, is influenced by and influences Maine requires an actress of great gifts to hit all the emotional highs, lows and everything in between. After witnessing A Star is Born, a realization struck. This is a part that a legion of actresses would kill to tackle. That is due to the vast arc Ally traverses, as well as the peripheral elements that is inherent to this story that the thespian inhabiting her must embody and embrace as our tale progresses. It is a role that would humble the fearful, but in the hands of the fearless Gaga, she and Ally are a match made in heaven.
Something else extraordinary occurs. Gaga is much more than a musical superstar. She is in a class all to her own as a pop culture sensation. Gaga’s fans even have their own name, Little Monsters. Audiences will head into the cinemas with that element weighing on all of our subconsciousness like an anvil. Within a millisecond of her appearing onscreen, all that washes away. She is Ally. That may be her greatest triumph of all.
Telling a story is merely one aspect of a director’s duty. There is the tone, the look, a sound and dare we say, a resonance that a helmer seeks from any endeavor he or she tackles. Cooper triumphs with every element of the job description and then some.
A Star is Born is not merely beautiful in how it was written, it is subtly eye candy as the helmer utilizes the full color scheme in a manner that befits the emotional pull of any given movie moment. Pulling off a romance that makes an audience swoon is no easy task either. People are jaded these days and rightfully so, given the environment of the world we reside in currently. Cooper’s film reminds us why loving selflessly is the noblest of endeavors and when done right, can influence much more than the heart. The love affair between Maine and Ally should and I believe, will, go down as one of the greats in the history of this medium. Expect to be so moved by the entirety that is A Star is Born that leaving the theater when it concludes will prove difficult. You will be too overwhelmed with emotion. Enjoy, relish and bask in it. The film allows us a much-needed reminder, in these darkest of days, of all complex nuances that makes us human.
Grade: A