“Seasoned musician Jackson Maine discovers — and falls in love with — struggling artist Ally. She has just about given up on her dream to make it big as a singer — until Jack coaxes her into the spotlight. But even as Ally’s career takes off, the personal side of their relationship is breaking down, as Jack fights an ongoing battle with his own internal demons.” – Letterboxd Synopsis
This is one of those movies that I’ve had on my watch list for years that I just never got around to for whatever reason but have heard nothing but good things about. With girlfriend being a big Lady Gaga fan, she finally got me to sit down and watch this. And while it’s not without its faults, I can’t help but come away from this movie really affected by a ray of emotions. It is heartwarming, heartbreaking, and very thoughtful in its portrayal of a lot of issues. Its positives far outweigh anything negative I feel towards it.
Negatives out of the way first. My biggest gripe with this movie is the pacing in the first half. Everything moved so fast, especially the relationship between Ally and Jackson. On one hand I get it, it kind of portrays that fast lifestyle that artist live, but on the other hand I would’ve liked more of a slow burn to start. This is a long movie that could’ve taken its time a bit more in the beginning, but the second half of this movie is nothing shy of amazing. That’s when it really gets into the complexity of these characters, specifically Jackson, his trauma and how it is ruining his career, relationships with everyone, himself, and also Ally’s career. But also we get that focus on Ally and how the industry is trying to create an image of her rather than portray her true self. My other gripe that is minor in the grand scheme of things is the dialogue can sometimes feel a bit too real/casual at times in a sense that it feels aimless. Looking back, I think that adds to the more personal tone of this movie, but in the moment I could’ve done without some of it.
I want to give many props to Lady Gaga in this movie. She was really solid as Ally. Her personal experiences in the music industry, I’m sure, helped her bring all these parts of her character to life and she felt like a real person in this movie. A real person with dreams and aspirations that slowly but surely lets her true artistry and soul in her music slip for the sake of the current wave of what can be commercialized. Which she was awarded and rewarded for it, but you can always sense the loss of herself. She portrays the popular artist so well, because obviously she was/is that. Thankfully, she never lost her soul in her music, but the industry is ripe with stories about talent managers like the one in this movie stripping that away from the artist that they find. Her journey to regaining that is really put in the background due to events that happen in the last part of the movie, but it’s clear that it’s the direction that she’s going in which makes the ending even more emotional. Gaga just puts on a great performance and I love the music that came out of this movie.
Bradley Cooper stole the show, though. He is absolutely fantastic. That fact that he took lessons to learn how to sing for this movie is amazing and the work shows because I loved his voice on the tracks he’s on. Jackson as a character is so complex and the way that’s portrayed and unraveled throughout the movie is very well done. I cared the most about his character, so I’m glad that he becomes the main focus. We see everything through his pov essentially in the second half of the movie. We see the industry taking the soul out of Ally, and how that affects him because to him she represented something so real and authentic when they met. She grounded him. So for her to turn into something that he knows she isn’t really kills him inside and adds to his everlasting spiral and conflicts that he has within himself. He is an artist dealing with addiction, alcoholism, childhood trauma, and a condition that makes it hard for him to do what he loves and what he has tied his life to. I couldn’t help but root for him even as he continued to self destruct because you can tell there is a good person with a heart and a story to tell buried underneath all the nonsense. The movie puts us in Ally’s shoes in that way, because she feels the same, always by his side rooting for him even when his actions become detrimental to her flourishing career. All of this adds up to a very, very sad ending that made me cry, and it can almost bring me to tears thinking about it. That’s all due to Bradley Cooper giving my favorite performance from him bringing this complex mess of a man to life. Simply amazing.
So yeah, A Star is Born isn’t without its problems. The pacing in the first half is rough, and sometimes the dialogue can feel a bit too real in the sense that how people talk in real life often involves a lot talking over each other, unrelated rambling, etc. But when I think about this movie as a whole, those become such minor things when you have such an amazing artist that is Lady Gaga giving a great performance and bringing her real-life experiences to her character. Then you have Bradley Cooper giving an award worthy performance. This movie is an amazing, tragic love story that I won’t be forgetting any time soon.
A Star is Born – 9/10
Notes – I alluded to it a bit above, but the music in this movie is amazing. The soundtrack is great especially Shallow. I love that song.
