Stars: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott, Dave Chappelle
Director: Bradley Cooper
Oscar History: 8 nominations/1 win (Best Picture, Actor-Bradley Cooper, Actress-Lady Gaga, Supporting Actor-Sam Elliott, Cinematography, Original Song-"Shallow,"* Sound Mixing, Adapted Screenplay)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars
(Spoilers Ahead...though if you don't know this story by now, I don't know what to do with you) The film borrows quite liberally from the more recent iterations of the films, with Gaga even singing Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow" right as the title card scrolls across the screen in a technicolor brick red. The film is about Jackson "Jack" Maine (Cooper), a country rocker who is still wildly popular, but is being undone by his substance abuse problems. One night he wanders into a gay club where he sees Ally (Gaga) performing "La Vie en Rose," and falls madly in love with her, having one of those great "first dates until dawn" that seemingly only happen in the movies or when you're 22. Because it's Lady Gaga playing Ally, we soon realize that the voice is legit, and that she has oodles of stage presence, becoming a big pop star in her own right, while Jack becomes jealous (though not to the same degree that earlier iterations of this film made him), and dives harder into the bottle, culminating in him storming the stage when she won the Best New Artist trophy at the Grammys. After rehab, Jack realizes that Ally will never be able to have a career with him holding her back, and kills himself, with her now taking charge of her future and becoming a haunted superstar.
The film's first forty minutes are quite good, reminding us all that movies for adults would probably, regularly, cross $200 million if we actually cultivated movie stars in the way we did in the 1980's. Cooper, who is dynamite the entire film, is giving some of his best work in those first forty minutes, giving a gruff Sam Elliott-inspired vocal performance, romantically falling for Ally but also establishing his character as someone who has been famous long enough to understand this is his only life, but once poor enough to still be kind and generous to this young woman with whom he's so smitten. Right up until the film's high point, a duet of "Shallows" (certain to be this year's Oscar winner if only because they're going to want to give Gaga a trophy somewhere), the movie is proving its potency and finding a magic that wouldn't have me caring that this is a story I know by heart.
But the film falls apart when it hits the later story beats. Cooper's demons leave little room for leeway (we all know that the awards show speech and the eventual suicide are coming for Jack), and once his curious, rough persona takes a back seat to an emerging Ally, the movie becomes dull. Gaga wasn't as wooden as I'd expected from her based on other performances she's given, but she plays Ally like an empty vessel. It was hard for me to watch and not think of how a dozen stronger, better actresses would have handled scenes like the one where she says she doesn't want to dye her hair or when she tries to convince Jack that it's not his fault that his illness ruined her big night. When she utters "it's a disease," it feels more like some random celebrity talking in a chat show about alcoholism than a woman whose husband is living this in her life every day. Cooper's charisma and great acting are a double-edged sword. When he's flirting with Gaga and charming her in the first half, he's bringing out a stronger performance, but then it shuts down whenever Gaga has to share the screen by herself or when they're adversarial. The scene in the bathtub is particularly galling, with Cooper giving a triumphant piece of work, poking her buttons the way that a married couple knows how to do to hurt someone the most, while Gaga feels like she's giving a theatrical performance, her Ally so surface-level it's hard to understand if she's angry because he just called her ugly or because that's what the script says she should feel next. Even her singing, while excellent (she's a great singer-this isn't a surprise) doesn't necessarily lead to strong acting, as it always feels like a delayed emotional reaction. This is partially because the script doesn't care about Ally as a person, just as a way to explain Jack's story (something that, admittedly, has been a problem since the 1937 Star is Born), but the script also doesn't care about Sam Elliott's Bobby and he still finds dimensions to his character. The praise for Gaga feels, to me, like it's part of a publicity machine. I am admittedly a harsh judge of her (I've always found her a frustrating celebrity), but watching that first half I was ready to admit that while she's not a great thespian, she had potential. After watching the second half, though, I'm frustrated that critics over-praising her (she's getting an Oscar nomination by mob rule, it seems) seem to just be doing so because they want the film to work in a way that it simply doesn't.
Because A Star is Born, while fine and occasionally very good, can't be considered a masterpiece because it's already been done. That'd be like saying every single version of Hamlet is good because the story was strong-you have to judge on a curve because you're cheating by doing the same thing over and over again...you need to find something new and improve, not just put in new pop icons and cultural references and call it a day. Cooper's lead work aside, there's nothing new to recommend this other than the songs, and even they start to deplete in quality as the movie wears along. I left the film wishing that Cooper & Gaga had simply done a duet on her latest album while he brought this sort of fire to a unique, better picture. The film's recurring theme of "baby it's time to let the old ways die" could easily be metaphor-"Hollywood, it's time to let the remakes die." A Star is Born is fine, but it's not good because this has all been done before (and better).
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