A Star is Born

Familiar is the Beat that Moves the Heart                        3/5


Soundtrack
     The soundtrack for this film is a must, even containing major narrative beats among the tunes.

Oscar Potential
     Despite not being one of my pick, the movie is an early front runner ahead of "Oscar-bait" season.

Well Acted
     Great Performances across the board, Bradly Cooper in particular.

Directorial Debut
     Though it shows, A Star is Born is a great first film out the gate for Cooper's New Career path.



Rotten Tomatoes 91%                                  Cinemascore: A

I didn’t enjoy A Star Is Born as much as I hoped. Don’t let that be a knock on the movie, blame the nearly ubiquitous Oscar buzz, much of which is not undeserved. Bradly Cooper performance as Jackson is exceptional, a clear standout among the many fantastic roles he has portrayed throughout his career. Lady Gaga, or Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (different sources use both so I guess so will I), as Ally is also really great despite the role tailoring to her strengths. After watching however, I had a few grievances with the film I didn’t think I would have going into it. Though the weakness did not deter me from enjoying the film overall, they are not negligible and pulled the film from what could have been a standout in its year for me to a very good, but not great, experience in the end.

Let me start with some of the problems. This is Cooper’s directorial debut and it defiantly shows. The editing and pacing is inconstant, there are several instants where shots will cut in and disrupt the pacing of scene or narrative. One such example includes a medium shot of Jackson eating out of a bag of Cheetos after an emotional first night with Ally. It occurs just after an intimate moment and right before the next scene transition where Ally drives home for the night. “What was that? Why was that there?” All questions left unanswered throughout the duration of the film, and while it gave me a chuckle due to the awkwardness of its placement, it’s only the first instance I noticed of its nature throughout the film.

Another complaint of mine comes to the nature of music throughout the picture. For me a musical is when narrative is communicated through songs, whether that be through dialog, a common theme, or even emotional purposes. A Star is Born has more than enough songs to be considered a musical but only two or three of the ballads are consistent with my definition above. Many of the songs in the film while great (I’m listening to the soundtrack now while writing this review), end up communicating repeated messages rather than narrative beats. The result left me with the feeling of watching a series of music videos rather than an operatic experience. Ally’s evolution is really the only constant beat touched on in each song but that was just as effectively communicated in the scenes between her and Jackson where is most of the meat of the movie can be found.

I said it in the introduction and I’ll say it again here; Copper performance as Jackson is real highlight of A Star is Born. Ally, though she is portrayed as the main protagonist, works much better as a supporting character in Jackson’s narrative. Her evolution though his lens made a familiar Hollywood story feel fresh and even tragic, I wish this is where the movie shifted more of its focus. Gaga’s meta defining performance may be whats getting the attention here but make no mistake, if you ask me, this is Cooper’s film from beginning to end.

This weekend is a weird one from me. I saw two films, one with high expectations and one with lowered. The film with lower expectations, feature a certain self-naming symbiote, surpassed them though not for the reason’s I guessed; the opposite is true for A Star is Born. Overall the movie is pretty good, but it did drag a little for me and I wouldn’t consider it in my top five this year (which has been a so so year of movies for me). I suspect many will enjoy A Star is Born more than me, and that’s perfectly fine, it deserves a lot of the praise its getting in my eyes and many more film savy then me may be able to argue my opinion into the dirt. Cooper’s performance is fantastic, if only he directed a movie on par with his portrayal of Jackson, then perhaps I would consider this the all timer like many others already do.