A Star is Born

With the plethora of positive reviews, an abundance of media coverage, as well as eight Oscar nominations, Bradley Cooper and all others involved must be pretty satisfied with the success of A Star is Born (2018), Cooper’s directorial debut.

A Star is Born tells the story of an already well-known guitarist/singer, Jackson Maine (played by Bradley Cooper), who encounters an immensely talented waitress (played by Lady Gaga) and brings her along on a few concerts to perform together, which propels Ally’s singing career into stardom. Once Ally reaches a point in her career in which she starts working with a music producer, Rez Gavron (played by Rafi Gavron), her relationship with Jack takes an unpleasant turn. Although they begin living together, Ally becomes significantly busier with tours and recording music while Jack continues to abuse alcohol and pills. After passing out in a front yard and recovering at the home of his friend (played by Dave Chappelle), Ally visits Jack and the two reconnect and have an impromptu wedding. Later in the film, the pair attend the Grammy Awards; Jack plays in a Roy Orbison tribute and Ally wins Best New Artist. While Ally is accepting her award, Jack joins her on stage but urinates himself as a result of being drunk and high. This unfortunate incident motivates Jack to go to rehab for a while and once he returns home, he is met by Rez who berates Jack by explaining that he is only detrimental to Ally’s success despite their deeply romantic and supportive relationship. Later, Ally happily explains to Jack that she will cancel her upcoming tour in order to spend the summer with him, to which Jack replies that he will perform with her on stage for her final concert that night. Once at the concert, Ally awaits Jack’s arrival, but Jack is still at home, drinking and taking pills one last time as he isolates himself in the garage with a belt tied to the ceiling. The film closes with Ally singing “I’ll Never Love Again,” a song Jack wrote but never performed.

The cinematography of the film speaks volumes to the narrative; Bradley Cooper’s character is regularly shown from the back, hiding his face and only revealing it as a profile shot, which plays nicely into his character’s substance abuse problem while Gaga’s character is usually shot straight on, highlighting her character’s impressive talent and the exposure of fame. There is an interesting visual and narrative comparison that brings attention to the different points of Gaga’s character’s story; her humble origin and her rise to fame by playing instruments and allowing her voice to be the highlight of the performance and the flashy nature of mainstream fame once she begins working with a music producer. While the relationship did seem rushed, with Gaga’s character dropping everything to be with Cooper’s character, Cooper’s and Gaga’s performances and chemistry (both on and off stage) are captivating and help immerse the audience in their characters’ relationship and helps set up the tragic ending of the film. The soundtrack, foreshadowing, and Cooper’s character’s relationship with Sam Elliot’s character are just some of the other aspects that kept me hooked for the extent of the two-plus hours of this entertaining and charming film.