A Star is Born (2018)

For those of you who know anything about my taste in film, musicals are certainly towards the bottom of my list of most entertaining genres. This film didn’t necessarily change my perspective on musicals, however, it, at the very least, broke down some walls and allowed me the opportunity to enjoy a musical for the first time since I first saw West Side Story (1961). The combination of Lady Gaga (Ally) and Bradley Cooper (Jack) was quite possibly the best choice that Cooper, Lindsay Graham and Mary Vernieu could have made; the two had astounding chemistry and it showed. Gaga was a surprisingly good actor that portrayed her character with great vim and vigor. Gaga is incredibly famous for her eccentric and slightly outlandish outfits and attitude when performing and in the public eye, yet she manages to throw this image to the backburner and convincingly portray a small town girl with big dreams. Cooper, as usual, was convincing in his role and was the star of the show. The biggest surprise, for me, was Cooper’s vocals. It’s common knowledge that Gaga possesses strong vocals, but Cooper stole the show. Cooper’s songs regularly entertained and I felt that, on many occasions, Gaga’s songs (due to the fact that they were overshadowed by each of Cooper’s) seemed to drag on. What was most disappointing was the fact that Cooper and the rest of the crew chose to use the song “Black Eyes” to open the film. Cooper’s voice filled the room and grabbed the audience’s attention with this song. While this seems like a great choice to start the film, the other songs (as interesting and well-performed as they were) were overshadowed by the intelligence of Cooper and that particular song. With that being said, I think, for the first time ever, I found myself enjoying the songs (most of them) in a musical. The songs and the acting were only enhanced by the captivating story. The story was simple, like the acting, and it was more than enough to keep audiences engaged for more than two hours. As the film comes to a slow and somehow equally screeching end, the audience begins to understand what is about to happen, they know how the film will end and, ultimately, it is the dog, Charlie, that allows that fateful scene to hit the audience right in the feels. Makeup is often an aspect of film that is overlooked, yet, the makeup department worked to help make the characters believable. What stood out the most in this regard was the fact that Cooper appeared drunk and high throughout the film and it was never possible to question the authenticity of his character. The detail that was most entertaining to me was, as Ally walks away from the camera in the first few minutes of the film, the title, slowly and painfully, fades in and across the screen. This tiny detail was symbolic of how slow and tedious the journey would be for the two protagonists. It’s an understatement to say that Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut was a success. He managed to hit the nail on the head in almost every way possible. Major details were met with what appeared to be great preparation and the minor details were as equally elaborate. With a film like this to headline his resume, it was Cooper that was the star born from this.  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517451/?ref_=nv_sr_1