Playing musicians on different trajectories, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga create extraordinary electricty.
I come to 2018’s A Star Is Born totally fresh. I have not seen any of the earlier editions. I suspect that this will be true of many moviegoers who will nevertheless be drawn to this new version by the presence of Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, so I feel pretty good about being able to offer the perspective of a critic who doesn’t bring in preconceived notions to color my reactions to this one.
And ... I absolutely love it. It does all the things we want a movie to do when we sit down in the dark with it: A Star Is Born instantly sweeps us up in characters we immediately fall in love with. It is passionate. It is electric. There were moments when I cried and I couldn’t even tell you why I was crying, except that the film’s emotion spilled over into me, filled me up, and then spilled out of me. It’s a perfect film: There is not the single tiniest element here that is out of place, and nothing is missing.
Movies like this are so rare, and so welcome.
The story is classic — obviously. Superstar boy musician Jackson Maine (Cooper) meets talented girl singer Ally (Gaga) and takes her under his wing, and then into his heart; she falls hard, too. Her career soars, thanks to their collaboration, while his sinks, thanks to his substance abuse. Part of what moved me so damn much is the feminist fantasy of their relationship: Jackson is a man who truly sees Ally, and truly hears what she has to say with her music. She’s gorgeous, of course, but that’s not why he falls in love with her. This shouldn’t feel like such a flight of impossible fancy, and yet there we are.
The music is extraordinary, a character in itself. Jackson’s is rousing country rock; he fills stadiums with worshipful fans, and gets recognized everywhere he goes. Ally’s music is ... well, we don’t know much of what her music is when we first meet her, at the same moment he does: She is belting out Edith Piaf songs in a drag bar, just for fun, when he pops in for a drink after a show. Later, when she shyly admits to being a songwriter, we start to hear her stunning ballads and, later still, some wild pop. All of the movie’s music (except for a few covers, like the Piaf) is original, and was developed by Cooper and Gaga in concert (pun intended) with the development of their characters. Which means that it doesn’t matter whether the styles of music here are to your usual taste. It is so keyed to Jackson and Ally — whom, recall, you have fallen instantly in love with — that you cannot help but love their music, too.
We already know that Gaga can sing. As an actor, she is a revelation: incredibly naturalistic, not a hint of artifice or discomfort. The screen loves her, and if she doesn’t love it, she is hiding it well — the title of this movie applies to her as well. Her chemistry with Cooper is extraordinary, that uncommon movie magic that goes a long way toward convincing you that what you’re watching is utter truth. We already know that Cooper can act. But can he sing? Swoon. He’s not only doing his own singing here, he’s doing it live on camera, not even lip-synching to prerecorded music; his voice is the stuff of musical megastardom.
Cooper also directed this marvel, his feature debut, and it’s impossible to believe that he has never directed a movie before. (His talent goes further: He also co-wrote the screenplay, with Eric Roth and Will Fetters.) His directing choices create enormous emotional power. The best we can typically expect from inexperienced directors is that they just stay out of their own way, but Cooper has given us a movie that is beautifully directed yet never showy — and one that doesn’t look like a movie we’ve seen a thousand times before.
This Star Is Born is the kind of movie that reminds you why you fell in love with movies in the first place. I can’t wait to see it again.