Director: Bradley Cooper
Date: 13 October 2018
jamesintexas rating: ***1/2
"Maybe it's time to let the old ways die / Maybe it's time to let the old ways die / It takes a lot to change a man / Hell, it takes a lot to try / Maybe it's time to let the old ways die" -Jackson Mayne
Maybe it's time to start thinking of Bradley Cooper as a nuanced, emotive director as well as a phenomenal actor/raccoon voice. A Star is Born, a familiar story that has been filmed before though unfamiliar to me, arrives fully formed and beautiful, deeply moving and sad, with performances that are memorable and songs that are haunting. Cooper stars as Jackson Mayne, an alcoholic declining country star who drunkenly wanders into a drag bar after a show and is struck by the voice and performance of "La Vie En Rose" by the remarkable Ally (Lady Gaga); the two form an instant connection and spark which leads to a long night together of talking and bonding. Cooper wisely lets this section of the film breathe: the connection of one artist with another, both at different ends of the spectrum of success. Jackson (now, Jack) extends an offer to Ally to join him on the next stage of his tour, and though she returns home that morning without accepting it, she is nonetheless intrigued, attracted to, and excited by the possibility of this opportunity.
A word about Ally. Her balancing of her work as a server and her performing is quickly sketched as well as her having a dynamite introductory shot and scene. The camera lingers on her walk past the garbage dumpster at work, ascending the long tunnel leading up to the street and to the light, and Cooper includes this shot later when Ally has made the pivotal decision to go see Jackson's tour. Ally's home life is rendered through her relationship with her father Lorenzo (Andrew Dice Clay), a limo driver with a phalanx of well-dressed older men all sitting around the kitchen table drinking coffee and providing a sort of Greek chorus. Lorenzo's love for his daughter is palpable and restrained, and though Dice Clay is known for his bombast and over-the-top theatrics, here he proves reliably touching and human, evoking his great work in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine. He urges his daughter to think about this moment and offer. Cooper chooses to focus a bit more on his character, which left me hungering for more of Ally, Ally and her best friend Rez, and Ally and her dad. Lady Gaga owns the film and could inhabit even more of it.
The film carries Ally to the concert and sweeps her onstage in my favorite sequence. Jack provides a platform and a microphone for her, and the camera stays directly on a close-up shot of Ally's face, depicting the emotions of terror, nervousness, exhilaration, and joy from this moment. For me, it was the most affecting moment of the film, capturing both the minute and epic nature of this decision to walk forward and to seize one's destiny. Jackson and Ally become lovers, and they experience the roller coaster of her rising career and his diminishing one.
Jacks tangles with his manager older brother Bobby (Sam Elliot) and wells of deep pain related to his own upbringing and relationship with his father. As his drinking and addiction spiral, Ally contends with her own values and integrity. What kinds of songs does she want to sing? What image does she want to project out onto the world? What does success mean? Lady Gaga is completely up to the task of playing this marvelously strong and complex woman; she should be Oscar-nominated at least twice for Best Actress and Best Song. Dave Chapelle, Ron Rifkin, and Anthony Ramos all have wonderful scenes playing off of the leads. The performances in general are heartfelt and strong, a clear strength of Cooper's work behind the camera. Scenes between Cooper and Elliot are heartbreaking and tense and gruffly restrained, in one case with the camera leaving Jack behind and traveling with Bobby in the car, focusing on the tears in his eyes as he drives away. The ocean of pain between them is evoked without too much telling of its specifics: jealousy, generational conflict, and a heartbreaking relationship with their father.
And the music! The film lives by its music, and I found it completely compelling. From a drag bar to a quiet parking lot, from a concert to Saturday Night Live, the film showcases a panoply of performances, virtuosity from Lady Gaga and grizzled gravitas from Bradley Cooper. Ultimately, the film lingers on its sadness, an elegiac study of fame and success. The inverse of A Star is Born is A Star is Dying, and for some reason, the study of two people connecting as their life paths cross for a little while is exceedingly more powerful because of the juxtaposition. The film leans into its own sadness and seriousness throughout, never descending into melodrama. I feel and hope that people will be talking about this film and all of its achievements for a long, long time, especially come Oscar-season. I loved this film.
"I'm glad I can't go back to where I came from / I'm glad those days are gone, gone for good / But if I could take spirits from my past and bring 'em here / You know I would / Know I would" -Jackson Mayne
