A Star Is Born Aims for the Awards

If A Star Is Born is nominated for any awards this year (which, let’s be honest, it probably will), I hope someone in their speech talks about how it also deserves the award for “Most Rebooted Movie”. The story told in 2018, starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, is actually the fourth time that the title A Star Is Born has been used. In 1937, the story starred Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, telling the story of a farm girl from North Dakota who dreams of making it in Hollywood and falls in love with a famous actor. In 1954, Judy Garland and James Mason took the title roles, also telling the story of actors. It wasn’t until 1976, with Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, that the story switched to the music industry, where Cooper and Gaga have picked it up in 2018. Though the same basic story (and ending) is used in all four movies, the idea is that audiences will still see enough differences because of the time period changes that the basic story will still hold true and touch hearts. Much like the musical that dominated the 2016 award season – La La Land – A Star Is Born plays on the public’s love of music and stargazing, admiring the life of the arts that most dream of, even if it’s a secret, impossible dream. And, like La La Land, this vision of the arts and the life surrounding them is fine to watch, but doesn’t make quite the impact that it intends to.

The bright but fading country star Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) finds himself spiraling in life. Not only is he barely coping with alcoholism and drug abuse, but he is also suffering from hearing loss after refusing to wear protective gear while performing. One night after a performance he visits a local drag queen bar, where a waitress and aspiring songwriter named Ally (Lady Gaga) sings for her friends. He is taken in by her voice, and invites Ally to one of his performances where he brings her onstage to share one of her songs. Though Ally has had difficulty with the music industry before (told she didn’t have the right ‘look’), Jackson shows her that her dream is still possible. Ally begins to tour with Jackson, and her music starts to gain mainstream attention. As her star rises, the relationship between the two begins to change, and Jackson’s battle with his own demons could spill over into the relationship.

There is a definite disjoint between the first and second half of the film. The first half, which follows the rise of Ally and the blossoming relationship between the two leads, focuses more strongly on the real star of the film: the music. Gaga and Cooper do well enough on their own, but their chemistry is strongest when they are singing their hearts out, especially to Ally’s greatest creation, Shallow. The music carries both characters in a way that normal conversations can’t, and the songs are performed amazingly at all times. In the second half, when you start to see the strains of fame wearing on the relationship, even the songs start to become less impressive (even though Gaga’s killing the performances still). Eventually the entire story feels as though its dragging on, since the ending is spelled out at the halfway point (as well as in the first ten minutes for the eagle-eyed viewers). There is also a lot of emphasis in the first half of the film on details that don’t end up mattering in the end (like Cooper’s hearing loss, which is given lots of dialogue at the beginning but never really comes back into play), which makes the second half feel even less connected to the first. Ally’s connection to the drag bar is played as important in her opening scenes, but she never really connects to it again throughout her journey. Her journey also goes pretty quickly, with huge jumps of time between her being “discovered” to winning awards, which seems to skip over important times on the path.The ending of A Star Is Born is plenty sad, but considering audiences have seen it play out in at least three films before, it’s impact is lessened by the fact that at that point, the audience is just ready for the story to finish wrapping up.

The interesting point to note is that while Ally’s story is the one hinted at in the title – the rising star – we actually end up learning a lot more about Jackson, the falling star. In the first half of the film, we are taken through scenes to emphasize how troubled Jackson is – he meets Ally because he immediately needs to go drinking after a concert, when Ally comes to his first concert he gets high and passes out before they can spend a night together, and he fires his brother Bobby (Sam Elliott) as his manager because of a sale that Jackson was too drunk to remember. In the second half when Ally is starting to become famous and they are officially together, Jackson continues to spiral, and the story becomes about how his demons are starting to affect the life of the woman he discovered and loves. Ally’s success takes jumps – she finds a manager, appears on television, wins awards, but it all jumps from one big moment to the next, not to emphasize how her star is rising, but to show far Jackson is falling. It’s almost difficult to understand in the beginning why Ally is even invested in the relationship, especially when Jackson’s early behavior often comes off more creepy than romantic. True, Cooper does a great job of playing this character – sometimes it’s just difficult to really understand why he is taking the place of the star.

3 / 5

It’s also interesting to point out that Ally’s rise is like a backwards mirror of Gaga’s – starts off doing deep work before needing to be more commercial, while Gaga started off doing crazy stunts to build the street cred she needed for the more serious work she does today.