A Star Is Born

2018 musical drama

Rating: 12/20

Plot: A drunk alternative rocker has-been meets a talented singer and helps her become a star.

This is a story that's been told many times, and it's not really told all that convincingly here, but I did like how they fell for each other. Both characters fall for the other's vocal stylings, both Cooper and Gaga nearly getting O-faces as they hear the other one sing for the first time. Their rapport works without being obvious although it is better in the first half of the movie, probably something that was deliberate.

I didn't really like either of these characters even though I liked both performances. Gaga really is a star. Without a doubt, she's got the singing chops to pull this off, but she really shines in her ability to do so much with a character who is fairly disappointing. Cooper grumbles his way through the movie. Or maybe he Sam Elliotts his way through it. He's got this natural charm that makes the character lovable even when he's skimming rock bottom. A scene with eyebrows, scenes where he's goading Gaga, and times when the character is allowed to be playful really makes it easy to see why Gaga's character would fall for him. Was Cooper's character supposed to be a little dumb though? He seemed a little dumb.

I don't know what to say about the music. I didn't like it, but I'm not really the right person to ask about contemporary alternative rock that sounds like it might have come from the late-90s or whatever sub-genre of pop music Gaga is performing. The allure of Gaga's voice might save some of the songs, but I didn't really fall in love with any of them. A couple of weeks after seeing this movie, I can at least remember one of them, but that might be the result of it being in the movie about a dozen times.

Very likely, this is just a romantic story and nothing deeper. If you have to look for a theme at all, you would wonder if this is about the destructive force of choreographed dances in pop music performances. Or maybe something about how alcohol is more addictive than love.

I might not have fallen in love with this like most everybody else has, but I did seem to like it more than the couple who fell asleep down the row from me and snored during the final 45 minutes of the movie. I thought it was just one of them who fell asleep, but when the lights came back on, they were both asleep. I was the last to leave the theater other than them and probably could have woken them up, but I decided to take a picture of them instead.