"A Star Is Born"

With the arrival of Fall, Hollywood begins unleashing the movies that are deemed to be Oscar worthy, and perhaps the first such biggie arrived this week, Bradley Cooper's "A Star Is Born".

It is a familiar story: Established Star meets Young Up And Coming Talent and takes her under his wing, and they fall deeply in love.  Soon, Young Up And Coming Talent surpasses Established Star whose booze and drug consumption causes his career to crash and burn since he cannot live in the shadows of the Young Up And Coming Talent who has now become an Established Star herself.

In this version, Cooper plays Jackson Maine, the mega rock and roll star, who stumbles into a drag bar one night in desperate need of just one more drink.  There he sees Ally, played by Lady Gaga, performing.  He takes a shine to her, buys her a drink, listens to her sing in a parking lot, falls for her, takes her under his wing, they fall in love....., and, well, you get the idea.

Cooper and Lady Gaga

Cooper is quite a talent.  In addition to starring in this one, he produced it, co-wrote it, and directed it.  He learned to play the guitar for this role and does all of his own playing and singing.  He also wrote many of the songs that are in it.  He is an amazingly talented guy.

However, the real star of this one is Lady Gaga.   In the beginning of this one, she is stripped bare of the "Gaga" persona that we all know.  Don't get me wrong, she is not unattractive, but she is far from the glamorous star that we have come to know over the last half dozen years or so.

Stefani Germanotta, aka Lady Gaga

She is vulnerable and insecure about her looks, yet also confident in her ability to write and sing songs, and when she sings, wow!  Lady Gaga is indeed in possession of a once-in-a-generation musical voice, and does that ever come through loud and clear in this movie.  Oh, and she wrote many of the songs that she sings in this film.  She can also act.  She has dabbled in movies a little before this, but "A Star Is Born" is going to add the title of "Movie Star" to her already impressive resume.  Simply put, I loved her in this one.

Three interesting supporting roles in this one.  Sam Elliot, the voice that sold a million Dodge Rams, plays Cooper's older brother.   Ally's father is played by foul mouthed comedian Andrew Dice Clay.  Clay also had a role in Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine" (2013).  As he was in that movie, he is quite good in this one.  Finally, Ally's friend Ramon is played by Anthony Ramos, the young man who played the dual role of John Laurens/Phillip Hamilton in the original Broadway production of "Hamilton".

I mentioned in the beginning that this is a familiar story, and that leads us to the subject of remakes.  This story was first told by Hollywood in 1932 in a George Cukor directed movie called "What Price Hollywood".  I had never heard of this movie until Arch Campbell mentioned it on his movie podcast a few weeks ago. It was remade in 1937 as "A Star Is Born".  Directed by William Wellman and starring Janet Gaynor and Frederic March, and it won an Oscar for writing.  In 1954, Cukor took another crack at this one, added music and cast Judy Garland and James Mason, both of whom received Oscar nominations, in the leads.  In 1977, it was back again with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, and it won an Oscar for Streisand and Paul Williams for Best Original Song.  

And now, forty-one years later, we are seeing it again, and the questions are once again asked, Why does Hollywood keep making remakes of movies, and SHOULD they even try?  I have talked about this subject in this forum on many previous occasions.  As to WHY, well, obviously, somebody thinks that such projects will make money for the studios, so there's that.  As to SHOULD they keep  remaking such movies, my answer is:  Yes, IF the remade film can tell the story in a different way and get the same message across, and, more importantly, IF the newer version of the story is actually a good movie.

In the case of 2018's "A Star Is Born", Cooper succeeds on both fronts, and if the movie does absolutely nothing else, it gives us Lady Gaga.  There is more to the movie than that, of course, but she alone is a reason to see this one.

Three and one-half Stars from The Grandstander.