A Star is Born Review

Rating: 6/10 (12 November 2018)

I will preface this with stating that I have not seen any of the other iterations, but read wiki enough to understand - Man falls for rising star as his fades due to alcoholism, conflict ensues, he dies either by walking in the ocean or driving drunk, and the despondent rising star finds a last token of his love that gives her the strength to carry on.
Now, given that synopsis, there are two things I would expect to see in the film; either his jealousy ruins their marriage and sends him into further decline, or their love lasts through it all but he can't kick the addiction and takes his life when he realizes how much he's hurt his wife.
I think that where this version went wrong is that this version tried to do both, and ended up not doing either well; the love story was sloppy, and conflict was hinted at but never essential, and the story ended up being about the man and his addiction rather than the love story.
Love story was sloppy: There was a scene where the two ride out to Arizona on a bike, no words, a flash to them kissing at a gas pump, Jack's feet in sand, and then he punches his brother in the face. What could've been a scene where the couple talk about his anger, her fear that he would overreact, etc, we just see her standing in the background as Jack and his brother yell at each other. I call the budding romance via music montage the "twilight effect" because you never actually hear these people share there souls with one another. I also felt like we only saw things from Jack's perspective; a cut-over to a new scene, and Ally was at the next phase of her career. It had no meat, they were just head over heels and we were supposed to believe it.
Conflict: When Ally goes on SNL and does her "ass in them jeans" song, Jack's anger is shown when he calls her ugly later on, but we never see the compromise from Ally's perspective- again it's hinted at with the dance class and her saying "it was supposed to be one song". I would have wanted to see her making the decision to "not say anything" and the early conflict with Jack about the new direction... instead we get reaction, repair, and then it's forgotten. There were also other ways they could have shown his light fading - paparazzi not wanting a candid of him, and only wanting Ally, him acting out and punching them - a quick 5 min of film and we could've seen his frustration.
A story about an addict: At the end of the day, Lady Gaga is just a set piece in this story about an addict who can't stop despite having people who care for him and his physical reason for taking the pills being gone - that was the emotional anchor of the story - no matter how many times you scream at Jack to not take a drink or pop a pill. What we got was a rich backstory of a boy who had already tried suicide but whose alcoholic father didn't even notice, a boy who became a rock star whose brother gave up his dreams to keep him alive.
Sadly Cooper didn't seem to agree that's what the story was about, and instead we got a movie that tried all the things and ended up not doing any of it well.