Not altogether "shallow"; an impressive debut

Rating: 6/10 (22 February 2019)

When a film is as thoroughly worshipped as A Star is Born, I tend to see two possibilities. One is that it's that kind of rare, well-made film that hits the spot for almost everyone and so will evolve into a classic. The other is that it's a bland, stupid ordeal that nevertheless ticks all the right boxes to be marketable, accessible and relatable to mainstream consumers on a shallow (no pun intended) level. A Star is Born has some of both.
Directed by Bradley Cooper (a stupendously impressive debut but not as indicative of great taste as Gosling's Lost River), this is actually the fourth iteration of A Star is Born. It is also the only one that I've seen but I don't think it matters. I doubt the Judy Garland film featured music (or clothing) that was this approachable to Gen Z and Lady Gaga fans.
Cooper and Gaga star in the film and they are both nominated for Leading Role Oscars this year. Obviously I think the latter can wait until Olivia Colman has gotten her due for shining (more than any "star", born or unborn) in The Favourite, but both leads do well here. Cooper is a drunkard rock musician; Gaga is the nightclub performer who impresses him with her singing talents and beautiful nose. He falls for her through music; one scene later she does the same for him.
He invites her to go on tour with him, after letting her perform one of her own creations at a concert of his. Other faces emerge. Emotions evolve. You know how it is.
Dave Chappelle, Andrew Dice Clay and the rightfully Oscar-nominated Sam Elliott make for engaging supporting roles, and the likes of Alec Baldwin, Halsey and an assortment of chattering drag queens perform as themselves. The actors are all well-directed by Cooper, and the chemistry of the central couple is sweet and believable. The humorous moments work (I chuckled at a scene where some older gents muse over the YouTube view counter) and the music is mostly good, my only real gripes being with the not-always-cohesive editing and oft predictable romance beats. The camera work is pretty generic but Cooper will get there.
The most "notorious" issue with A Star is Born is the ending, which, without revealing too much, is allegedly a glorification of something that ought not be glorified. For my part, I've seen the abyss; the abyss being 13 Reasons Why. This isn't quite so dark.
We'll see how the film does at the ceremony this Sunday but my confident estimation is that it will take multiple statues home (I've come to accept the reality that it will most surely win Original Song over The Ballad of Buster Scruggs). Hollywood doesn't seem to gush over THIS musical romance quite so much as they did 2017's La La Land, but it's a clear favorite all the same. It may be funny if it is falsely announced as Best Picture, only for the real winner to be Black Panther.