Great Remake

Rating: 9/10 (9 January 2019)

A Star is Born is a film about a country singer who helps a young new artist rise to fame, while he fights his struggle with alcoholism.
The film is set in modern-day America as it reflects on the current state of the music industry through a fictional story.
It follows the Hollywood trend of recent years where studios release high budget musicals like The Greatest Showman and La La Land. It also features a star-studded cast consisting of Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Sam Elliot and Dave Chappelle.
The film reinvents this trend by casting Lady Gaga in the lead of the film. This allows the songs featured to be more impactful as the raw talent of her vocals demands the audience's attention. Director Bradley Cooper must have studied the previous versions of the film as A Star is Born 1976 featured Barbara Streisand who is known for her singing ability. Casting Lady Gaga shows that he respects the source material and understands what made the original film so great. This is impressive as this is his directorial debut.
Bradley Cooper does a tremendous job in the role of director while acting in the film as well. His singing voice embodies the character of Jackson Maine in a way that many films that have come out in recent years haven't quite managed to achieve. For example, in La La Land Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling played characters that were very similar to their real-life personalities, so it was hard to distinguish them from their characters. This portrayal is far more believable as it resembles the stories of many musical legends of the past such as Kurt Cobain, Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen.
The run time for the film clocks in at 2hr 16 minutes which does hinder the films pace as it slows down significantly towards the middle of the film. This is needed though as the climax of the film is more impactful because of this. It is also easy to follow as the story is told in a linear structure.
The film received an age rating of 15 in the United Kingdom, so it is targeting a mature audience and will be inappropriate for younger viewers. This is due to the film including swearing and disturbing images.