A Scar Is Born

Rating: 1/10 (31 January 2019)

Shrieking, loud, interminable re-telling of a familiar story that didn't need to be re-told. This is nothing but a vanity project for Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper with terrible music.
There's no need to recap the story since everyone knows it. Aside from the killing pace that drags this one on to 135 minutes, it's also notable that there's not a likable character in the film. That includes the stars, the grasping manager, the dim father, and the bizarre character played by Sam Elliott. What point was trying to be made my casting 74-year-old Elliott as 44-year-old Cooper's brother? It defies logic.
The story was better told in WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD? (1932) starring Constance Bennett and Lowell Sherman, A STAR IS BORN (1937) starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, A STAR IS BORN (1954) starring Judy Garland and James Mason, and A STAR IS BORN (1976) starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, as well as several others with the same plot.
This one has inane plot points like the tribute to Roy Orbison and a one-word cameo by Alec Baldwin. And what's the point to the drag club? This was lifted from Bette Midler's THE ROSE (1979).
This version is about as entertaining as an open wound scarring over. Indeed, a scar is born.