Really wanted to like this film

Rating: 5/10 (1 October 2019)

When this first came out in theaters, people were losing their minds over it. I finally was able to watch it, albeit at home on blu ray, this past week. I had never seen any of the other versions of this story that have come out over the years.
It takes place in a world where extremely mediocre music is hugely successful. Oh wait, that's our world, the one we live in now. So this film gets points for that. Except it thinks much of its music is really good. There are 2 pretty good songs in it, one being "Shallow." It has some good lyrics. I was never sure though, if we were supposed to enjoy Maine's songs he didn't sing with Ally. Or if they were just there because he was a rock singer and needed to sing songs. Someone with songs of that quality would have difficulty filling bars, let alone a stadium full of music fans. Same goes for Ally's "pop" songs, which are worse. Complete garbage in fact.
But enough complaining about the music. Let's talk about the performances by the lead actors. Lady Gaga is a really talented actress and musician. She manages to shrink her own persona just enough for this, and I think that's why she received so much praise for this performance. Wow, we all say, see how she can transform herself into just a regular gal with dreams to chase? What a trooper. But I guess that's what most of the acting corps in Hollywood must do, right? Becoming the everywoman or everyman becomes that much more difficult as the cash starts piling up. Cynicism anyone?
Then there's Bradley Cooper as Jackson Maine. It's a fine performance, which he mumbles his way through. I couldn't help but recall Jeff Bridge's performance in True Grit, and suspect he drew inspiration from it.
My favorite work here is that of Sam Elliott. He does his best work here.
Oh and by the way the entire film is about alcoholism and is pretty much the story of a rock singer's nosedive into deeper alcohol and drug addiction, to the point where he hangs himself in his garage. As I said, I had not seen any other version of A Star Is Born, so maybe I should have known it was coming. But the film does not seem to be setting this up, for most of it anyway. It went hard after the tears and certainly got it from most audience members.
Instead of making the film a tragedy of a life wasted and Jack's death, The tragedy should have been that Ally's dreams of being an artist were crushed by her ascent into superstardom. If she was really being true to herself, with the dancing and stupid lyrics, wasting the talent within her, then why should I care what befalls her? What makes her stand apart from any other sellout in showbiz? We are left to wonder, would Jack have been better off without her coming into his life? Addiction is a disease, so probably not. Right? The film should offer a crystal clear answer to this. It thinks it does, but really does not.