A touching and entertaining film

Rating: 8/10 (12 October 2018)

After seeing A Star Is Born, one thing is for certain, the names "Lady Gaga" and "Bradley Cooper" will be mentioned a few times at the 2019 Academy Awards. Although it's still early in the awards season, it seems quite likely that Cooper will snag a nomination for best director and best actor, both of which are well deserved. Whereas Lady Gaga is almost guaranteed to win for best original song and is a front runner for best actress. Those three categories, acting, directing, and original song, are where this movie really shines. The chemistry between Gaga and Cooper is undeniable and they both clearly pulled out all the stops, as every word they say and emotion they convey seems genuine. The directing however is what truly stood out to me, and considering this is Cooper's directorial debut it's all the more impressive. In particular, the concert scenes blew me away with how authentic and visceral they felt. As for the songs of the film, I would be absolutely shocked if one of them doesn't win an Oscar. They are not only moving and beautiful to listen to, but actually add layers to the storytelling and enhance Gaga and Cooper's performances. From what I've read, Gaga wrote and produced most of the songs, in addition to performing many of them in the film. All of these elements blend together masterfully to create an experience that is somehow both heartbreaking and feel-good, making it a true crowd-pleaser. However, the one place that I felt this film lacked was in the writing. Since this is a retelling of a classic tale, I wasn't expecting anything surprising in terms of the story beats, but I was a bit disappointed in some of the dialogue and especially the pacing. The first half of the movie takes place over the span of a few days, which does wonders for the character work of Cooper and Gaga, but then forces the rest of the story to be crammed into its second half. Although this is by no means a deal breaker for the movie, its pacing is noticeably off. Additionally, some of the dialogue seemed a bit clunky to me. Whether it was forcing in exposition, or just resorting to somewhat sappy lines, a lot of what I heard just hit the ear wrong. Despite those few gripes, I quite enjoyed this movie and will most certainly be listening to the soundtrack over the next few months. If you can, absolutely go see A Star Is Born!