About creativity, staying honest and learning to trust

Rating: Null/10 (30 November 2018)

Bradley Cooper's directorial debut marks the third remake of this particular story. Fourth, if you count the 2013 Bollywood musical. The story is about an aging country rock singer, whose career is at its final stretch. Then he runs into a girl with an amazing voice and becomes instantly fascinated, if not outright smitten.
The film stars Cooper in the leading role and Lady Gaga as Ally, the girl with the voice. And these two are magnificent. The role of Ally is of course practically tailor-made for Gaga, but I'm still blown away by her acting talent. The same with Cooper, except that with him I'm blown away by the fact that he can actually sing really well. These two approach the same point from different directions and this build some amazing chemistry between them.
And it's good that these two work as well as they do, because the movie would absolutely fall apart if they did not. Mind you, the story itself has some depth to it. I especially like its point of view on talent and what you should do with it. Does an artist have a responsibility to use their talent to say something meaningful or is it simply enough to make people enjoy themselves? But in the end it's the love story, the evolving relationship between these two that keeps the movie going.
Now, I have to admit that I did not enjoy the ending. It's the same as in the previous movies, but it still didn't feel honest to me. The movie was not building towards such an ending. I felt cheated.
Still, a very good movie. Borderline great. Fantastic performances, really good storytelling, good music, some poignancy and pleasing on the technical side of things as well. Recommended.