Cooper and Gaga both make stunning debuts

Rating: 8/10 (21 October 2018)

Lets add up the challenges - film has been done three times before, when you are born the plot is downloaded into your brain, Brad Cooper has never directed, Lady Gaga never been the lead in a film, lets mix melodrama with a concert film so not only does the music have to be great so does anything to do with the relationship and any misstep, the whole illusion will collapse.
I state this because the film has issues but it a goddamned miracle this was made let alone that it is great. Finally, when people complain about Hollywood not making films for "everyone" (yep, I have no idea either) you just point them to this film (and soon after First Man)
Both the leads are outstanding - believable, charming, as good at acting as they are singing, does Cooper play that guitar, y'know what I don't want to know. The whole film rests on a precipice: the audience must buy the love and the chemistry..both Gaga and Cooper deliver in spades.
The ensemble is very good. Elliott steals nearly every scene especially the one in the truck cabin and Andrew Dice Clay is so good he does the opposite, I forgot who he used to be.
The film certainly has first time directing issues. Cooper is so in love with his material he can't cut anything which leads to a real loss of momentum in the second act after an almost flawless first 40 minutes.
The camera sits in close a bit much and Cooper does not like going wide which can get claustrophobic.
The ultimate trick is changing the screenplay from being about jealousy to one about artistic authenticity and getting your idiosyncratic message to the world by making the same film for the fourth time...yet it works.