The Best Version

Rating: 9/10 (19 August 2019)

I saw the trailer for this movie and I was in. I had never seen the previous versions but Gaga's voice had me. I don't always care for the subject matter of her songs but her voice always captures my attention. I knew that the trailer is always cut to give me that excitement for the film so I fully expected the movie to not land quite as well but I thought, as the buzz machine started, that this might be a solid 3-4 star film for me.
Bradley Cooper is a decent actor. Gaga is a phenomenal singer. This movie already had me more interested than its predecessors.
Then I start hearing that even though this is Cooper's first outing a director, it's super well done. Not only that, I hear Gaga is quite the talented actress. Hmmm. Is this the Hollywood hype machine trying to sell a big movie or is this real buzz?
Suffice it to say, I was feeling excited as I headed to theater on Monday night.
When I think back on the film there are a few things that jump off the screen at me. However, there is one thing that didn't jump off the screen at me. The direction.
In some ways, as I look back, this may impress me just as much as the things that did stick out as great. There are directors whose work is in your face. Tarantino is that kind of guy. You know when you are watching a Tarantino movie because of the way his camera moves and the way the violence splashes around the frame.
In "A Star Is Born,' Cooper shows a restraint that I imagine is very difficult for a first timer. He doesn't lean on a lot of in your face movement or overly indulgent 'artsy' shots to make armchair film critics feel like the cinematography is good because they noticed it. Instead, he lets his scenes play out patiently and doesn't let the camera be a distraction from the portrayals of emotion the actors are giving.
As a result, you barely notice the camera at all and you get to feel caught up in the moments that are being shown to you. Snappy and unreal dialogue can be fun in the right setting but here we get conversations full of the moments where people mumble a little, have to think of their next word, or choke up in all of the nuanced ways we do as humans.
Because of this focus on the performance, Cooper goes further with the subject of love and self destruction than most other movies with such a broad appeal. Far from a Romantic Comedy, this film treats love as a serious matter. It understand that the waves that catch us up also draw us out to sea where we can't seem to fight the current. That is nothing to crack jokes about.
Serious couples know this and will see it echoed on screen not, perhaps, in the specific circumstances of the film but in the dynamics of the films main characters. Just as there are no 'and then they lived happily ever afters' in real life, this film doesn't mess around with happiness untinged with fear or doubt.
It doesn't pretend that mental illness is easy to live with for either person or that a twelve step program is a magic cure all. It rests solidly in the knowledge that issues like that are lifetime issues that need lifetime commitments and lifetime love to match.
It revels in those sorts of complexities and rather than alienating people with a story of hard love it draws them in because we all long to love and be loved like that.
Luckily for Cooper, every actor in this cast is batting a thousand. Sam Elliot as the older brother is frustrating and heartbreaking in his normal salt of the earth wisdom and stubbornness. Bradley is a fine actor and with something real to play, rather than the less emotional and pretty boy characters, he really shines.
The real stand out though is Lady Gaga. What a powerhouse performance. Obviously, drawing on her own life and career helps but people who have never acted or been around actors don't realize that the vulnerability she gives into in this film is not easy. It means drudging up your worst experiences and dearest moments and holding them in heart; not in secret, but right out there in the open to be documented and analyzed by a world of people they do not know or have any reason to trust. This performance is power.
Of course this movie is more than acting. None of this works if the music isn't good. I knew I would like Gaga. I usually do. What I didn't expect was Bradley Cooper standing right next to her and not being outclassed.
The music in this movie is so wonderful because they aren't merely musical performances you are watching. They are acting moments where you can see their thoughts behind their eyes and the ways that the music reinforces those emotions and rise up from them. They are songs that don't feel like they are being sung by a grammy winner and a movie star. They end up feeling more like duets between the characters they are portraying and that is a huge accomplishment in a film.