Unworkable tale, chronicling downfall of alcoholic country rock star and enabling singer he takes under his wing, fails like all its predecessors

Rating: 3/10 (6 November 2018)

Why in the world did Bradley Cooper decide to remake A Star is Born? Beats me. It's a dog of an idea for a film but you can probably guess why Hollywood players are attracted to such a project. I recommend that you check out my review of the 1954 version of A Star is Born starring Judy Garland. Despite the updated accouterments, there's little difference between what I had to say about that old chestnut and Cooper's new flashy project starring Lady Gaga.

Cooper plays the protagonist, Jackson Maine, a country rock music star with a wicked drinking problem (James Mason was "Norman Maine" in the '54 version; instead of a musician, he played an alcoholic movie star). The plot is quite simple: Maine goes bar hopping after one of his big concerts and happens upon Ally, an aspiring singer (Lady Gaga) at a bar populated chiefly by drag queens. Maine takes Ally under his wing, sponsors her, and as he goes downhill due to his drinking, she eventually becomes a big star.

The problem with all this is that just like in all the earlier incarnations (1937, 1954 and 1977), Maine's character is simply boring and unlikable. Sad sacks never make for good drama especially when their machinations are so one-note. It's as if we're supposed to have some kind of catharsis reveling in Maine's sad decline. It's all so predictable and I have no guilt feelings in revealing that our main character commits suicide in the end. Cooper and his fellow scenarists can do nothing in fleshing out their country rock star-he's wholly generic with a sketchy back story about a cruel father and a suicide attempt when the boy was 12.

Lady Gaga isn't much better as Ally, who plays the part of an enabler. Yes she's got a great voice and tremendous stage presence, but she has little to do except attempt to prop up her alcoholic spouse and then cry at the end when he does himself in. None of the original songs here (some written by Gaga) are hardly memorable and you'll be hard pressed to find anything resembling the hits (such as "Bad Romance"), she's known for.

The dark moment in the second act is similar to the '54 version-there Mason (as Norman Maine) makes a fool of himself at the Oscars while in a drunken stupor. Here it's Cooper as Maine falling flat on his face at the Grammy's. No matter-it's all part of similar histrionics designed to manipulate the audience to spill crocodile tears for stereotyped losers.

Cooper impressively learned how to play guitar for the film but his voice (while decent), is simply ordinary. And like Gaga, he's imprisoned in a strait jacket of this particular acting role. The only bright note is Sam Elliott as Bobby, Maine's half-brother and manager who walks out on him as he can no longer tolerate his half-brother's unrelenting drunken act. And what about Ally's father and his limousine driver buddies? They seem more like they're from New Jersey then somewhere out in the Midwest where this is supposed to be taking place.

Instead of drunken losers, how about a story about entertainment people with egos, chronicling their rise to the top along with those left behind in their wake? No instead we must endure this phony little tale hailed as a virtual masterpiece by a majority of fawning, sycophantic film critics.