Amazing chemistry between both leads

Rating: 7/10 (15 October 2019)

There is a lot to like about this film, and it translated quite clearly into its worldwide success at the box office and overall popularity. You've got two big stars as the leads playing well-written characters and generating an impressive on-screen chemistry. On one hand, you've got the acting debut of one of these stars, Lady Gaga, and, on the other hand, the directional debut of the other star, Bradley Cooper. And they both impress in these respective debuts.
During its first half, "A Star is Born" is a feel good movie. It tells the (very unlikely) story of a well-known musician, Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) who falls in love with a super talented yet struggling and unknown singer, Ally, and takes her under his wing, catapulting her into superstardom. As her career takes off, the relationship between the two of them faces a number of challenges, including Maine's alcoholism. If this sounds like a familiar story or film title, here's why: movies with that same title and storyline were released in 1937,1954 and 1976, respectively. So for those who feel like Hollywood struggles to renew itself and come up with new ideas lately, this will not rock your world with its originality. This is somewhat standard Oscar material in many regards, and especially in its delivery of emotion. It's got a big bulky buildup filled with positivity in its first half, only to then go down in a classic (and quite predictable) tragic path in the latter half. Yes, you can definitely expect half of the audience to shed tears as the credits roll.
That being said, "A Star is Born" is highly successful at generating emotions, albeit relatively uncomplicated ones, and the magic operates through the film's main qualities, which are honestly pretty outstanding: the chemistry between both leads, and very well-written characters and dialogue. Both Lady Gaga's and Bradley Cooper's performances are absolutely fantastic and the chemistry between both characters is beyond tangible. It is beautiful to watch, actually. The cast is great, and that brief appearance from Dave Chappelle was a pure delight too.
Bradley Cooper's directional debut is very promising, to say the least, as those concert scenes truly made you feel like you were on stage with a rock band, with blinding projectors partly blurring glimpses of a cheering crowd of thousands of people, giving the audience a nice sample of a surreal feeling that only a handful of major on-stage performers get to experience in their lifetime. Hats off to Cooper and to the whole crew for a visually gorgeous picture. The musical performances are also excellent.
With regard to the script, while the dialogue is outstanding and (thankfully) does not shy away from including a surprising amount of F bombs, the tragic denouement, to me, didn't get a proper development to warrant an event of this significance/dramatic impact. In contrast with the first two thirds of the film, which takes a somewhat lengthy approach at detailing the different stages of a relationship and the psychological evolution of the characters, this seemed like an abrupt turn of events resulting from a shortcut in the psychology of an otherwise beautifully-written character.
Regardless of this, "A Star is Born" is worth watching for the chemistry between both leads alone.