A must watch.

Rating: 9/10 (10 November 2018)

Remakes, reboots, re-imaginings, modern updates - whatever you want to call them, they've been around almost as early as movies themselves. In the last couple of decades they've attracted a bad reputation due to an increasing over-reliance by studios on letting brand recognition do the heavy lifting, quality be damned. Retelling this old-age tale for a new audience, first-time director Bradley Cooper has hit a home run. This is no thoughtless cash-in for the twitter generation. This is good ol' fashioned storytelling with intelligence and maturity. Cooper plays Jackson Maine, a country-rock megastar with a drinking problem from hell. Sparks fly when he meets Ally (Lady Gaga), an inspiring singer who hasn't been able to catch a break. We already know Cooper is an extremely versatile and engaging actor (who's a bloody decent singer as it turns out), but Lady Gaga, in her first notable acting role not playing a version of her on-stage persona, is an absolute revelation here. Stripped of all the flare and over-the-top theatricality associated with her musical career, Gaga delivers a tour-de-force performance of raw emotion and soul-bearing, more than holding her own opposite experienced actors like Cooper and Sam Elliot (always gripping). Ambitiously shot in close-ups with a roaming camera, the concert sequences are suitably amazing. Ally's impromptu duet with Jackson in front of tens of thousands of fans is a contender for most powerful scene of the year. At times the drama veers into melodrama (perhaps even intentionally, this is a modern day rags-to-riches yarn after all), but there's so much goodwill generated throughout that those moments of heavy-handedness can easily be embraced. Knockout performances, a compelling story and a great soundtrack combine to make A Star is Born a must-watch.