A Remarkable Achievement

Rating: 8/10 (8 October 2018)

Sometimes weighty expectations can crush a movie before it has any chance to pop. With "A Star is Born," a moving trailer and excited murmurs from film festivals, created seemingly unreachable levels of hype. Then, somehow, it reached them.
In Bradley Cooper's directorial debut, he manages to instill life and a reasonable degree of freshness into a movie that had already been made three times previously. He clearly has a knack for capturing intimacy, and he uses that skill to make a movie that is deeply personal to himself, to co-star Lady Gaga, and to the characters they portray.
It's a remarkable achievement that this movie works. Cooper certainly deserves heaps of credit for his directing acumen and committed acting performance (he worked with a vocal coach for months to lower his speaking voice a whole octave). His voice is low, rumbling, and worn. He sounds like someone who has just finished coughing for four and a half days straight. It suits the character, Jackson Maine, who struggles with drinking and drug use, all while still managing to perform nearly every night in front of thousands of fans who adore his music.
One night he stumbles drunk into a bar and sees Ally (Gaga) performing. She wows him with her talent and inspires him ways that we sense he hasn't felt in years. In an approach that vacillates between creepy and romantic, he woos Ally by accepting her as she is, not who she thinks others want her to be.
The next night when she attends his show, he whisks her on stage to sing the song they wrote together. The crowd goes berserk and soon the two are touring the country together. As her level of fame rises, he warns her that she must dig deep into her soul to create her art or she will lose everything.
They each fight their own battles, his with drugs, alcohol and demons from his past, and hers with not letting fame change her. Cooper's character has more to work with, but it's Gaga who shines brightest on screen. We're all well aware of her immense musical talent, and now we know that she's also an exceptional actor, one who could find herself seriously in award conversation later this year.
She may not be the only one from this film in the award conversation. Cooper's acting and directing will rightfully garner consideration as well. He aptly handles an ambitious, emotional story that does not hold back in any way. Its lack of humility should probably cause its downfall, but that's not the case. Credit both Cooper and Gaga for pulling this off. It looks like two stars have been born.