weak script and clunky direction from Cooper

Rating: 6/10 (17 November 2018)

I may be in the minority but this film was extremely mediocre in my opinion. The acting in this film however, was phenomenal, though sometimes Cooper's character mumbled his lines which made him very hard to follow especially when his character was so dialogue heavy, the music is also very well done. However, that's all the positives i can think of for this film.
This film seemed like it had great potential but Cooper just wasn't the right director for the film, his style just didn't bring the best version of the film out. The script itself felt very oddly paced, the first act was fine and probably my favourite portion of the film, however after transitioning into the second act, the pacing felt extremely clunky, perhaps on paper it was perfectly fine, but editing ultimately messed up the pacing of the film. This could've been in large part due to the high amount of time jumping throughout the film, these all felt very sudden and clunky for the most part as the passage of time was basically negated in the film, there were so many major events during each time period in the film but there was just such an uneven distribution of focus for specific key moments in both the main character's storylines in each period. (some key scenes are ridiculously short while some just refused to end) i didn't feel like i got enough screentime in some of these key scenes to really buy into Gaga and Cooper's character's issues, and fully empathise with their situation. The result was a film with potential for greatness but ultimately left me feeling disappointed, due to seemingly sloppy execution of what could've otherwise been a fantastic film with a great script.
Cooper's direction had me incredibly confused, perhaps i just don't understand what he's trying to convey, but his style felt all over the place, his shot composition felt very ugly and strange, i never really felt connected with his style, this meaning how in tense moments of the film for example, his direction just didn't seem to correctly capture the emotion it was supposed to be going for. There were also some awkward editing, you'll know it when you see it as it happens pretty frequently but it was very distracting and took me out of the experience, and some strangely short scenes (like 5-10 seconds a piece) which honestly added nothing to the film yet kinda just got left in, i guess it was Cooper's idea for transitioning from one scene to another but it just felt silly and useless. I honestly just didn't think he was the right guy to direct this film, his style just didn't emanate the tone of the film and the clunky pacing of the script/film just took me out of the experience too.
It's not a bad film, but i definitely don't see this as an oscar calibre film