Enjoyable with great acting, but the third act is... ugh

Rating: 7/10 (6 October 2018)

Bradley Cooper thoroughly understands the soul of an artist and what makes great art, and I think that he wanted to express that meaning in this film. For the most part he accomplished that mission.
There are so many times when Stefani Germanotta or Bradley Cooper said something in a manner that made me slightly emotional. When Germanotta said simply, "you hurt me" as Cooper's character was apologizing it was just gorgeous. She didn't overplay it or try to embellish the line. It was just naked and honest, like their awesome musical performances.
Cooper and the production team also know how a corporate hack will try to steer an artist away from his vision as one steered Germanotta away from her voice. I love that she regained her voice through tragedy at the end of the movie, but I hated the tragedy itself-- it seemed so forced.
I understand that they wanted to remain true to the original version, so the suicide was retained, but it just seemed to throw off everything. When I was in film school so many aspiring screenwriters included suicide as part of their stories, which was obviously usually lazy writing. Our teachers admonished us for it and said that we were all intelligent students who should strive for more. It's what I felt about the ending to this movie-- it had so much potential, and it could have amounted to so much more.