Yet another take on the long-established story, and a very fine one at that.

Rating: Null/10 (8 March 2019)

My wife and I watched this movie at home on DVD from our public library. It is a 2-disc set, the second disc has several interesting extras, including a 30-minute glimpse into what all went into making the movie. Cooper studied voice, guitar, and piano for 6 months in preparation for his role.
The long-established story is of a worn out performer, existing on booze and drugs, coming upon a young singer and sending her on a trajectory to stardom. Gaga (real name Stefani) is perfect for the role of Ally because in many respects it mirrors her own early life as she fought for recognition. This is her first role in a movie and she does just fine.
Bradley Cooper has had an itch to direct and this is his first movie. He also is the second featured role as Jack, the grizzled and famous singer and guitarist. His training paid off, his songs, both solo and with Gaga, come off very professionally. In addition some scenes were actually filmed before live audiences at festivals, the film acts were sandwiched between the regular acts.
It is a story with both heartbreak and triumph, they pull it off very well. I was totally entertained, I will watch it again before I return the DVD to my library. As we would expect, grizzled veteran Sam Elliott is good as Bobby, Jack's much older brother who mostly raised him after their dad died when Jack was still young.