Lady Gaga is the ugly duckling in a movie full of great performances

Rating: 1/10 (7 October 2018)

Just an absolutely terrible movie. Only positive is just about everyone's acting other than Lady Gaga's. She was awful. She wasn't even convincing as a pop star, which I found to be totally crazy. I really have to admit, whoever her music producers were did a really great job of disguising the fact that she can't sing with the elaborate get-ups and wacky songs in real life. I think the movie would have been dramatically improved by casting someone else in her part., either an actress or another pop star. Her rough, trashy Jersey attitude just came through in every scene and it made the character incredibly unlikable. She lacked chemistry with Bradley Cooper.
Jackson Maine was a compelling character by himself. It's Bradley Cooper's best role yet. I just didn't like the story arc of the film and what happened at the end. It was dumb. The majority of the audience that is working class is not going to find the character sympathetic or believable. Here is this guy, a country legend who has to be worth hundreds of millions, and we're supposed to feel sorry for him? Not happening, sorry. His career may have been ending, but come on, he can quit tomorrow and sit on an estate in the islands for the rest of his life; the rest of us can't. Cry me a river.
Also, when did being a drunk ever ruin a country star's career? If anything, I've felt it makes them more popular!
This movie needed a lot of work, unfortunately. I think Taylor Swift or Katy Perry would have been a much better fit, and just more compatible with Cooper. This was just a mess and I can't recommend it. The last hour was totally unnecessary and dragged on. I felt this was a "woe is me" piece for entertainment stars, but the rest of us won't relate or care, and why should we?