Same Story Told Over and Over Forever

Rating: 8/10 (29 November 2019)

"A Star Is Born" has proven itself to be a story with legs, to borrow from the phrasing of Bradley Cooper's Jack, and I think that's because it does, indeed, dig deep into the soul of Hollywood and the business of art and entertainment in general. Like the songs within this iteration of the familiar story about the characters who sing them, the movie is about itself, about the stars who play the characters within it, and it echoes the same stories that have been told afore.
The story is older than some people realize, too, as before it was "A Star Is Born" in 1937, 1954, 1976 and again in 2018, it was "What Price Hollywood?" (1932), which itself is said to be loosely based on real-life tales such as the marriage of silent-film flapper icon Colleen Moore. In 1937, the Academy's first Best Actress Oscar winner, Janet Gaynor, repeated the feat within and almost without (with another Oscar nomination) the first "A Star Is Born" by playing the same ingénue type that she'd already honed over the past decade in Hollywood. In 1954, the versatile Judy Garland brought the now-familiar backstage musical to the narrative, while her real life seemed to mirror that of her alcoholic on-screen husband more than the aspiring star she plays in the film. Then, Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson took the story from the Oscars to their more familiar territory of the Grammys, a formula that is reused here for the talents of Lady Gaga.
This latest "A Star Is Born" has its faults. Bradley Cooper seems to spend most of the picture admiring himself as the handsomest drunk and drug addict to ever appear on screen--sometimes to the point of marginalizing the more pivotal role played by Lady Gaga, and her launch to stardom seems shallow with all of the business of her nose and her confidence being built up by a man calling her "pretty." And, of course, it's a vanity project: it's a movie about show business, it's about money and awards made to garner money and awards. While seeming to turn a critical eye on the pop music business, the movie itself often plays as an extended music video, cutting from the same overly-emotional outbursts to the next that's a staple of the success of popular music--that the stars feel things so powerfully that they have no control and must punch people or things or drink and drug themselves into oblivion. Even the fun stuff is a whirlwind of losing control to one's primal urges. Inevitably, at some point, it's going to get hokey. On the other hand, the acting, cinematography and editing are far above anything in a music video, and the music led by "Shallow" being also outstanding.
Nevertheless, I've fallen for the self-reflexivity of the story. I like how Sam Elliott's Bobby mentions how every song and story is the same and that the artist offers the world how they see that same story, as that essentially is the point of remaking "A Star Is Born" for the fourth, fifth or umpteenth time. There's also the business of Cooper adopting Elliott's voice, which recalls for me, at least, all the other great voices to be broadcast in prior versions of the story. For the male lead, the memorable voice of James Mason most often comes to my mind. The insertion of drag queens, and its similarities to the pageantry of rock concerts and music videos, also seems to play into this meta notation--besides also reflecting Gaga's, like Garland before, status as a queer icon. Most interesting of all, however, is how much this "A Star Is Born" seems to be a critique of the career of its own star-in-the-making. She came to fame within and without the movie by being what Cooper's Jack calls "ugly." Indeed, the dance routines, hairstyling and costumes she adorns in "A Star is Born" are far less outrageous than the Lady Gaga persona she has performed in the real pop-music world. The story's traditional end is especially unfortunate for leaving this critique a bit shallow. It's, nonetheless, an interesting self-reflexive aspect to this addition--more so I suppose for those who've been bigger fans of Lady Gaga than me. At the least, this "A Star Is Born" has surely borne more fans, myself included, for this star.