movie review a star is born 2018

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, a star is born.

Now streaming on:

There’s a scene early into Bradley Cooper ’s crowd-pleasing “A Star is Born” that distills what it’s really about and why it will hook viewers till the last frame. Cooper’s Jackson Maine, an alt-country singer with a bit more heavy guitar, is getting drunk in a drag club after a show when he meets Lady Gaga ’s Ally. Having worked at the club before, and now waitressing elsewhere, she’s come back to sing a song, a jaw-dropping version of “ La Vie en Rose .” She sashays her way down the bar and ends up locking eyes with Maine as her vocals continue to rise. He is blown away by her talent, but there’s something deeper in that eye contact. Something ineffable. Not long after, while Ally is getting ready to leave with Maine to get another drink, he plays a heartfelt song of his own for the club owner, and she comes out as he’s wrapping up, making eye contact as his vocals find emotional depth. These are two people who fall in love with each other’s talent as much as anything else, inspired by one another in a way that artists often are. This story has been told several times before—and influenced other similar romances—but Cooper and Gaga find a way to make this feel fresh and new. It’s in their eyes.

Before that first night is over, Jackson has realized the depth of Ally’s talent, even hearing her sing part of a song she wrote that will soon become a massive hit for the two of them. These early scenes of “A Star is Born,” especially the first in which Ally sings in front of a Maine audience, are magical. There’s an unforced chemistry between Cooper and Lady Gaga that makes these characters easy to root for, and I’ll admit to a natural affinity for stories of true talent finally coming out of the shadows. The real Gaga knows a thing or two about how one rises from waitress to superstar, and she nails the blend of apprehension and confidence that this kind of thing takes. Of course, Ally is nervous to go on stage or to write songs, but she also senses she’s pretty damn good at it. She’s no mere wallflower watered by a confident man. She’s a force of nature who Jackson gives the encouragement to do her thing.

Of course, the arc of all versions of “A Star is Born” is pretty much the same in that it’s about one comet rising while another crashes. The first time we see Jackson, he’s popping pills, and he’s deeply alcoholic. He allows his demons even more space as he watches his partner achieve massive fame with a form of pop that he finds shallow. Cooper does some of the best work of his career as the kind of man who’s always restless. A friend played by Dave Chappelle tries to offer the advice that every man needs to eventually settle down and stay in a port instead of pulling anchor and moving on again, but Jackson can’t stay still. He's one of those addicts who uses any excuse to fuck things up. He is as self-sabotaging as he is talented, but Cooper avoids just enough of the clichés of the "alcoholism movie" to keep him real. It’s an excellent performance, one that balances Gaga’s in fascinating ways. As she becomes more of a pop legend and he maintains his whiskey-drinking aesthetic, it’s easy to see them pulling apart but the performers keep us believing that these people care about and even need each other. Sometimes the same need that builds us up can eventually destroy us.

“A Star is Born” loses its way slightly in the second half as Ally becomes a household name. Some of the pop fame material doesn’t work, especially a misjudged “SNL” musical performance, as it seems to almost treat what Ally (and even Gaga herself in the real world) do a bit too superficially. The movie seems to agree too easily with Jackson’s belief that pop is disposable. It isn’t always. And the triangle that forms between Ally, Jackson, and Ally’s manager is the most clichéd and least effective aspect of the film. Luckily, Cooper the director regains his footing in the end, bringing his debut film in for the emotional conclusion that even those who haven’t seen the originals will be able to predict is coming, but be moved by nonetheless.

Cynics may be tempted to rip apart “A Star is Born” but there’s just too much that’s been done right here for them to sound legit. (A friend joked, “It’s a musical even angry people can like.”) It's about the people. As is so often the case with actors-turned-directors, Cooper knows how to direct his cast, getting great work from Gaga, Sam Elliott , Andrew Dice Clay , and more. And the film is anchored by its heart-baring music—Cooper wisely allows Gaga to sing complete songs more than once, while also holding his own as a singer himself. A lot of ticket buyers go to the movies for the characters, people they can feel like they know and maybe even care about, and “A Star is Born” delivers two of the most memorable of the year. It’s a film that believes in the power of a song to connect with its listener in a way that can change their lives. And it will be a beloved piece of work for those who believe in it too.

This review was originally filed from the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2018.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Now playing

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Robert daniels.

Nowhere Special

Kaiya Shunyata

Challengers

Matt zoller seitz.

Terrestrial Verses

Godfrey cheshire.

Black Twitter: A People's History

Rendy jones, film credits.

A Star Is Born (2018)

135 minutes

Bradley Cooper as Jackson Maine

Lady Gaga as Ally

Sam Elliott as Bobby Maine

Dave Chappelle as Noodles

Andrew Dice Clay as Lorenzo

Alec Baldwin as Saturday Night Live Host

• Bradley Cooper
• Will Fetters

Cinematography

• Matthew Libatique
• Jay Cassidy

Latest blog posts

Cannes 2024 Video #4: Jason Gorber on Canada's Films

Cannes 2024: Anora, Limonov, Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, Lula

The Legacy of David Bordwell; or, The Memorial Service as Network Narrative

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 Wastes Its Potential

Advertisement

Supported by

Review: ‘A Star Is Born’ Brings Gorgeous Heartbreak

• Share full article

‘A Star Is Born’ | Anatomy of a Scene

Bradley cooper narrates a sequence from his film, in which he stars with lady gaga..

“My name is Bradley Cooper, and I co-wrote and directed “A Star Is Born.” So we’re at the beginning of the movie now where the two characters just met, and this scene is really the anchor for the rest of the film. If as a filmmaker I don’t securely plant the audience in these two people and their relationship, then the rest of the movie won’t work. When I first went to Hollywood and met some people that were really famous, and I remember going out with them in the night. And their access to stuff is always very interesting. But the other thing that always blew me away is to see somebody like that in a pizza place at 4:00 in the morning with regular people, or at a grocery store. You’re like, oh, they go to these places too. I always found that very thrilling. And this, I wanted to feel like you’re in real time, almost, with these people. That was the only way I could get my head around the fact that you would actually believe that they’re falling in love, is that you need to see these moments sort of broken down into three things. One is the first visual look that two people have. And then there’s the tactile moment. And then it’s revealing their souls to each other. And in my life, having met people and fallen in love, it usually happens when you feel as if someone’s seeing you in a way that no one else is seeing you. And this is the scene where she’s seeing him in a way. And the movie’s showing you him take in that knowledge.” “(SINGING) Tell me something, boy. Aren’t you tired trying to fill that void? Or do you need more? Ain’t it hard keeping it so hardcore?” “Is that me?” “That’s you.” “You just write that now?” “Yeah.” “It’s pretty good.” “Her, from the very beginning of the movie, the movie knows she’s a star before she does it. And the movie’s almost searching for her. And with this scene, when she stands up and starts singing, the camera’s over her shoulder looking down at him.” “(SINGING) I’m off the deep end, watch as I dive in. I’ll never meet the ground.” “So she’s in this empty lot at 4:00 in the morning in the outskirts of Los Angeles, and Jackson Maine, this very well-regarded musician, is one of her fans, almost like a boy. So I really love that shot of him just looking up at her.” “(SINGING) — shallow now.” “And what was great about when we found that location was it functioned as almost a stage. There’s all those lights behind her, as if she’s up on a huge stage at Coachella or something without even realizing it.” “I think you might be a songwriter.”

By Manohla Dargis

• Oct. 3, 2018

“A Star Is Born” is such a great Hollywood myth that it’s no wonder Hollywood keeps telling it. Whatever the era, the director or the headliners, it relates the story of two lovers on dramatically differing paths: a famous man who’s furiously racing to the bottom (Bradley Cooper in this movie) and a woman (Lady Gaga) who’s soaring to the top. This latest and fourth version is a gorgeous heartbreaker (bring tissues). Like its finest antecedents, it wrings tears from its romance and thrills from a steadfast belief in old-fashioned, big-feeling cinema. That it’s also a perverse fantasy about men, women, love and sacrifice makes it all the better.

[Read our updates on the 2019 Golden Globes and see the surprises and snubs .]

Like the last iteration, the epically (empirically!) terrible 1976 remake with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, the new one takes place in a contemporary music world that is by turns exciting, suffocating and crowded with dangers — ravenous fans, crushing performance demands, celebrity itself. This is the world that has helped create and come close to ruining Jackson Maine (Mr. Cooper), a country-rock musician who, when the movie opens, is performing obviously wasted, leaning and nearly falling into a boot-stomping song. He’s a beautiful ruin adrift on an ocean of booze, one he routinely spikes with pills.

A singer with a voice that can thunder, Ally Campana (Lady Gaga) becomes Jack’s safe harbor, taking on the roles of lover, partner, muse, ideal. That’s a heavy burden, but Ally is one of life’s chin-up survivors, with an errant mother and a loving, larger-than-life father, Lorenzo (a terrific Andrew Dice Clay), whose dreams cloud her own. Dad runs a limo business out of their Los Angeles home, where his male colleagues (Barry Shabaka Henley, among others) and their boisterous camaraderie fill the rooms, both warming and crowding them. Ally is accustomed to navigating around men larger than she is, elbowing past them to be seen and heard.

She and Jack first meet late one night in a Hollywood drag club where she sings after her waitress shift ends. Jack has just finished playing a concert and, after polishing off a bottle of booze, has stumbled into the club for more. There he watches Ally belt out the Edith Piaf standard “La Vie en Rose,” in a sheath and upsweep, her arched artificial brows adding quizzical punctuation to her face. In a swoon, he invites her out that night, and, as flirtation gives way to deeper feelings, they fall in love. He brings Ally onstage and then on tour, but she eventually goes solo, becoming a star whose ascent is shadowed by his decline.

[ Read about “A Star Is Born” and male sacrifice . ]

Mr. Cooper, who also directed, does a lot right in this take on “A Star Is Born,” beginning with the casting of Lady Gaga, whose disarming, naturalistic presence is crucial to the movie’s force. A post-Madonna pop artist known for her elaborate stagecraft and costumes, she has been stripped down here, her mask removed. You can see her skin, the flutter in her veins, which brings you close to her, and can make both the actress and her character feel touchingly vulnerable. This unmasking of Lady Gaga also makes Ally seem genuine, authentic, a quality that the movie champions and that serves as a kind of thematic first principle.

Soon after Jack and Ally meet, he peels off one of her fake brows — he’s flirting, but he’s also saying that he sees the real her and wants the world to as well. Playful yet unapologetically earnest, this scene inaugurates a seduction — of Ally, of us — that lasts the exhilarating first hour. Mr. Cooper understands the power of big-screen myths, including thunderstruck love and near-magical lucky breaks. He also understands his own star appeal (he gives himself plenty of heat-stoking close-ups), which dovetails with his role as director. When Ally and Jack look at each other, you’re watching two people fall in love, and it’s a contact high. You’re also watching a director guiding — creating — his star as life seeps into fiction.

Mr. Cooper’s smartest decision, other than casting Lady Gaga, is the absolute sincerity with which he’s taken on this material, in all its gorgeous, gaudy excess. He has refurbished the story some and added a bit too much psychological filler, but he has stayed true to its fundamental seriousness. Winking at this story would have been easy, but would have destroyed it. Instead, working from a script he wrote with Eric Roth and Will Fetters, Mr. Cooper has gone all in with big emotions and cascades of tears. (The movie owes a debt to, and nods at, the original 1937 film as well as the 1954 remake with a peerless Judy Garland.)

Part of what’s exciting about this “A Star Is Born” is that Mr. Cooper knows he’s telling one of the defining Hollywood stories and has given the movie the polish and scale it merits. He plays with intimacy and cinematic sweep, going in close when Ally and Jack are together so that the world falls away — a scene of them in a parking lot shows how conversation turns to courtship — only to then pull back so we can see the enormity of the world the lovers inhabit once Jack takes Ally on tour. And while the crowd seems little more than a surging blur the first time Jack plays, when Ally looks at the throng, she sees it and so do we.

[ Seen “A Star Is Born”? Read Kyle Buchanan’s take , with spoilers ]

The concert scenes of Jack and Ally performing are revved up but personal. (The production borrowed crowds from actual music festivals like Coachella, and their sheer size conveys the scope of Jack’s stardom.) Mr. Cooper sings pleasantly enough and throttles an electric guitar with persuasive fervor. He’s backed by the group Lukas Nelson & the Promise of the Real (Lukas’s dad is Willie Nelson). The music mixes standards with new songs, some written by Mr. Cooper, Lukas Nelson and Lady Gaga, whose supple, often electric singing can, at full throttle, express intensities of feeling far better than the dialogue.

Like many filmmakers, Mr. Cooper sometimes explains too much. It isn’t enough that Jack drinks; Mr. Cooper wants us to know why. So, he fleshes out Jack’s past, turning melodrama into therapy and robbing the character of mystery. One of the weakest scenes, a violent confrontation between Jack and his much-older brother, Bobby (Sam Elliott, whose deep drawl Mr. Cooper has borrowed), is an information dump. In one of the finest, Bobby just wordlessly drives away from Jack, and Mr. Elliott lets you see the ferocity of the brothers’ love — and their pain — in eyes that have begun to water and in a stone face that will shatter.

Mr. Cooper spends more time on the story’s male lead than previous iterations have, perhaps because he’s taken the role himself. The focus on Jack — he scrapes bottom, goes into recovery — somewhat weighs down the remainder of the movie, partly because too much of it is overly familiar. At times, Mr. Cooper seems to share Jack’s unease with Ally’s stardom, particularly after she connects with a manager (Rafi Gavron, oozing sleaze) and transforms from a soulful crooner into a writhing automaton with soulless beats and backup singers. Ally puts on the mask that Mr. Cooper has removed from Lady Gaga, suggesting that — unlike Jack’s — her art is less than pure.

Male self-aggrandizement is baked into the story’s foundation but not ruinously. Jack doesn’t just help turn Ally into a star, giving her the big break she needs. His trauma — she’s insecure, but he’s damaged — becomes a deep well that she draws from, allowing her to become a greater artist. In part, the story is as creaky as that of Pygmalion, the male sculptor who turns a beloved carving into a woman. Yet one of the pleasures of “A Star Is Born” in all its renditions is that it is also about a woman whose ambitions are equal to those of any man and who steadily rises as she weeps and sings toward fabulous self and sovereignty.

A Star Is Born Rated R for alcohol and drug abuse, and some physical violence. Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes.

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

“Megalopolis,” the first film from the director Francis Ford Coppola in 13 years, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Here’s what to know .

Why is the “Planet of the Apes” franchise so gripping and effective? Because it doesn’t monkey around, our movie critic writes .

Luke Newton has been in the sexy Netflix hit “Bridgerton” from the start. But a new season will be his first as co-lead — or chief hunk .

There’s nothing normal about making a “Mad Max” movie, and Anya Taylor-Joy knew that  when she signed on to star in “Furiosa,” the newest film in George Miller’s action series.

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings   on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime  and Hulu  to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter  to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

Film Review: ‘A Star Is Born’

Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga are stunning together in Cooper's rapturous rock 'n' roll remake of a romantic saga that never gets old.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

• ‘Ernest Cole: Lost and Found’ Review: Raoul Peck’s Documentary Rediscovers the Fearless Photographer of South African Apartheid 7 hours ago
• ‘Armand’ Review: An Accusation at a Primary School Results in a Drama So Convoluted It’s Claustrophobic 1 day ago
• ‘The Shrouds’ Review: David Cronenberg Makes a Movie About Grief — and Body Horror, and Digital Gravestones — That in Its Somber Way Verges on Self-Parody 2 days ago

“ A Star Is Born ” is that thing we always yearn for but so rarely get to see: a transcendent Hollywood movie. It’s the fourth remake of a story that dates back to 1932, but this one has a look and vibe all its own — rapturous and swooning, but also delicate and intimate and luminous. It’s set in the present day, but in spirit it’s a sophisticated retro ’70s drama built around the uncanny flow of feeling that develops between the movie’s two stars: Bradley Cooper , who plays Jackson Maine, a hard-drinking, bad-ol’-boy redneck rock ‘n’ roller who is still hanging on as a popular attraction but has lost the lust for what he’s doing, and Lady Gaga , in her fetching and accomplished movie-star debut, as Ally, an ingenuous, fresh-faced singer-songwriter who becomes his lover and stage partner before rocketing on her own into the new pop stratosphere.

She takes off as he slowly crashes — that’s the soapy tragic “Star Is Born” concept. But what the movie does is to take this fabled melodramatic romantic seesaw and turn it into something indelibly heartfelt and revealing. Cooper directed the movie himself, working from a script he co-wrote with Eric Roth and Will Fetters, and to say that he does a good job would be to understate his accomplishment. As a filmmaker, Bradley Cooper gets right onto the high wire, staging scenes that take their time and play out with a shaggy intimacy that’s shorn of the usual “beats.” The new “Star Is Born” is a total emotional knockout, but it’s also a movie that gets you to believe, at every step, in the complicated rapture of the story it’s telling.

The 1976 version, starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, had some terrific cornball love songs, but they didn’t belong anywhere near the stadium-rock stage, and neither did Streisand, which is part of why the movie came off as borderline ludicrous. It seemed stranded, with a kind of campy sincere ineptitude, between three worlds: Old Hollywood, New Hollywood, and Barbra Streisand rock-princess fantasy.

But from the electrifying opening moments of the new version, in which Jackson, boozy and raw, with his sunburned squint and hard-bitten shit-kicker sexiness, takes the stage of a gigantic stadium and launches into a grinding slow rocker that sounds like “Victim of Love”-era Eagles as done by the Allman Brothers, the movie is thrillingly authentic. That’s no minor accomplishment. Hollywood almost never succeeds in nailing the rock world, but “A Star Is Born,” though a love story through and through, is the most lived-in rock ‘n’ roll movie since “Almost Famous.” And that absolute looks right , sounds right , feels right verisimilitude sets the stage for everything that follows.

Jackson, who looks to be in his mid-40s, has been around long enough that he now occupies a grey zone between legend and nostalgia. He can still fill an arena full of screaming fans, and his old hits have become classic-rock chestnuts, but his sound and persona have long slipped out of the zeitgeist. His whole outlaw look — the beard and rancher’s hat, the Kristofferson-meets-Skynyrd soused macho twinkle — mark him as a charismatic relic, and the grand irony is this: What that look, and sound, are all about is an era when rock ‘n’ roll strutted its “authenticity,” but now that he’s out of date, Jackson’s authenticity looks more than ever like a showbiz conceit, frozen in amber. It’s a part he’s playing, an image he’s working — and secretly struggling — to keep alive. He’s got a signature ballad that goes “Maybe it’s time to let the old ways die,” and when he wrote it (long ago), he probably didn’t know that he was talking about himself.

In the first of many telling jump cuts, the film leaps from his on-stage glory to Jackson slinking into the back of his car, weary and alone, grabbing the bottle of gin he’s got stashed there. He takes a guzzle, and Cooper, acting with his body, lets you feel just how much Jackson (between sickly coughs) needs the lifeblood of that drink. It’s what he believes in more than the show he’s just finished.

How do you play a drunk? We know, of course, that the answer is not to “play drunk,” but Cooper doesn’t just avoid the usual slurry shambling (though at key moments he does a little of that too, and it’s powerful). He brings off something I’ve rarely seen done this exquisitely: He plays blitzed, very functional and in his element, his smile and reflexes greased by the liquor. Jackson speaks in a deep, low, deliberate Southern-stud growl — a voice with real music in it, though one that lets you taste all the booze it’s marinated in.

Needing another drink, he has his driver drop him off at the first available bar, which turns out to be a roadside dive on drag-queen karaoke night. It’s not his scene, but he doesn’t mind. He’s the same celebrity everywhere he goes, so he’s in the perfect mood of lit-up contentment when she walks on stage.

She is Ally, the one non-drag performer of the night (she’s friends with all the queens there, so they let her sing for real). When she enters the room, the movie pulls off a neat trick. We’ve already seen Ally break up with her boyfriend over the phone, letting out a banshee wail in the process, and when she appears in heavy white-make up and pasted on half-circle eyebrows, her hair teased into a punked-out French pastry, then does a strutting-down-the-bar version of “La Vie en Rose” that she milks for every flourish of theatrical kitsch she can, we think, “Of course! How Gaga-netic!” Backstage after the show, Jackson gently pulls off one of Ally’s eyebrows and asks her out for a drink.

But when she emerges from the dressing room minus all the Gaga trappings, we’re shocked to see a young woman with softly falling straight brown hair and the sweetest of chiclet-tooth grins, and this is the movie’s way of saying: Ladies and gentlemen, meet Lady Gaga, actress. A character we haven’t seen before.

Ally, make no mistake, has sass to spare (later that evening, when Jackson is confronted by a troublemaker at his favorite cop bar, she gives him a punch), but Gaga, in an ebullient and winningly direct performance, never lets her own star quality get in the way of the character. Or, rather, she lets us see that star quality is something that lives inside Ally but is still waiting to come out (the way it was in the young Streisand of “Funny Girl”). Ally works as a waitress and lives with her dad, the Sinatra-fixated passive-aggressive Teddy bear Lorenzo (Andrew Dice Clay) in a modest suburban neighborhood, and she and Jackson strike an unforced connection. He can let down his guard around her, and his wistful melancholy starts to seep out.

Cooper has made a jaggedly tender love story that is never over-the-top, an operatic movie that dares to be quiet. Ally has something that Jackson recognizes because he used to have it too: the songwriter’s passion, the drive to take your own story and turn it into a jukebox poem. They have a great conversation about her Roman nose — which plays, knowingly, off the prejudices of the music industry that Gaga confronted on her way up. Ally thinks her nose is too big (or so she’s been told), but Jackson thinks it’s beautiful — and, of course, he’s right.

He listens to a song she wrote, and can tell that she’s got the gift, so after wooing her to one of his concerts, he suddenly brings her onstage to sing that song with him. It’s called “Shallow,” and when their voices melt together on the line “We’re far from the shallow now,” we melt along with them, and when Ally suddenly sends the song into a higher register, you will feel tingles rippling through your body. It’s an absolutely ecstatic moment, because it’s about the fusion of these two voices and souls, about Jackson coming back to life, about Ally realizing her destiny, and about the audience’s rediscovery of what romance in a movie can still be: a volt to the heart.

Does Jackson want Ally to become a star? Sort of. He’s the one who makes it possible, but after a video of their live duet goes viral, she’s approached after a show by a rock manager, Dez (Rafi Gavron), who gives her the I-can-make-you-a-star rap. Immediately, we know where this is going: to a place Jackson is not going to like. The manager represents the dissolution of Jackson’s sway over Ally, something the movie views in contemporary feminist terms. In his dissolute-rocker way, Jackson is grounded in the old male establishment, a place where Ally can be a “girl singer.” What he doesn’t realize is that she’s going to embrace stardom on her own terms, and they aren’t his.

Rafi Gavron’s terrific performance as Rez, the tough-love manager, is a great example of what’s so compelling about the new “Star Is Born.” We’ve seen this character — slick, British, corporate — before, and he’s always played as an insidious pest who symbolizes the big sellout. But that’s not the way Gavron plays him. He makes Rez a smart and compelling straight shooter, and the movie never caricatures him as a sleaze.

Instead, it flips our expectations. Ally gets plugged into the 21st-century pop machine — high-dazzle robotic choreography, a new glam look with flaming red hair, the whole media swirl, complete with meticulously timed rollout performance on “Saturday Night Live” — and we realize that the film is playing off Lady Gaga’s own rise. The fascination of this is that instead of satirizing Ally’s journey as some sort of plunge into synthetic marketing decadence, the movie says, in essence: This is the new landscape, same as the old landscape . Next to Jackson’s world, it looks “inauthentic” (and viewers of a certain age may automatically view it that way), but Jackson’s world probably looked inauthentic to the generation before it. The movie says that in pop (as in life), it’s always time for the old ways to die, and for the new ways to be born.

That’s what Jackson can’t handle, and it’s why he drinks. Cooper has a couple of scenes in which Jackson gets sloppy and nasty: he “affectionately” smears Ally’s face with cake, and when she’s taking a bath, and he’s really sozzled, he starts to rag on her and even drops the U-word (“ugly”), which shocks us. But it’s part of the power of “A Star Is Born” that their relationship is never one-note; it’s tender, sexy, angry, jealous, and sad, all at the same time. It’s a real love, and could have stayed that way except that Jackson is too broken. The movie lets us touch his damage, body and soul: the hearing loss accompanied by tinnitus (which we hear on the soundtrack), the sense that going through the motions of stardom for too long has ground him to a weary nub. Sam Elliott, with white hair, his mopey bluntness sharper than ever, plays Jackson’s older brother, Bobby, who has been his road manager for years (but has had it with cleaning up after Jackson’s messes), and the two actors give their fights, and embraces, a deeply rooted sense of the past. They got a raw deal growing up with a drunken father, and they’re still playing it out.

The best version of “A Star Is Born” has always been the 1954 George Cukor version: moody, purplish, extravagant, driven by Judy Garland’s self-dramatizing fever. The scene you remember best from it, apart from Garland singing “The Man That Got Away,” is James Mason’s demented drunken slap of Garland during the Academy Awards — one of the most outrageous moments in movie history. In the new “Star Is Born,” Bradley Cooper pays homage to that moment, in a scene set at the Grammys, and actually tops it in outrageousness, in sick-joke masochistic power. And he does it convincingly. That’s part of the magnetic pull of this version — it, too, is a romance heightened by the cruel mirror of showbiz. Yet it has a naked humanity that leaves you wowed. These two people, the rising star and the fading star, are locked in a love as true as it is torn, and by the end of the movie they’ve both become us. “A Star Is Born” is a reminder of the scrappy grand passion that movies are all about.

RELATED VIDEO:

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (Out of Competition), Aug. 31, 2018. Running time: 135 MIN.

• Production: A Warner Bros. release, in association with Live Nation Productions, in association with MGM Pictures, of a Jon Peters/Bill Gerber/Joint Effort Production prod. Producers: Bill Gerber, Jon Peters, Bradley Cooper, Todd Phillips, Lynette Howell Taylor. Executive producers: Ravi Mehta, Basil Iwanyk, Niija Kuykendall, Sue Kroll, Michael Rapino, Heather Parry.
• Crew: Director: Bradley Cooper. Screenplay: Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters. Camera (color, widescreen): Matthew Libatique. Editor: Jay Cassidy. Music: Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Lukas Nelson, Jason Isbell, Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt, Julia Michaels, Justin Tranter, Diane Warren.
• With: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, Rafi Gavron, Dave Chappelle, Rebecca Field, Michael Harney, Shangela Laquifa Wadley, William Belli, Anthony Ramos.

More From Our Brands

Senators join house dems in call for alito’s recusal amid latest flag controversy, why you should be snapping up neo-vintage watches—and how to start collecting them, anthony edwards, tyrese haliburton gain $40m from all-nba, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, chicago p.d. boss breaks down that season 11 finale exit — what happened with upton, verify it's you, please log in.

Screen Rant

A star is born review: cooper & gaga write a (not so) bad romance.

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

How Glen Powell Is Approaching Top Gun 3 Differently After Real-Life Blue Angels Experience

Donnie yen made his only old school kung fu movie 40 years ago, all 6 denzel washington villain roles, ranked worst to best, fueled by strong performances and cooper's precise direction, a star is born is a moving (and tear-jerking) love story by way of showbiz melodrama..

Bradley Cooper steps behind the camera for the first time with A Star is Born , the third remake of the 1937 film, which was previously remade in 1954 and then again in 1976. Each version has put a fresh spin on the same basic plot by emphasizing different elements (namely, the relationship drama or the musical numbers), while at the same time updating the film's outlook on the music industry for the times and casting a different set of big-name stars. While every cinephile no doubt has their personal favorite iteration, many already seem to agree that Cooper's take is one of the best (if not the best) interpretations yet - and for good reason. Fueled by strong performances and Cooper's precise direction, A Star is Born is a moving (and tear-jerking) love story by way of showbiz melodrama.

Cooper headlines A Star is Born as Jackson "Jack" Maine, a well-established and successful country singer-songwriter who's (in)famous for his heavy drinking and leading a wild celebrity lifestyle. One evening, following a concert, Jack stops at a random nightclub in search of a drink, unaware that it's a gay bar in the middle of a drag queen show. Jack is further surprised when he sees a young woman named Ally (Lady Gaga) performing as part of the show and clearly wowing the crowd with her spectacular singing. Upon impressing Ally with his own musical talents after the show, Jack convinces her to have a drink with him and the pair are quick to form a connection - as both musicians and potential lovers.

Assuming she will never see him again after their night together, Ally is shocked when Jack instead makes good on his promise to invite her to his next concert performance. With some prodding from her bestie Ramon (Anthony Ramos), Ally accepts Jack's invitation, only to show up and learn that he's arranged for her to perform one of her own songs with him on stage - which she does, to rapturous applause from the attending crowd. Before she knows it, Ally is skyrocketing to music superstardom, even as her relationship with Jack blooms into a full-blown love affair and much more. However, just as everything starts going well for Ally, Jack finds that the wear and tear of his lifestyle is finally catching up to him and struggles to comes to terms with his personal demons... and the realization that his own time in the spotlight might be over soon.

Written by Cooper, Will Fetters ( The Lucky One ) and Eric Roth ( Forrest Gump ), A Star is Born succeeds in telling its recycled story about a troubled older musician romancing a younger up and comer, without changing the bare-bones structure of the plot. The film doesn't necessarily shy away from the old-fashioned melodrama at the heart of its premise so much as it grounds it in human relationships that ring true, be it the whirlwind romance between Jack and Ally or the dynamics between the movie's protagonists and the people around them (friends, family, employees). It helps that  A Star is Born is refreshingly honest in the way it shows its characters wrestling with their toxic emotions and struggling to process traumatic experiences. Cooper's remake thus avoids being regressive in its portrayal of its leads' artistic impulses and instead suggests that people like Jack and Ally are creative in spite of their destructive tendencies, not because of them.

Jack and Ally's relationship itself (naturally) serves as the emotional core of A Star is Born and benefits in no small amount from the easy-going chemistry between Cooper and Gaga. Cooper in particular delivers one of his most emotionally rich performances yet as Jack, a character who could have easily come off as creepy and self-entitled but is charismatic and sympathetic in Cooper's hands - making it all the easier to believe that people would flock to him, despite his self-destructive behavior. Gaga holds her own against Cooper for the large part, but neither the Ally character nor Gaga's performance are as fully developed or nuanced as her costar's here. Nevertheless, the romantic sparks that fly between Cooper and Gaga onscreen feel natural and unforced, thus making it all the easier for audiences to become emotionally invested in their love story (even if you know - or suspect - its ultimate trajectory going in). Cooper the director also draws strong performances from his ensemble cast here, with the standouts including Sam Elliott in a stirring (and sometimes even heart-breaking) turn as Jack's put-upon manager Bobby and Andrew Dice Clay as Ally's father Lorenzo, a character who manages to be funny and touching in equal measure.

Like many (most?) actors-turned directors, Cooper takes a performance-driven storytelling approach in his first time behind the camera. At the same time, he's clearly knowledgable about the technical side of the filmmaking process and brings a personal creative touch to the proceedings on A Star is Born . The film's concert musical numbers are especially impressive, as Cooper and his cinematographer Matthew Libatique (Darren Aronofsky's frequent collaborator) photograph the live shows in ways that are both visually striking and truly unique in their composition. A Star is Born is further effective in creating a stylishly impressionist portrait of its characters' experiences and makes heavy use of closeups, natural lighting and careful sound design, in order to keep their story feeling intimate throughout. The film's structure is similarly unconventional, as Cooper and his editor Jay Cassidy (who previously worked together on Cooper's collaborations with David O. Russell) frequently use jump cuts or equally dramatic transitions to keep the plot flowing along at a steady pace. A Star is Born 's editing might be a bit divisive for that same reason, but it arguably serves to trim any unnecessary material from the narrative.

The main issue that prevents A Star is Born from being a full-blown grand slam is that it works better as a romantic drama than a cautionary tale about the fleeting cycle of fame and success in show business. Cooper's remake is at its strongest during its first and third acts, when the focus is more squarely on Jack and Ally's blossoming relationship and (subsequently) Jack's downward spiral. However, A Star is Born starts to get more hand-wavy during its second act, which is when it shifts its attention to juxtaposing Ally's fast rise to superstardom with Jack's fading presence in the spotlight. The film simply doesn't have much to say about the fickle nature of showbiz fame that hasn't been articulated better in movies past and is disappointingly shallow in its perspective on pop music and what the concept of "selling out" even means. In other words: A Star is Born is an excellent romantic drama that's held back by the fact that it eventually has to be, well, A Star is Born remake.

Overall, though, A Star is Born is a great start to Cooper's directing career and generally lives up to the early hype that it's generated during its tour of the film festival circuit, ahead of its theatrical release. In addition to the impressive acting and craftsmanship, A Star is Born is further bolstered by its memorable original tunes and the singing by Cooper (who does quite well here, despite his lack of a professional singing background) and - obviously - Gaga. The musical concert numbers alone would make the film worth seeing in a theater for the enhanced audio, but it's the other elements that elevate A Star is Born into one of the must-see films of Fall 2018 for movie buffs. Here's to hoping Cooper and Gaga's own time in the limelight is far from over, for related reasons.

A Star is Born  is now playing in U.S. theaters nationwide. It is 136 minutes long and is rated R for language throughout, some sexuality/nudity and substance abuse.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

Key Release Dates

A star is born, our rating:.

• Movie Reviews
• 4 star movies

‘A Star Is Born’ Review: Cooper, Lady Gaga Hit All the Right Notes

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

One star soars; the other crashes and burns. It’s a tale as old as time, flattened and fatigued by constant repetition. So why in hell did Bradley Cooper choose to make his debut as director with the third remake of A Star Is Born ? What could he bring to the role of the self-destructive headliner living in the shadow of the protégée he loves? And why did he have Lady Gaga , going out on a limb in her first starring role, to follow in the footsteps of the legends who previously aced the role of the newbie: Barbra Streisand (1976), Judy Garland (1954) and Janet Gaynor (1937)? Talk about walking a tightrope without a net.

The movie starts and you think, “Oh no, not again.” And then, boom: Cooper sneaks up and snaps you to attention. Though there’s no disguising the film’s dated origins, the actor-turned-
director’s defiantly fresh approach allows A Star Is Born to emerge as a skyrocket of soul-stirring music, drama and heartbreak. By dumping the usual Hollywood bullshit for something that feels raw, scrappy and lived-in, Cooper and Gaga knock it out of the park. Seamlessly integrating terrific original songs with a script he wrote with Eric Roth and Will Fetters, Cooper refashions his Star for a right-now generation tired of watching blunt truth give way to softball fantasy. The Oscar race has now officially begun.

His character, Jackson Maine, is a washed-up country rocker with a love of booze and lines of blow. The musician’s depressive state has its roots in a turbulent childhood reflected in his contentious relationship with his older brother Bobby (Sam Elliott), who resents Jackson for co-opting his voice. And Dave Chappelle scores as Noodles, a friend who worries that not even love can save the hard-livin’ musician’s soul. Cooper’s performance is enhanced by his surprisingly credible singing. There are times when Jackson’s lyrics still get through to him, as in, “Maybe it’s time to let the old ways die.”

Or maybe it’s time for him to find his purpose in helping Ally, a waitress who’s getting nowhere as a singer-songwriter. The role is usually played as an ingénue looking for guidance in a world of male predators. Lucky for us — and the movie — Gaga doesn’t do ingénue. Her would-be star from a boisterous Italian family (Andrew Dice Clay barrels through the role of her rowdy Sinatra-crooner dad) has been kicked around by an industry that likes her sound but not her look. She’s a street fighter who knows she’s good. Still, Ally balks when this famous singer drags her onstage.

Editor’s picks

Every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term, the 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history.

Of course, the crowd goes wild. Gaga is a lightning bolt of emotions — and one hell of an actress. Born Stefani Germanotta, Gaga constructed herself as a one-woman visual extravaganza (remember that meat dress?). But not in this movie. To play Ally, she strips herself of all artifice. There’s nothing to hide behind. And while Jackson shrinks from the spotlight, she inhales it like oxygen. The script hints at a sharp notion, that Ally might lose herself in the same way her dad did. Her new manager, Rez (Rafi Gavron), wants Ally to add dancers and glitz to her act. Can she resist?

Cooper elevates a shopworn genre by fully integrating story and song. And the film gains welcome authenticity by recording the songs live, solos and duets, at various music fests, including Coachella and Glastonbury. Jackson and Ally are singer-composers who write what they live. Early on, they sit outside a supermarket at night, crafting an anthem about the euphoria and terror of what’s ahead. It’s called “Shallow” — and it’s easily the best movie song in years.

The director’s gut-level commitment to the material comes through, even when the film tips dangerously into shallow sentiment. It helps immeasurably that the songs Cooper and Gaga wrote in tandem with other musicians, including Mark Ronson, Jason Isbell and Lukas Nelson 
(Willie’s talented son), give a real-deal urgency to this tragic love story. You get pulled into a force field, thanks to Cooper’s behind-the-camera chops and Gaga’s sound and fury. By the time the end credits roll, you realize that, in fact, two stars have been born.

Miley Cyrus Talks Potential Alternate 'Hannah Montana' Pilot With David Letterman

• Best of Both Worlds
• By Kory Grow

Hollywood's Brat Pack Is Back in First Trailer for Andrew McCarthy's 'Brats' Doc

• Brats Are Back
• By Larisha Paul

Jake Gyllenhaal Is ‘Presumed Innocent’ and Surely Didn’t Kill Her in New Series Trailer

• Proven Guilty?
• By Tomás Mier

'Stranger Things' Invites You to 'Meet Henry Creel' in First Filmed Look at Theatrical Production

• First Shadow
• By Jon Blistein

Gary Oldman Didn't Like His 'Harry Potter' Performance Because He Rarely Likes His Performances

• Oldman Wisdom

Most Popular

'young sheldon' series finale breakdown: why jim parsons and mayim bialik became a bigger part of the ending, reba’s return and when the spinoff will pick up, bill maher says he doesn't understand harrison butker's graduation speech criticism, heather rae el moussa says having a baby made her marriage to tarek ‘even harder’ in candid new interview, taylor declines a-rod, lore's 'loser pays' offer in t-wolves arbitration, you might also like, yes, apple’s 100 best albums list is ridiculous and exists almost expressly to make you mad, scarlett johansson helps the society of msk celebrate its spring gala, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, ‘motel destino’ review: sex and nihilism all the time in karim aïnouz’s neon collision of ‘crash’ and ‘body heat’, anthony edwards, tyrese haliburton gain $40m from all-nba.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes
• Movie Reviews

Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper make (mostly) beautiful music in A Star Is Born : EW review

It’s one of those pop-science facts that always gets repeated, probably because it sounds so tragically, romantically cool: By the time their light reaches earth, thousands of stars in the sky have already died. And it does feel like an apt metaphor for Bradley Cooper’s Jackson Maine the first time we see him onstage. At fortyish, he’s the kind of mid-career musician who’s already graduated to legend, playing his dusky blues-rock anthems to sold-out stadium crowds who sing every word right back to him. But there’s no joy in it for him anymore, if there ever was; the minute the show is over he heads straight to his chauffeured car to be alone with the bottle that’s always waiting for him.

We’ve seen this movie before, of course — four times now and counting — so we know it’s not A Star Is Bored . Jackson is only minutes away from meeting the young unknown who will make him believe in everything again: Ally (Lady Gaga), a plucky part-time cater-waiter with a pair of sanitary gloves in her pocket and a song in her heart who just happens to be performing at the L.A. drag club Jackson stumbles into in search of more numbing alcohol. He’s enchanted; she’s flattered and confused. By the next morning, at least one of them has fallen a little bit in love.

Gaga’s serious-actress transformation for her first major film role will undoubtedly lead the conversation, and she certainly deserves praise for her restrained, human-scale performance as a singer whose real-girl vulnerability lands miles away from the glittery meat-dress delirium of her own stage persona. And the original songs (most of which Gaga and Cooper share full or partial credit for) are memorably, sturdily melodic —though not the conspicuously flat dance-pop Ally moves toward as her career swerves closer toward the mainstream.

The movie also has some great unexpected supporting turns, including Dave Chappelle as an old Tennessee friend of Jackson’s and Andrew Dice Clay as Ally’s Rat Pack-dreamer dad. Their characters read much realer and more textured than the ones designed to move the plot along, like Ally’s smooth, ruthless manager Rez (Rafi Gavron), a textbook music-industry Machiavelli.

But it’s Cooper, in his directing debut, who ultimately has to carry the film from both sides. He’s talked in interviews about working to drop his voice to a deeper register, and his Jackson is a sort of drawling, denim-clad cowboy-poet very much in the mode of Kris Kristofferson’s iconic 1976 iteration and Jeff Bridges’ Oscar-winning turn in Crazy Heart — an archetype whose familiarity lives somewhere between sincere tribute and Marlboro Man cliché. (He also works in shades of Sam Elliott, who appears in a few pivotal scenes as his much-older brother–slash–manager, and maybe some other Sam too: the late, great Shepard).

Behind the camera, Cooper has clearly pledged allegiance not to the 1937 or 1954 Star s but to the naturalistic New Cinema style of his ’70s predecessor, all long highways, canyon light, and sun-flared closeups. His camera works with a kind of feverish intimacy, closing in as Ally’s profile rises and Jackson stumbles back toward the bottle. That closeness also becomes a bell jar that descends over the film, keeping the audience locked into the couple’s growing unhappiness (and by extension the airless, lonely disconnect of fame).

The run time clocks in at well over two hours, which is longer than it strictly needs to be; though there’s also something gratifying about a major Hollywood production that meanders the way this movie does, without forcing a jazzy excess of new characters and conflicts on the narrative.If the ending is telegraphed from miles away, and the central romance feels more like a gorgeously patina-ed imitation of life than the real thing, maybe that’s because Star is less a story now than a myth — not so much reborn as recast and passed on to the care of the next generation. B+

Related Articles

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Link to Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• Hit Man Link to Hit Man
• Babes Link to Babes

New TV Tonight

• Evil: Season 4
• Stax: Soulsville, U.S.A.: Season 1
• Trying: Season 4
• Tires: Season 1
• Fairly OddParents: A New Wish: Season 1
• Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza: Season 1
• Jurassic World: Chaos Theory: Season 1
• Mulligan: Season 2
• The 1% Club: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

• Outer Range: Season 2
• Bridgerton: Season 3
• Dark Matter: Season 1
• Bodkin: Season 1
• Fallout: Season 1
• The 8 Show: Season 1
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 2
• Baby Reindeer: Season 1
• A Man in Full: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Bridgerton: Season 3 Link to Bridgerton: Season 3
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

Cannes Film Festival 2024: Movie Scorecard

Mad Max Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

Asian-American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

‘Seen on the Screen’ Podcast: A Celebration of Universal Stories 

Weekend Box Office Results: John Krasinski’s IF Rises to the Top

• Trending on RT
• Furiosa First Reviews
• Most Anticipated 2025 Movies
• Cannes Film Festival Preview
• TV Premiere Dates

A Star Is Born Reviews

…friends and fans of Judy will want to see her swing successfully for the fences here in a performance that fascinates because of how it does, and does not, reflect the truth of her troubled career…

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 17, 2022

Something of the monstrous artificiality of Hollywood comes through most acutely in various incisive touches and certainly A Star is Born will take its place among the most acutely observed films about Hollywood life.

Full Review | Jun 7, 2022

...still by far the best incarnation of that showbiz soap opera. Particularly given the peerless casting of Judy Garland as the star who is born...

Full Review | May 4, 2022

No matter how impactful the finale, it's difficult to appreciate the film as a whole; it's very clearly two distinct pictures.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Mar 24, 2021

This is adult Judy Garland at her peak, commanding both the musical and acting elements of the film in this combination of 1950s cornpone and musical glory. A must see.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | May 30, 2020

Although too long...it's a brilliant and fascinating showpiece for Judy Garland in her triumphal return to films.

Full Review | Oct 31, 2019

James Mason rescues much of the story with his magnificent acting; Judy Garland distracts us from the rest of it with her magnificent singing.

Full Review | Aug 21, 2019

From this almost traditional mush, Moss Hart, basing his script on an older one by Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell and Robert Carson, has written a superb satire on Hollywood through which winds a plausible and moving love story.

Full Review | Oct 3, 2018

All this, plus a dozen big musical sequences, makes Star a mighty long gulp of champagne; but, like champagne, it is hard to refuse.

This remake of the 1937 Janet Gaynor movie is one of the superlative melodramas in Hollywood's history, and it contains the greatest ever performance by Judy Garland, paired with the brilliant James Mason - two stars at the height of their powers.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 3, 2018

Judy Garland gives everything she has as the young star on the way up; her performance is an emotional autobiography.

Sheer talent and production value salvage this troubled endeavor...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 3, 2018

A Star Is Born is the perfect blend of drama and musical - of cinematic art and popular entertainment.

In this incandescent performance, [Judy Garland] seems to be playing on her nerves: she cannot but strike at ours.

Full Review | Jul 6, 2018

Garland's work... should be right in the middle of the conversation about the best performances given in any era by any onscreen performer.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Dec 5, 2016

When A Star is Born works, though, it's painful for the right reasons.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 10, 2014

Not being a fan of the movie musical, I got bored with the production numbers.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 31, 2012

George Cukor's musical drama, the second version of Star Is Born, is his masterpiece, an emotionally touching tale in which Judy Garland renders her most impressive performance as dramatic actress.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Apr 4, 2011

The film remains timely for the themes of fame and success it explores with such great scope and emotion

Full Review | Aug 1, 2010

A Star Is Born was a great 1937 moneymaker and it's an even greater picture in its filmusical transmutation.

Full Review | Jul 7, 2010

• Become a Critical Movie Critic
• Movie Review Archives

Movie Review: A Star Is Born (2018)

• Aaron Leggo
• Movie Reviews
• --> October 20, 2018

Choosing a third remake of A Star Is Born , a classic rags-to-riches movie that has a history of attracting legendary talent from Fredric March to Judy Garland, as your directorial debut is a risky move, but it’s one that Bradley Cooper pulls off quite well. The actor’s rise from TV sidekick to cool comic relief to celebrated A-lister has been a surprising trajectory already, so Cooper’s smooth transition to behind-the-camera ringleader merely marks another impressive chapter in his professional growth.

Perhaps it’s more surprising that Lady Gaga (“ Muppets Most Wanted ”), this version’s titular Star, is so good in her role of Ally, a restaurant server by day who catches the eye of country star Jackson Maine (Cooper, “ American Sniper ”) during one of her after-hours singing gigs. Gaga may have plenty of experience in front of cameras, but her sparse acting credits have been mostly limited to bit parts and cameos as herself, so tackling this huge part in a big-screen feature poses a considerable challenge for her.

Just as her director/costar rises to his own challenge of juggling so many responsibilities, Gaga wholly and excitingly embraces the task at hand, pouring her heart and soul into her character’s tumultuous and meteoric rise. Perhaps what is most intriguing about Gaga’s performance is how it mirrors much of the onscreen relationship.

The story, as told several times before, is of an industry veteran that falls for a wide-eyed dreamer and then helps launch her into orbit, only to find that fame is fickle. The veteran helps his partner out and then reaches a point where she doesn’t need his help anymore, where her star eclipses his. Their changing careers become the backdrop of their love story.

Fittingly, Cooper clearly helps Gaga become a better actress, supporting her both on sides of the camera. As the movie progresses, the star comes into her own and fills the screen convincingly and compellingly. The key here is that the role and material fit Gaga like a glove and that goes a long way to helping her honestly capture the character.

It’s easy to engage in hyperbole when someone with little acting experience suddenly unleashes a spectacular breakout role, but it’s equally easy to temper the temptation by simply suggesting that Gaga is less a chameleonic talent than a confident superstar who has chosen wisely. Her chemistry with Cooper sizzles and her real-life success in the music industry automatically lends authenticity to Ally’s arc.

As the more seasoned pro of the pair, Cooper fares even better, croaking out a weathered drawl and drunkenly stumbling around in a manner that feels deeply lived in. It’s quite possibly his best performance to date, a juicy reminder of how far he’s come as an actor and how beneficial those years spent making David O. Russell movies clearly were for him. He’s stretching himself here, doing something he hasn’t done before, and making his considerable transformation look utterly effortless.

These two lead performances, along with some stirring new songs, are the greatest strengths of A Star Is Born by far, which makes sense considering the subject matter. Gaga and Cooper really click with the emotional elements of the material and bring a lot of energy to the very simple and familiar story.

Their combined charisma helps iron out some issues. Cooper, who also co-wrote the script, faithfully recreates moments and lines from previous versions of the tale, which is an understandable decision, but one that proves his focus is on crafting a respectful remake rather than modernizing through innovation. There’s nothing inherently wrong with such an approach, especially since many filmmakers mounting remakes do so out of fondness for the original(s). It only seems as though a fourth version of the story, arriving more than 80 years after the first take, should have more room to breathe on its own. Instead, Cooper specifically molds his movie to mimic the 1937 original a little too stringently.

His directing is slick, solid, seasoned, all things that don’t usually come naturally, but it’s also unadventurous throughout, sturdy to the point of being overly mechanical at times. It’s a good debut, but the riskiness of tackling this property is softened by a certain degree of safeness that mutes the movie’s dramatic impact.

Less of a pointed criticism is that the pic’s best moment, a bring-the-house-down performance of signature song “The Shallow” as Jack pulls Ally onstage unexpectedly, is positioned well before the halfway point of the 135-minute movie. In many ways, that’s not a big deal, but it’s an epic high that the movie fails to reach again.

With Cooper’s steady hand behind the camera and his chemistry with Gaga lighting up in front of it, A Star Is Born still works as a whole and these quibbles take a backseat for much of the running time. Notes of comic relief amidst the grooving gravitas are nicely balanced as well, aiding Cooper’s aim to deliver a crowd-pleasing experience. The screen isn’t exactly set ablaze, but considering this umpteenth remake’s high potential for redundancy, its star burns bright enough.

Tagged: alcoholic , marriage , musician , remake , singer

You and I both know the truth. You just don't admit it.

Movie Review: Favourites (2019) Movie Review: Uncut Gems (2019) Movie Review: Onward (2020) Movie Review: The Invisible Man (2020) Movie Review: Cats (2019) Movie Review: Frozen II (2019) Movie Review: Corporate Animals (2019)

Privacy Policy | About Us

 |  Log in

Star Is Born, A (United States, 2018)

For Warner Brothers, who funded this $30M production, there’s risk involved. Cooper, although recognizable in front of the camera for a variety of high-profile roles, has never helmed a movie of any significance. Lady Gaga, despite being a world-renowned recording artist, has never come close to headlining a major production in an acting capacity. Going forward with so much inexperience may have been a gamble, but it has paid off. Cooper directs with a sure hand, never overextending himself, and Lady Gaga proves to be a natural performer (she’s more believable in the role than Barbra Streisand was 42 years ago). She and Cooper exhibit a strong, primal chemistry. The movie works because we believe in them and have a rooting interest in their star-crossed, doomed love affair.

Although every version of A Star Is Born has addressed the issue of alcoholism, none is more pointed in its depiction than this one. The movie is reminiscent of the 1994 Meg Ryan/Andy Garcia drama, When a Man Loves a Woman , in the way it successfully conflates romantic elements with the darker aspects of addiction. A Star Is Born doesn’t sugarcoat Jackson’s demons nor does it opt for an unrealistic or facile way out. This has been a consistent strength of every telling of the story but Cooper’s take is the most hard-hitting to-date.

Music is unquestionably a large part of the movie’s appeal. Although it doesn’t unfold in the traditional fashion of a musical with characters breaking into song in lieu of speaking dialogue, a portion of A Star Is Born ’s screen time is devoted to performances. The numbers range from covers of familiar standards like “La Vie en Rose” and “Pretty Woman” to all-new country and rock songs. Regardless of how the movie does at the box office, there’s little doubt the soundtrack will sell.

Well-made crowd-pleasing films always have a chance at attracting Oscar attention, especially when they feature unexpectedly strong performances from screen newcomers and focus on serious social issues. Additionally, Cooper is well-liked in the industry. Using a term from yesteryear (which is, after all, where A Star Is Born has its roots), this is a “three-hankie movie.” Even the most hard-hearted and cynical viewer is likely to have an emotional reaction, and this is as much a testimony to the way Cooper tells the tale as to the story itself.

Comments Add Comment

• Rocketman (2019)
• Blinded by the Light (2019)
• Staying Alive (1983)
• Fame (2009)
• Going My Way (1994)
• Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
• American Sniper (2014)
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
• Hit & Run (2012)
• Hangover Part III, The (2013)
• Wedding Crashers (2005)
• (There are no more better movies of Lady Gaga)
• Machete Kills (2013)
• (There are no more worst movies of Lady Gaga)
• Hulk (2003)
• Hero, The (2017)
• Contender, The (2000)
• Did You Hear about the Morgans? (2009)
• Ghost Rider (2007)
• Golden Compass, The (2007)

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Back to Black

The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

• Sam Taylor-Johnson
• Matt Greenhalgh
• Marisa Abela
• Eddie Marsan
• Jack O'Connell
• 94 User reviews
• 118 Critic reviews
• 44 Metascore

• Nick Shymansky

• Perfume Paul
• Great Auntie Renee

• Uncle Harold
• Auntie Melody

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

The Big List of Summer Movies

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia Marisa Abela had done most of the singing in this film herself. She trained extensively to mimic Amy Winehouse 's vocals.

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 2 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed