"A Star is Born" has everything: an underdog-makes-good journey, a swept-off-your-feet romantic fantasy, a wrenching substance abuse drama, an industry cautionary tale. To top that off, there's the palpable chemistry between Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. And then, there's the music. (I love, love, love Shallow.) The first production of A Star is Born came in 1937 and starred Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. Gaynor played an actress plucked from obscurity by the star Norman Maine before she surpasses him in stature. In 1954, the same roles were played by Judy Garland and James Mason, except this was a musical. The 1976 remake, with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, turned the franchise into a romantic rock drama. Kristofferson plays a self-destructive rock star and Streisand a younger singer named Esther. A key plot point is his drunken appearance during Esther's Grammy acceptance speech, humiliating them both. This is repeated in the latest "A Star is Born." It is the first movie directed by Bradley Cooper, who also stars as Jackson Maine. Lady Gaga, amazing in her first acting role, is Ally. In search of booze, Maine wanders into a drag club where he sees Ally sing "La Vie En Rose" and he's entranced. They spend the night talking and he soon pulls her onstage to sing with him. As her star rises, his substance abuse pulls him lower and lower.
We know where the story is going, but in between, Cooper infuses his fresh take with a cast of characters that draws you further into Jackson and Ally's orbit of dreamers and heartbreak. This is a love story that crackles with electricity backed by songs that pulsate with emotional intensity. There's Ally's father (Andrew Dice Clay), a limo driver who long harbored his own dreams of stardom. As Jackson's friend Noodles, Dave Chappelle plays a family man who shows Jackson the value of taking the road less travelled. Then we get Sam Elliott, as Jackson's brother Bobby. He's only in the film for a handful of scenes, but in those moments we see a man who has sacrificed his own spot in music history to babysit his drug-addled brother. And Gaga is a wonder. She sheds her pop star persona to give us an Ally who has given up on her dreams when we first meet her. As she becomes more successful and falls deeper in love with Jackson, we want so desperately for her to have the happily every after that's eluded so many of the other characters we encounter. Ally is a character we can believe in and her performance is certain to earn her some awards by year's end. Likewise, Cooper, who has elevated his acting game before, completely transforms himself, slipping into the role of Jackson with grit and heart. The tragic punch of the ending will leave you breathless as the credits role.
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