‘A Star Is Born’ Film Review: Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga Reinvigorate a Classic
Venice 2018: First-time director and first-time leading lady breathe new life into a Hollywood mainstay
Alonso Duralde | October 3, 2018 @ 11:00 PM
Last Updated: October 3, 2018 @ 11:24 PM
Warner Bros.
For all the reasons that a fourth iteration of “A Star Is Born” — fifth, if you count the 1932 drama “What Price Hollywood?” whose DNA is in every “Star” — shouldn’t and wouldn’t work in 2018, it’s an extraordinary surprise that this new version packs such a wallop.
This is “A Star Is Born” for people who never saw a previous version, for people who love any of the previous versions, and even for those who think the property is moth-eaten and old-fashioned. This is “A Star Is Born” that takes the characters seriously, in their passions and pathologies, their addictions and ambitions. And in an age where “Mamma Mia” and “The Greatest Showman” pass as hit musicals, it’s an exciting reminder of what the genre can be.
You know this story, but you don’t this story, at least not the way that screenwriters Eric Roth, Will Fetters and Cooper are telling it: Jackson Maine (Cooper) is a roots-rock icon whose personal life is falling apart from too many pills, too much booze, and too fraught a relationship with his brother and minder Bobby (Sam Elliott). (The fact that Cooper’s speaking voice as Jackson seems to impersonate Elliott’s is distracting at first, but it later becomes a plot point.)
After a gig, Jackson heads to the first bar he can find, which happens to be a drag joint. He’s blown away by Ally (Lady Gaga), the one performer in the club who doesn’t lip-sync, belting out a heartfelt “La vie en rose” that’s more Piaf than Grace Jones. The two get to know each other on a bar-crawl: She punches a cop who violates Jackson’s personal space, he takes her to an all-night grocery store to get frozen peas for her swollen knuckles, she regales him in the parking lot with a song she’s working on.
The next night, she finds herself on stage with Jackson, who has worked her fragment into a full song, and wouldn’t you know it: A star is born. But her climb is mirrored by Jackson’s descent, and not even her abiding, clear-eyed love (Ally may be the least enabler-y of the “Star Is Born” heroines) is going to be enough to save him from his own abyss.
Over the years, “A Star Is Born” has been a Hollywood story (the 1937 version starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March), a Hollywood musical (1954, Judy Garland and James Mason), and a rock musical (1976, Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson). This new version hews closest to the plot of the most recent remake, but there are bits of the others scattered in as well. (When Ally talks about being rejected because of her nose, that’s not just a Streisand shout-out; Garland’s character is told by the studio makeup men that “[her] nose is all wrong.”)
But throughout the course of the film, Cooper goes out of his way to update, change or at least reconsider what we expect as the plot beats of the story. Jackson does embarrass Ally at an awards ceremony, yes, but not in the exact way his predecessors do. We don’t have to see an on-the-decline Jackson screw up a corporate gig; the lead-in to the scene tells us exactly what’s going to happen, and we can fill in the rest ourselves. Kudos to the sound designers as well; “A Star Is Born” is that rare film to acknowledge that a rock concert sounds different to the people onstage than it does to the ones in the audience.
Cooper and Lady Gaga are dynamite together; this is a story that lives and dies by the central relationship and the instant chemistry that must blossom between them, and these two have it in spades. The musical numbers take immediately catchy songs and present them in an electrifying way; I rate Garland’s performance of “The Man That Got Away” as one of the all-time great musical performances on celluloid, so I mean it as high praise when I say that while none of the numbers in this version surpasses that moment, some of them come shockingly close.
The film’s rightful concentration on its central couple, by necessity, takes focus away from its ensemble; if the trailer has you thinking Dave Chappelle plays a major character, expect otherwise. Still, Elliott carves out several powerful scenes, and casting directors Lindsay Graham and Mary Vernieu populate the screen with an interesting mix of scene-stealers like Greg Grunberg and Andrew Dice Clay, to say nothing of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” dropout Willam Belli, who has a great time flirting with Cooper in the drag-bar sequence.
I do wish the film’s final moments packed the gut-punch for which Cooper is so clearly aiming; the response from other audience members at the Venice press screening suggests I might be in the minority in thinking so. But in any event, “A Star Is Born” never shies away from big emotions or stirring romance, mixing old-Hollywood sweep with modern-day sophistication. Between Bradley Cooper (as a filmmaker) and Lady Gaga (as a big-screen lead), the title applies to both of them.
20 Highest Grossing Movie Musicals of the Last 40 Years, From 'Grease' to 'La La Land' (Photos)
Who said the musical is dead? The last 40 years have produced box office hits out of film adaptations of Broadway smashes, original movie musicals and a few, beloved, all-time classics. Here are the 20 top-grossing live-action movie musicals of the last 40 years based on domestic box office. (All figures courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo)
20. "Moulin Rouge!" (2001) - $57.3 million
Baz Luhrmann didn't invent the jukebox musical, but his film's exuberant, garish mash-up of original songs with everything from Christina Aguilera to David Bowie to Rodgers & Hammerstein certainly helped popularize it for the 21st century.
Fox
19. "Coal Miner's Daughter" (1980) - $67.1 million
Sissy Spacek played the legendary country singer Loretta Lynn in Michael Apted's biopic that went on to be one of the Top 10 box office hits of 1980 and a Best Picture nominee.
Universal
18. "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" (1982) - $69.7 million
Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton starred in this adaptation of a stage hit about a sheriff fighting to keep a local brothel open after it's called out by a TV reporter. The film performed well enough at the box office to knock the long-running "E.T." from the No. 1 spot.
Universal
17. "Ray" (2004)- $75.3 million
Jamie Foxx won an Oscar for capturing the mannerisms of Ray Charles on stage, and though Foxx can sing himself, all the songs are Charles' original vocals.
Universal
16. "Annie" (2014) - $85.9 million
Instead of the freckled red head, the modern update to "Annie" starred "Beasts of the Southern Wild" star Quvenzhane Wallis in the lead role alongside Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx.
Columbia Pictures
15. "The Muppets" (2011) - $88.6 million
The Muppets had a big box office slump in the '90s and disappeared entirely in the 2000s. Jason Segel's musical helped make them relevant again.
Buena Vista
14. "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" (2008) - $90.5 million
The first two "High School Musical" films were such massive, surprise hit TV movies on the Disney Channel that they went all out for a theatrically released threequel that made over $90 million.
Disney
13. "Dreamgirls" (2006) - $103.3 million
Jennifer Hudson won an Oscar for her work in this Broadway-based drama about a trio of female soul singers who rose to the top of the charts. The cast included Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Anika Noni Rose and Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson.
Paramount
12. "Hairspray" (2007) - $118.8 million
It's the film adaptation of the stage musical adaptation of John Waters' campy kitsch movie, and somehow, Adam Shankman's film not only turned out to be a hit, it was a joyous, colorful and fun experience that critics loved, even with John Travolta dressed in drag.
New Line
11. "Walk the Line" (2005) - $119.5 million
Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon star in this emotional biopic on the life of Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter.
Fox
10. "Enchanted" (2007) - $127.8 million
The movie that made Amy Adams a star is finally getting a long-awaited sequel, the announced "Disenchanted."
Disney
9. "Into the Woods" (2014) - $128.0 million
Meryl Streep and Chris Pine stole the show in Rob Marshall's adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical sending up classic fairy tales.
Disney
8. "Mamma Mia!" (2008) - $144.1 million
The first "Mamma Mia!" film, an adaptation of the stage hit featuring the songs of ABBA, made a whopping $144 million, opening on the same weekend as "The Dark Knight."
Universal
7. "Les Misérables" (2012) - $148.8 million
Tom Hooper followed up his Best Picture-winning "The King's Speech" with this lavish and dizzying musical that won Anne Hathaway an Oscar. He'll go back to the Broadway musical well for his next film, "Cats."
Fox
6. "La La Land" (2016) - $151.1 million
The almost-Best Picture winner from Damien Chazelle was also runner-up as the highest grossing Best Picture nominee of 2016, falling behind "Hidden Figures."
Lionsgate
5. "Chicago" (2002) - $170.6 million
Rob Marshall's "Chicago" won six Oscars, including Best Picture, and helped launch the genre's revival on the big screen this century.
Miramax
4. "The Greatest Showman" (2017) - $174.3 million
Hugh Jackman's factually loose biopic about the life of P.T. Barnum and the formation of the circus catapulted to success on the heels of its Oscar-nominated song "This is Me" by the "La La Land" songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.
NIko Tavernise/20th Century Fox
3. "Straight Outta Compton"(2015) - $161.1 million
F. Gary Gray's biopic about N.W.A did a wonderful job making the legendary rap crew's music vital and timely and even balanced the three stories of Eazy-E, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre nicely.
Universal
2. "Grease" (1978) - $188.7 million
Though its box office total is inflated somewhat by a re-release, "Grease" still holds up not just as one of the best musicals of the last 40 years but also the most successful (certainly given inflation).
Paramount Pictures
1. "Beauty and the Beast" (2017) - $504.0 million
Disney struck gold with its live-action adaptation of the animated hit "Beauty and the Beast," lovingly re-created to minute detail by director Bill Condon with a cast led by Harry Potter alum Emma Watson.
Disney
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Can “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” match the box office success of the original?
Who said the musical is dead? The last 40 years have produced box office hits out of film adaptations of Broadway smashes, original movie musicals and a few, beloved, all-time classics. Here are the 20 top-grossing live-action movie musicals of the last 40 years based on domestic box office. (All figures courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo)