“A Star Is Born” Remake w/ Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper To Lead

Saw it as a date movie with my wife (last date movie, not counting taking kids to see Disney or Marvel, I think was "Bram Stroker's Dracula" LOL) .

Probably what sent me over the edge to go was that Jason Isbell had written a song for the film.

Movie was GREAT!! Bradley Cooper was backed by Lukas Nelson and the Promise of the Real. Man, ol' Luke can rock! And Gaga was excellent - fab reviews are spot on!

I'm truly surprised about some of the negative reviews I've read here, but so it goes in our SH Forum -

 

That was the intention, methinks, to build a bit of tension - Jack was going off-script, but despite his intake he knew exactly what he was doing.

 

I like ambiguity for the most part, but sometimes this felt more like an omission than intentional ambiguity.

As I think I mentioned earlier, I'm betting there's TONS of material on the cutting room floors, as there are so many elements left mysteriously under-explored - such as the nature of Ally's career. She really does become a background character when she gets famous, and I suspect there's a lot more footage that Cooper left out to get the movie down to 135 minutes.

If there is ample deleted material, I would love an extended cut of this, as I think a longer version would make more sense.

I really appreciate the film's subtlety - I think it's astonishingly naturalistic and understated for such an inherently melodramatic story - and I don't need everything spelled out for me. For instance, the semi-fraught relationship between Ally and her dad is fine as it is - I don't need more info there to satisfy.

But there are other component that could be fleshed out better!

 

As I mentioned in my earlier post, the movie does go somewhat downhill when he enters. It's practically perfect until then, but once Ally formally embarks on her solo career, the movie loses her too much and becomes less effective.

I blame the characterization of the manager less than I do the imbalance that occurs, though. If we got more Ally during the last 2-3rds, I think the manager would feel less stereotyped and 2-dimensional.

I also think this would

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make him seem less evil in the scene where he pushes Jack toward suicide. Now I don't think the manager intends to get Jack to kill himself - I think he just wants Jack to go away - but it's such a cruel scene, especially because we see Jack getting his act together before the manager visits. More information might make the manager seem more balanced and explain his motivations better, mainly if the movie convinced us he cares about Ally as a person and not just as a paycheck.

Which he might not - he might confront Jack just to save his payday - but I think the movie works better if there's a less "evil" feel to that scene.

Cooper does pull it off wonderfully, though. Jack looks so devastated by the confrontation, and he seems crestfallen to believe that he could still hamper Ally's career...

 

Actually, I'd forgotten that!

Probably because I didn't like it. From my review of the "SCTV" DVDs:

"Guest musician Crystal Gayle can’t act and actively sucks the energy out of this piece. Joe Flaherty’s take on Kris Kristofferson attempts to redeem things but the sketch lacks the life and spark to work."

 

Honestly, Gaga's involvement guaranteed some close-minded attitudes. Most people here are really pretty open-minded about her - they often feel the need to remind us they don't like her "pop endeavors", but at least they say she was good at the Oscars/Super Bowl/"ASIB".

Some people aren't going to give her that shot, though...

 

Probably. I'll pay more attention when I see the movie again, but I'm pretty sure you're correct with your interpretation - it was just a minor miracle that Jack managed to keep it together through the song!

 

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Yeah, I spent lots of the movie wondering "Do we see full production number for 'Hair Body Face' now? Now? NOW?"

It's barely audible at a rehearsal. And that's it.

And that "Digging My Grave" Cooper/Gaga song on the OST -- if that got played at ALL, I missed it.

135 minutes, you say?

Yeah, my back was feeling it after....

 

LOL do you remember SCTV's "Streisand" as one of the four principals in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

 

Are you talking about the Orbison tribute? Because I think you missed the point of that a bit. The point (IMHO) was....

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A) He was no longer big dog guest star (Dramatic arc before the performance)

B) he turned his monitor up too loud because his hearing had gotten so bad. So when he came in with the riff, it sounded great, but he wasn't there to be Eddie Van Halen. The stink-eye from the fellow musicians was because he wasn't playing well with others. Which is one of those things that gets you disinvited places....

 

A clear (IMHO) example of intentional ambiguity:

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Her laying in the bathtub with her new hair and that outfit with the ... coins .. on her dress? Is she ridiculous? Is she fabulous? She doesn't know. And she's soaking in it.

And WE don't know, because we're watching a rock-drama movie and we know how wrong filmmakers get these things, so we don't know if she's a clown or goddess. Welcome to showbiz. Awesome.

 

I don't get the whole babs/lady gaga "ugly duckling", both hot. but I guess they need it for the storyline

 

Someone should lighten up. You don't like the film, you don't like the music, after so many negative points we get that. We really do. Hammering this point home again and again spoils the thread somewhat.

It's a piece of entertainment that has received overall positive reviews. Obviously the art you consume and contemplate is far superior to what the rest of the easily entertained and manipulated enjoy so maybe you should move on, or is what you enjoy not that fulfilling, so you feel the need to troll on this thread.

 

I never felt like his career decline needed any further explanation. He still packs in the crowds but he's becoming more of a nostalgia act. It was made very clear he was surprised, hurt and bitter when he got bumped to the background roll for the Grammy performance. I appreciate the decline implied with small moments rather than made into a big deal. It feels more of a natural career arc for a big act with years of success.

dan c

 

My wife and I saw it this weekend. A tad long but very well done. Lady Gaga is a force of nature, but I can't help but wonder if this is her one-hit-wonder perfect roll? We'll see. In any case, she was brilliant in every way.

My wife never saw the original and didn't know how the story ends. She was in tears at the end. I recently watched the 1976 version and was very moved by how they handled the final act in the new version as well. Far more emotional weight than the embarrassing, predictable and overwrought scenes in the Babs version.

I'm glad I watched the '76 film recently. The new version follows the storyline very faithfully, but is better in absolutely every way. Importantly, I can actually believe Cooper's character is a declining megastar, as opposed to the unbelievable shlock-fest that Kristofferson's character was putting on.

Props to the brothers subplot that seemed a little irrelevant up until the emotional payoff in the final act. The understated and powerful performances between Cooper and Elliott was an emotional powder keg. That got me.

Anyway, we enjoyed the film. There's debate on this thread if its "forgettable" or whatever. It was a great popcorn Hollywood melodrama that immensely entertained us.

dan c

 

Unlike the Crystal Gayle "Star Is Born", I DO remember that one!

 

I got A but not B. I also saw the "stink-eye" part, though it was done subtly enough to make make a huge impact - it's not like

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the movie cuts to closeups of outraged musicians or TV producers.

At the risk of sounding like I don't endorse subtly, it might've worked better if Jack's guitar part didn't rock so hard!

 

Streisand looked awful in the 1976 movie, but that's more on her perm than her face!

 

I did get some sense of the "nostalgia act" part, mainly because we saw him play "Maybe It's Time" over and over, like that was all people wanted.

I just find it tough to believe that if Jack can still sell out arenas, they'd bump him to the background. Yeah, I get the desire to highlight the younger singer, but the Grammys usually pair old/young and they don't stick still-popular "legacy" artists in the background.

Small point but one that just didn't ring terribly true for me...

 

There's ugly ugly and Hollywood ugly.

 

I can understand the notion that Gaga knocked it out of the park here because she essentially played herself. That's not totally true, of course, but obviously Ally bears a more than slight resemblance to Gaga, whereas Cooper had to create a character out of nothing.

Also, Gaga doesn't seem to have been great in prior acting gigs, so that raises "concerns".

We'll see. As much as I love Gaga, I suspect I'll always be 100X more interested in her musical career than her acting work...

 

I've always thought of The Rose as a version of ASIB. How does Gaga stack up against Bette!? Oddly enough, if we were to add Midler's profile to the ones of Babs and Gaga, there'd almost be a familial resemblance!

 

No James Mason, no sale.

 

She won a Golden Globe for her acting work in American Horrow Story.

 

Speaking as someone old enough to see both films the week they came out (Oy!)....

IMHO.... "The Rose" and "Star is Born'18" both work for their female leads because, among other many reasons, they were put in musical genres they could pull off onscreen (unlike Streisand's "Star is Born"). One needs an anchor of reality in these things.

Without the precedent of Janis Joplin - a real-world female superstar with a repertoire bridging rock, R&B, and big weepers - "The Rose" would look a lot more stupid. It's a "thing" in our vocabulary going in in 1979 (the year "The Rose" was released.)

Likewise, a highly choreographed/styled dance diva spending as much time in the dance studio as the recording studio, but who can still write her own stuff and get busy in an empty room with a piano, is something that... well, let's just say Gaga can pull that one off.