Review: A Star is Born
Better late than never am I right? Well, here is my review of the BEST PICTURE nominee, A Star is Born.
Bradley Cooper's directorial debut followed a musician as he helped a young singer find fame, despite the downward spiral of his own career.
So as usual, let's start with the positives. This film has VERY good performances across the board. As a huge Bradley Cooper fan, I was incredibly happy to see him in this role. It gave him an opportunity to play a flawed character that is still within reach of the audience. Sure, his fame and lifestyle make him unrelatable, but the character's struggles are those that can be seen in many everyday people. This made Jack an incredibly compelling character to follow. Not to mention, Bradley Cooper gave a fantastic performance.
Along with Cooper, Lady Gaga gave a very solid performance. While she is not on the same level as many actresses in the business, her musical ability is something that simply cannot be matched. This leads me to perhaps my biggest praise of the film; the music. The soundtrack is incredibly diverse with rocking songs and pop songs that sound like standard radio hits. This collection is expertly used to tell the story and contribute to the journey of the characters.
My next praise leads pretty directly into my complaints. The idea of an overnight sensation being mentored by a fading star is not all that original of a story, but A Star is Born took that plot and made it the best that it could be. However, it is still using the overly familiar formula. Unfortunately, creativity is not something that I can use to describe the film.
Along with this, I feel that Sam Elliot's character was a bit underused. Of course, it's Sam Elliot, a legend, so how could you possibly use him enough, right? Well, this film set up an amazing dynamic between Elliot and Cooper but I feel that they seemed to give up on developing this part of the plot about halfway through the movie, only to get a less impactful ending.
My only other issue is that there were certain scenes that felt relatively pointless. In a shorter film, these probably would not be so bothersome, but the movie is over two hours long. When it goes for this long, the meaningless scenes become more obvious. Specifically, there are a few scenes with Ally's manager that just did not contribute much overall.
I really enjoyed this movie and I will definitely be listening to the soundtrack for a long time to come. Despite its minor character problem and a few unneeded scenes, I believe that it is very deserving of its nomination. With great performances, fantastic music, and a well executed story, I am a big fan of this one.
