By JASON GUYER
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Often I am asked, “Why do you watch so many movies?” My answer is always the same, I like a good story. No matter the medium, a good story is in, whether it be books, films, or even newspapers, there are few things like a good story or even great story. “A Star is Born” is a great story, a story that starts when Jackson Maine, a musical star on the downside of his career, who discovers struggling artist Ally, and the pair fall in love.
Ally had just about given up on her dream to make when Jackson coaxes gives her the push she needs to take the spotlight. As Ally’s career takes off, their relationship becomes strained, when Jackson continues to fight his lifelong mental health battle and ongoing alcoholism. “A Star is Born” is not only a great film, it is a film with something to say and that is even more rare than a great movie.
“A Star is Born” also has a great soundtrack. One of the best songs in the film and on the soundtrack is a duet called “Shallow,” and it starts with Cooper singing, “Tell me something girl.” In “A Star is Born,” Stefani Germanotta, or Lady Gaga as she is more commonly known, tells you something. Better yet, she shows you something that few would have guessed, acting ability. Any one could have guessed she would easily handle the singing in “A Star is Born,” Germanotta goes beyond that easy task and holds her own beside Bradley Cooper. Germanotta’s performance is by no means perfect, and you shouldn’t expect such things from a first-time actor, but she gives as good a performance as could be given. Especially being cast next to Bradley Cooper. Unfortunately, Cooper overshadows Germanotta’s performance throughout the film.
Germanotta’s high points in the film are around her singing. When her character, Ally, sings “Shallow” for the first time on stage, her jitters seem real and her voice powerful. Creating a moment that will you the chills. Even better is the film’s ending ballad “‘I’ll Never Love Again.” A song that is sung with such believable emotion at such a pivotally emotional time in the movie that the sadness the song carries is soul crushing. Germanotta’s best acting comes at the moments in between songs, the life moments, the moments when artists are real people and not the show they put on.
Using hard hitting dialogue like when a store clerk takes an unwilling picture of the pair and Germanotta’s character Ally says something like, “It’s not okay, we are people too.” My personal favorite is when Jackson’s brother Bobby explains Jackson’s take on music when he tells Ally, “Music is essentially any note between twelve octaves. Twelve notes and the octave repeats. It’s the same story told over and over. All that the artist can offer the world is how they see those twelve notes.”
The above sentiment is one that captures Germanotta’s performance. From music to acting, all any artist can offer the world is what they see, how they see it. How Germonatta sees Ally humanizes Ally in a way that only someone who has experienced the dehumanization celebrity can bring.
From the first moment Germanotta steps on the stage and sings “Tell me something, boy,” her first part in the duet “Shallow,” she would have been the best thing in the film. That is, if the man didn’t have something to tell. Bradley Cooper is that man.
Cooper plays Jackson Maine, the already popular Southern rock star who falls in love with Germanotta’s character Ally. Cooper not only stars as the lead in the film, he also wrote and directed “A Star is Born.” Cooper shines in all three aspects. To date, “A Star is Born” is Cooper’s magnum opus.
As the writer, Cooper tells a story near perfectly. The story has every emotion you can imagine and progresses at the perfect pace with no lull, and ends to a crescendo of emotion the audience can’t escape. Foreshadowing is a standard writing tool and one that Cooper uses well, subtle without giving the ending completely away or having the foreshadowing moment feel out of place in the film.
Using a simple object, a belt, to set up and then complete the foreshadow is a simple as it gets. The belt, is also where he shows is directing prowess. When Maine is stumbling around at the end and headed towards the house and Cooper uses that low angle shot to linger on the belt, linger a little too long to not be on purpose, it is powerful for how that whole scene plays out.
Then there is Cooper’s best side, his acting side. Cooper has already won an Oscar for “Silver Linings Playbook,” and he puts himself at the forefront of another as Jackson Maine. In “A Star is Born” Cooper does what all actors, especially great ones, need to do at least once in their career and that is to completely transform into someone else. Cooper changes his voice, a voice change that is never forgotten or missed in any scene in the entire film. Cooper changes his look, as he conveys a somewhat stereotyped weathered, life-lorn southern rocker. Almost always wearing the glossy sheen that a perennially drunk alcoholic often carries. Cooper’s best acting job in “A Star is Born” is a drunk scene.
Ally’s Grammy speech scene is heartbreakingly poignant and eerily accurate in its portrayal of how a drunk person a can be or act. Cooper does such a wonderful job, I would almost question whether he actually was drunk. When an actor can do that, can make you question if something is actually true or acted, that is when you know they are a great actor.
On top of all that, writing, directing, and acting, Cooper for this part still needs to sing. The songs are not earth shattering and some are borderline not good, but Cooper does manage to sound like a singer. He keeps his voice change intact in pitch and tone and singing never makes the actor feel out of place in the film. Germanotta was always going to be able to sing, Copper proves he can. Their duet “Shallow” is the best song in the film and to be quite frank, is a really good song and worth a listen.
Listen to the soundtrack, see the film. “A Star is Born” is as good of a film as there is. “A Star is Born” shows what the potential for remakes can be. Instead of ruining a film when it is remade, there is always the potential that a mediocre film like the last “A Star is Born,” can be made into something great. Cooper made “A Star is Born” into something great.
Speaking to Ally in, Jackson Maine says “Look, talent comes everywhere, but having something to say and a way to say it so that people listen to it, that’s a whole other bag.” “A Star is Born” is a great story with a great soundtrack, “A Star is Born” has something to say. A film with something to say is why I watch movies, “A Star is Born” is why I watch movies.
IRATE SCORE: 4.5/5
Jason Guyer is an avid moviegoer and works in the Graphics Department at the Eagle Times. For questions or comments he can be emailed at [email protected]
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