It wouldn't be right if I didn't write up a review for the most anticipated movie of the year that just so happened to have my all time favourite artist featured as the lead actress. So, this weekend I took the only few hours I feel like I've had over the last couple of weeks and spent them at the cinema, and here's what I thought of Bradley Cooper's directional debut and Lady Gaga's first leading role in a movie.
Disclaimer: I have not seen any of the other renditions of A Star Is Born, so I will not be comparing this adaptation to any of the others.
The movie opens with a serious Italian-New Yorker moment introducing Ally as she's breaking up with someone over the phone in a bathroom stall. From the first glimpse of this unknown singer-songwriter, it's plain to see that she's a fiery, strong headed young woman.
Then we meet Mr Jackson Maine himself, who is already a superstar in his own right, but blatantly abuses his stardom with alcohol and drugs. The meet-cute between Jackson and Ally happens right after she performs an incredible cover of Édith Paif's 'La Vie en Rose' at a drag bar (featuring the absolute icons - Shangela Laquifa Wadley and Willam Belli), where Jack finds a drink and a serious desire to know who the young talent is.
From this moment, we can see how spontaneous and almost rather forceful Jack is towards Ally, and yet Bradley Cooper brings a life to the drunken rockstar that the audience is almost compelled to fall in love with him as much as Ally does. When he flies her into one of his shows and literally drags her onto the stage to sing the first song they ever wrote together, 'Shallow', we really hear how truly talented Ally is (not to mention how incredible Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's voices are together).
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| Lady Gaga as Ally and Anthony Ramos as Ramon |
The story begins to unfold as Ally quits her job to join Jack on the road across America, where we see Bradley Cooper's character becoming more and more involved with alcohol and drugs as the storyline elapses. It also doesn't take very long for Ally's career to take off, after she is approached when she steps off the stage after performing one of her many songs with Jackson Maine.
And, as quickly as it began, the music producer Ally gets signed to is quick enough to begin to change her sensual image to something more 'appealing' to the rest of the world by convincing her to dye her hair, perform choreographed dance and almost lose everything that she is just to get fame.
As the story progresses, we begin to witness Jack's spiralling downfall as Ally rises to fame. By the time Ally wins her Grammy award, Jack is living at his darkest, lowest point where he's no longer headlining but playing guitar in the background of someone else's performance. Not to mention that he's already drunk and drugged up to high heaven before he even makes the stage.
A Star is Born highlights the horrible and hidden parts of fame that we never get to see. Bradley Cooper's portrayal of a tormented artist is hard hitting as the world gets to witness his breakdown while Ally cringes as she accepts her award and hastily hurries her husband away from prying eyes of the press.
Following the Grammys, Jack finds himself in rehab, while Ally is attempting to organise her world tour and practice some damage control after the awards ceremony. But with a controlling manager in Rez, Ally fails to come up with a compromise to get Jack to tour the world with her once he gets out of rehab and agrees to cancel the European leg to be with him once she's done.
The end of the movie is just has hard hitting as the rest of it, with facing the ugly reality of mental health, addiction and heartache. We see Jack give Ally her best chance of success in her career by taking his own life after being told by Ally's manager that she would never be as successful as she should be while married to him. It's a heartbreaking scene as Ally dedicates a final song to her husband (skilfully using footage from the Joanne World Tour [2017-2018]) before cutting to the flashing lights of police sirens as they find Jack's body in the garage.
Overall I would say that this movie was more than a success. With huge shoes to fill for Lady Gaga, with the previous actresses in this role all having been nominated for an Academy Award (with the 1976 adaptation winning for Best Original Song), Gaga makes this character her own and truly thrives being on the big screen. Whereas Bradley Cooper steps into even bigger shoes for not only his role, but his directional debut - each of which were just as stunning as the other.
This tear jerking musical event is already set to be the one to watch at this year's Oscars, and in all honesty, I'm not at all surprised. The entire team that worked on the movie deserve all the recognition they can get because it is a truly beautiful movie.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you haven't already seen the movie, I implore you to! If you have seen the movie, I would love to know what you think down below in the comments section.
- Courtney-Louise
x o x o
It wouldn't be right if I didn't write up a review for the most anticipated movie of the year that just so happened to have my all time favourite artist featured as the lead actress. So, this weekend I took the only few hours I feel like I've had over the last couple of weeks and spent them at the cinema, and here's what I thought of Bradley Cooper's directional debut and Lady Gaga's first leading role in a movie.
Disclaimer: I have not seen any of the other renditions of A Star Is Born, so I will not be comparing this adaptation to any of the others.
The movie opens with a serious Italian-New Yorker moment introducing Ally as she's breaking up with someone over the phone in a bathroom stall. From the first glimpse of this unknown singer-songwriter, it's plain to see that she's a fiery, strong headed young woman.
Then we meet Mr Jackson Maine himself, who is already a superstar in his own right, but blatantly abuses his stardom with alcohol and drugs. The meet-cute between Jackson and Ally happens right after she performs an incredible cover of Édith Paif's 'La Vie en Rose' at a drag bar (featuring the absolute icons - Shangela Laquifa Wadley and Willam Belli), where Jack finds a drink and a serious desire to know who the young talent is.
From this moment, we can see how spontaneous and almost rather forceful Jack is towards Ally, and yet Bradley Cooper brings a life to the drunken rockstar that the audience is almost compelled to fall in love with him as much as Ally does. When he flies her into one of his shows and literally drags her onto the stage to sing the first song they ever wrote together, 'Shallow', we really hear how truly talented Ally is (not to mention how incredible Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's voices are together).
|
| Lady Gaga as Ally and Anthony Ramos as Ramon |
The story begins to unfold as Ally quits her job to join Jack on the road across America, where we see Bradley Cooper's character becoming more and more involved with alcohol and drugs as the storyline elapses. It also doesn't take very long for Ally's career to take off, after she is approached when she steps off the stage after performing one of her many songs with Jackson Maine.
And, as quickly as it began, the music producer Ally gets signed to is quick enough to begin to change her sensual image to something more 'appealing' to the rest of the world by convincing her to dye her hair, perform choreographed dance and almost lose everything that she is just to get fame.
As the story progresses, we begin to witness Jack's spiralling downfall as Ally rises to fame. By the time Ally wins her Grammy award, Jack is living at his darkest, lowest point where he's no longer headlining but playing guitar in the background of someone else's performance. Not to mention that he's already drunk and drugged up to high heaven before he even makes the stage.
A Star is Born highlights the horrible and hidden parts of fame that we never get to see. Bradley Cooper's portrayal of a tormented artist is hard hitting as the world gets to witness his breakdown while Ally cringes as she accepts her award and hastily hurries her husband away from prying eyes of the press.
Following the Grammys, Jack finds himself in rehab, while Ally is attempting to organise her world tour and practice some damage control after the awards ceremony. But with a controlling manager in Rez, Ally fails to come up with a compromise to get Jack to tour the world with her once he gets out of rehab and agrees to cancel the European leg to be with him once she's done.
The end of the movie is just has hard hitting as the rest of it, with facing the ugly reality of mental health, addiction and heartache. We see Jack give Ally her best chance of success in her career by taking his own life after being told by Ally's manager that she would never be as successful as she should be while married to him. It's a heartbreaking scene as Ally dedicates a final song to her husband (skilfully using footage from the Joanne World Tour [2017-2018]) before cutting to the flashing lights of police sirens as they find Jack's body in the garage.
Overall I would say that this movie was more than a success. With huge shoes to fill for Lady Gaga, with the previous actresses in this role all having been nominated for an Academy Award (with the 1976 adaptation winning for Best Original Song), Gaga makes this character her own and truly thrives being on the big screen. Whereas Bradley Cooper steps into even bigger shoes for not only his role, but his directional debut - each of which were just as stunning as the other.
This tear jerking musical event is already set to be the one to watch at this year's Oscars, and in all honesty, I'm not at all surprised. The entire team that worked on the movie deserve all the recognition they can get because it is a truly beautiful movie.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you haven't already seen the movie, I implore you to! If you have seen the movie, I would love to know what you think down below in the comments section.
- Courtney-Louise
x o x o
