A Star Is Born (2018)

[scenicdesign71]

Anyone else seen this yet?

I went this past weekend and was suitably blown-away; the hype, in this case, is accurate (which isn't to say that you'll necessarily love it, if this kind of movie -- big, shameless, tear-jerking Hollywood melodrama -- just isn't your thing, or if you're carrying a chip on your shoulder on behalf of a previous version, or if for any other reason you go in determined to resist its manipulations).

Me, I was impressed enough that I'll probably see it at least once more in the theatre.  Crucially, it made me believe in its characters as musicians in a way that I don't recall another movie having done since at least 2007's Once: from start to finish, I buy ASIB as a story about artists grappling with their art, not just a romantic weepie whose protagonists' shared vocation provides a convenient narrative hook for their coming-together and eventual tsuris.

Partly that's due to the inspired casting of Lady Gaga, though if the meta-cinematic kick of her real-world pop megastardom were all she brought to the film, it could easily have sunk like a stone.  Happily, it turns out she's as magnetic and surprising an actress as she is a singer -- not just the ideal "name" or voice for the role, but the ideal performer for it in just about every sense, with sharp instincts, emotional translucency, nuance and screen presence to burn -- though the lavish use of diegetic music, recorded live while filming, certainly doesn't hurt either.

Bradley Cooper, too, turns out to be something of a revelation as performer, director and co-writer.  His chemistry with Gaga (without which the whole exercise would be pointless) is thoroughly compelling.  And the choices he makes, on both sides of the camera, are consistently strong and smart.  Perhaps most impressively, he manages to ground the story's vertiginous old-fashioned fantasy in a mise-en-scène that feels both glossily heightened and grittily real and contemporary.  A second viewing might give me a clearer sense of exactly how he accomplishes this, but in the meantime I'm happy just to admire the achievement; this isn't Citizen Kane, but it is pop myth-making of a satisfyingly high caliber.

[scenicdesign71]

I just came across this article (link below) which better articulates the movie's deft balance between "authenticity" and "artifice," each bleeding into the other (perhaps relating to what I was trying to express above, re: "glossily heightened fantasy" vs. "gritty contemporary reality").  And it's not just a cannily-implemented aesthetic strategy -- shrewd packaging designed to sell an old-fashioned story to 21st-century audiences -- or not solely that.  As the writer points out, pretty much every aspect of the movie, and particularly of Gaga's performance, seems to be built around this duality: sometimes collapsing it, other times teasing it apart, often in subtle and surprising ways.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-theatrical-realness-of-lady-gaga-in-a-star-is-born

[AmyG]

Thanks for the insights! I've been wanting to see it and Chris has agreed to see it with me although I suspect it's not as much his thing as it is mine. But he likes a good movie whatever the genre and I suspect he will be able to relate to some of what it has to say about being an artist. Maybe this weekend. Your post has gotten my interest up even more.

[scenicdesign71]

Hopefully I haven't oversold it, @AmyG !  Whenever you do get around to seeing it, I'd love to hear what you think.

I went in with few expectations, high or low: curious about the two leads and the hype, but with no special devotion to the genre, the story, or any of its previous iterations.

In fact, while sheer curiosity was enough to put A Star Is Born on my "to-see" list while it's still in theaters, I had kinda been lazily putting it off, and it was actually my second choice last weekend when I was casting about for a movie on which to use a pair of free AMC ticket vouchers that were due to expire soon.  My first choice was Can You Ever Forgive Me? (which, with its own boatload of rave reviews, I still want to see).  But the only nearby-ish AMC theater running CYEFM?, in its opening weekend at least, would have been more of a hassle to get to from my apartment -- and had far fewer seats still available, at least partly because it's much smaller -- than the one showing ASIB.

So after settling for the latter, it was a pleasant surprise to find myself agreeing with the sensational notices and awards chatter that Cooper's film, and notably his leading lady, have garnered.  This is one of those films, seemingly ever-rarer these days, that really needs to be seen on the big screen for reasons having nothing to do with eye-popping special effects or impossibly vast and intricate CGI scenic vistas.  ASIB's images are often gorgeous, but it's not a parade of numbingly lush, maximalist production design, of the kind that has long seemed de rigeur for luring audiences out to multiplexes.  Instead, it invokes an older tradition wherein the primary, elemental spectacle is that of the human face rendered three stories tall.  And I hate to say this, given my username and occupation, but people really do beat scenery.

What was I saying?  Oh, yeah: hopefully I haven't oversold this...   

[mrssondheim]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm. You almost make me want to see this. I can rent it on Amazon now. I just love the Judy Garland version so much............................