Some star is born, some is falling (a review)

Some star is born, some is falling
(film review)

The fourth version and the third remake of the legendary film, A star is born is now going on in cinema. The latest film with the same title was produced by Clint Eastwood, directed, produced and also acted by Bradley Cooper, starring the famous singer, Lady Gaga. Because of the interesting choices of roles and the high budget production, the latest film got huge attention.

 In this version one can find an experiment of the director to go back to the roots of the series but also modernising it and making it current. The 1937 film was about an unknown actress fulfilling the American dream with the help of a Hollywood actor, who was already famous. The latest film is about a famous singer, Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) who discoveres the undiscovered talent of the young bar singer, Ally (Lady Gaga). The 2018 version follows the original story. While the young singer breaks into the show business and becomes a superstar, her ”mentor” slowly declines and is being destroyed by his own alcohol and drug problems.

This was Bradley’s debut film as a director and the first main role as an actress for Lady Gaga, so the expectations were big. The results were more than satisfying: Bradley and Gaga worked perfectly together on screen. The resonance between them was excellent. It was fun to watch ”Lord and Lady Gaga” having conversations, laughing, arguing, singing and performing. But Lady Gaga was the biggest suprise. Her acting was so powerful, it was like Gaga and Ally fusing into one person. Looks like her character was flawlessly fitting to her.

The writing and directing was also suprisingly good. It was like the production of a veteran filmmaker, so this credit goes to Bradley. The extreme close-ups of the main actors’ facial expressions when something sad was going on were especially charming.

One of the most important parts of this film was definitely the music. Of course the two main characters are musicians so we can hear them a lot singing and playing. The music and singing was recorded real time most of the time. The life performance of Jackson Maine with his band was mindblowing, especially whatching it in the cinema. It was loud, energic and raw- just like an actual live show of such bands. The artificially overproduced and overdone performance of Ally as a pop diva fulfilled its purpose. It showed the contrast between mainstream pop songs and songs that are actually played by musicians.

The main point of the film was unsuprisingly to show the world that the pop industry – and especially the music industry – works not the way people may think or expect. It can destroy people’s lives indeed. What makes this message even clearer is the Chris Cornell reference in Jackson’s character who has the same haircut, beard, almost the same guitar and plays a very similar type of music. He (among many famous musicians in our history) commited suicide a year ago.

It was a great success for film industry that directors and writers still can come up with ideas that reflect on nowadays problems. And when such a great idea becomes a massive high-budged production and also a box-office hit- that’s what I call a win. A Star is born is a highly recommended film for those who want to know more about the music industry, or just want to see a good film that not only tells about fighting giant monsters. But don’t be suprised if it changes the way you think of your musician ”heroes”!

Péter Kamondy