Romance, interlocked: A Star Is Born centers its story on the blooming romance between Ally (Lady Gaga) and Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper)A Star Is Born expertly maneuvers between the couple and the individuals
omance, interlocked: A Star Is Born centers its story on the blooming romance between Ally (Lady Gaga) and Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper)
A Star Is Born expertly maneuvers between the couple and the individuals.
Lady Gaga once wore a meat dress to an awards show. But the same woman, born Stefani Joanne Germanotta, has carefully shed her larger-than-life personality in favor of a new mask: authenticity.
For the press cycle leading up to the release of her most recent album, Joanne, her scaling back was apparent, obvious. She revealed her illness and wore boots.
It is perhaps capped by her turn in the movie A Star Is Born, finely directed by actor Bradley Cooper.
A Star Is Born triumphs because of her. As the timid singer-songwriter Ally, who later blossoms into a pop star, the removal of her mask does not feel contrived.
She acts out her emotions the way the script (written by Cooper, Eric Roth and Will Fetters) demands her. She burrows deep into Ally’s interiority so eloquently. She externalizes her love for her father, Lorenzo (Andrew Dice Clay), in exciting scenes of an Italian household.
But it’s not just her — the story, the fourth film of the same story from 1937, 1954 and 1976, also helps. A Star Is Born is about the alcoholic rock singer Jackson Maine (played by Cooper, with a deep Southern drawl) who spots Ally at a drag club where she sings “La Vie en rose”.
Then their creative sync-up sprouts with their romance — he invites her to sing at his concert, she discovers herself. In so doing, however, she is both blunt and romantic — she will never take a seat in Jackson Maine’s bandwagon.
Ally and Maine’s romance transforms one of A Star Is Born’s most excellent qualities. And that quality is intimacy. Seldom does a scene that only has Ally and Maine in it utilize the long shot. The camera is always trained on both of them.
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A Star Is Born
(Warner Bros. Pictures; 135 minutes)
Director: Bradley Cooper
Cast: Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Andrew Dice Clay
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