1079. A Star is Born

A Star is Born
Directed by Bradley Cooper
2018

I decided to get another film under the buzzer for musical month, which was a rather shorter affair then I intended (I can hear your sigh of relief from here, thanks). Anyway, our previous movie needed CGI elephants and lions to wow us during its musical numbers. All this movie has is Lady Gaga, and, unsurprisingly, it is much, much better.

Jack Maine is a famous singer who is privately, and then not so privately, suffering from addiction. He catches a performance by waitress/singer/songwriter Ally, and falls for her hard. As her star rises, Jack self-destructs.

This is the second Star is Born on the List and it's actually justifiable to include both, given the magnitude of the talents contained in each of the inclusions. That being said, watching Bradley Cooper pretend to stagger around wasted isn't quite the profound experience that Cooper might think it is. Well, let that beautiful bastard think what he pleases. Watching Lady Gaga perform "Always Remember Us This Way" was worth having to endure the tired storyline.

Without Gaga's talent to support this movie, its Oscar bait-iness would be completely unbearable. As is, Gaga saves the day.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper sang their songs live.

Beyonce was originally going to play Ally. If we had to endure Bradley telling an unconvinced Beyonce she was beautiful, I would have needed to delete this blog.