Butler's Cinema Scene

Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga

“A STAR IS BORN”  My rating: B

135 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Lady Gaga (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) has been a major star for almost a decade now, but even if you’d never heard of her, “A Star Is Born” would confirm that there is indeed a new comet in the heavens.

She’s really, really good.

This is the third remake of the original show-biz love story (after the 1937 original with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, the ’54 version with Judy Garland and James Mason, and the ’76 vehicle for Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson). Though many of the details have been refreshed for this Bradley Cooper-directed effort, it’s still the story of a rising young performer’s romance with an older, established star who cannot handle it when her career eclipses his.

So don’t expect much new in the plot department.

But watching Gaga sink her teeth into her first major acting opportunity is thrilling. The woman who in her stage shows often relies on visual overkill here delivers a sensitive and carefully modulated performance that will likely result in an Oscar nomination. And what makes it even more remarkable is that hers is the less showy performance.  Her co-star, Cooper, gets the big chewy scenes (You want attention? Play a drunk.) yet Gaga is all you want to look at.

Plus, the screenplay by Eric Roth, Will Fetters and Cooper perfectly nails its milieu of arena rock concerts, tour busses and messy hotel rooms. The plot may be familiar, but the setting has a life of its own.

Jackson Maine (Cooper) is a bearded, gravel-voiced star whose music ranges from folkie efforts to guitar-shredding Southern rock (something along the lines of Lynyrd Skynyrd/Marshall Tucker). He’s also a heavy drinker who gets itchy if he’s too long without a bottle in his hand.

Which is how Jackson ends up in a gay bar (they’ve got alcohol, right?) watching a drag show in which a waitress named Ally (Gaga) steals the spotlight with a spot-on Edith Piaf imitation. He’s impressed enough to go backstage to make her acquaintance.

It’s the start of a big-time romance.  Ally is flattered by the attention, but doesn’t think she’s pretty enough to be hobnobbing with a big star. (Interesting that Gaga, who in her earliest incarnations hid behind elaborate costumes, wigs and makeup, here goes through much of the film with almost no makeup at all).

She’s a songwriter and Jackson urges her to develop that talent.  In fact, after whisking her off to one of his stadium gigs in a far-flung city, he more or less drags her onstage to perform one of her compositions as a duet.  The audience goes ape (so will folks watching the movie) and before long the Ally show is in full swing with a fancy-pants manager/producer, an appearance on “SNL” and a Grammy nomination for best new artist.

But as Ally’s star rises, Jackson’s stumbles.  He carps about her newfound interest in backup dancers (too phony for a country boy), her emerging pop sensibilities.  Whereas he used to be her mentor, Jackson now realizes Ally’s career will proceed just fine without his ministrations.

Result: More drinking and pills, an intervention and a long stint in rehab.  But even if he kicks his habits, Jackson still must deal with his demons, feelings of inadequacy, and conviction that in the long run he’s a drag on his new wife’s future.

Gaga and Cooper are front and center here, and they are — at least in the early stages — a caring, sexy couple.  Boozer though he may be, Jackson is an accomplished charmer; Gaga’s Ally, meanwhile, starts out cautious but gradually learns to revel in her burgeoning talents. They’re a hugely watchable pair.

There’s a host of supporting characters as well.  Jackson’s circle includes his oft-estranged brother/road manager (Sam Elliott) and a boyhood friend who keeps him grounded (Dave Chappelle). In Ally’s corner are a devoted longtime coworker (Anthony Ramos), not to mention her Jersey-boy father (Andrew Dice Clay), his retirement age cronies and a raft of drag queens from her former life.

Unlike a lot of show-biz movies where the acts we see on screen would never wow a real audience (you know…like the stand-up comedian whose material doesn’t deserve all those laughs on the soundtrack),  the tunes and performances depicted here are first-rate.  No suspension of disbelief is required to appreciate the nearly dozen new tunes from Lady Gaga, a Jason Isbell original and even a couple of winners penned by Cooper in a country/rock style.

Tyro director Cooper does a more than adequate job of handling the many elements of what is essentially a movie musical.  He gets the feel of life on the road and the thrill of artistic achievement; my main concern is that the film’s length (well over 2 hours) and an ever-more-depressing love story almost wear out their welcome.

But see it for Gaga.  If you weren’t a fan going in, you will be by the trip out.

| Robert W. Butler