The film's major problems ensue as soon as Gaga's Ally transforms from an underdog to a star and the film fails to show both sides to their stories, with Cooper's Jackson's doom and gloom dominating as the director employs an unyielding male gaze and leaving Gaga to play second fiddle & as Ally is never more than being his lover, girlfriend and wife; in doing so her career and life are put on the backburner for the sake of his- despite her star billing on the poster. I thought this was a Lady Gaga-led movie that the critics and the film alluded to... well, surprisingly after I viewed it on BBC1 last night, it was far from it. For Lady Gaga fanatics looking forward to seeing their idol on screen, the film sells itself short.
To think a movie as established as A Star is Born, would give someone like Lady Gaga, one of the most well-known celebrities & biggest pop stars around today a role (and no less a far less distinctive one) that undermines her influence and talents, here, Ally is rendered a powerless woman who spends most of the movie either in tears, bemusement or angry.
Whilst the story stumbles and characterisation fumbles, it is the acting efforts by those involved, as well as the music that keeps A Star Is Born afloat and its head above water, all spearheaded by lead single, Shallow (although in part my personal favourites from the motion picture soundtrack are Head, Body, Face and Always Remember Us This Way).
The film's low-key take on performance art and its insistence to show that pop music is not only a waste of Ally's talent - the angle is not that being a pop star is a sellout -, rather it is lacklustre, and to its detriment doesn't generate enough entertainment or interest. If the story or film-making was told and approached in a way that was as accessible and bold as say Taylor Hackford's Ray (being one example of several music biopics, be it factual or fictional), A Star is Born would make for a far more enticing and entertaining movie to watch.
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