Sound of ego

The acting is fine as are the dialogue and the mise-en-scene. Maybe in these frayed post-Trump times, America needed a movie as simple as this

How did Bradley Cooper muster the courage to remake a Hollywood classic that has already been made thrice over the past 80 years (1937, 1954 and 1976), that too for his directorial debut? This question kept haunting me for hours after I watched A Star Is Born at a movie theatre in a Denver suburb.

To his credit, Cooper managed to give the story that is as old as the hills a decent, 21st-century twist. For the uninitiated, the story is about a louche rock star (Cooper as Jackson Maine, or Jack), who meets Ally (Lady Gaga) at a drag queen show and thinks she’s got enough vocal chops to become the toast of the pop music world. As she starts making her way to the upper echelons of musical fame, Jack finds himself trapped in a vortex of tinnitus — a chronic buzzing in his ears — and drug and alcohol addiction. Despite a brief and seemingly successful stint in rehab, nothing prepares him for what looks like the inevitable. 

A still from A Star Is Born

Having Lady Gaga is a stroke of casting genius on Cooper’s part and, despite their odd pairing, they have delightfully cheesy on-screen chemistry. That explains the massive Oscar buzz that the film is generating. The movie’s initial moments are frothy and the natter between them is as good as that between Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson in the 1976 version, or between Judy Garland and James Mason in the 1954 version. Among the movie's standout moments are the first time they sing together on stage, and Lady Gaga brings a beautiful vulnerability to it. She couldn't have asked for a better movie vehicle that quarries her pop-star sensibilities while allowing her to flex her acting muscle. Her most recent album (Joanne) saw her at her meditative best, but Cooper let her give out a primal scream on screen that harkens back to her “Poker Face” days.

The original soundtrack by Lukas Nelson complements the proceedings of a movie that is very dependent on music. It's an electrifying moment when the lyrics of “Shallow” that Lady Gaga sings impromptu in a parking lot are sung in front of thousands of people in no time. Her bug-eyed delight is an absolute joy to behold.

As a country rock musician whose fame is on the wane, Cooper has some amazing scene-chewing moments, especially when he begs his girlfriend-turned-wife, Ally, to forgive him for the way he embarrassed her on stage during her first Grammy win. The part where he tries to patch up with his elder brother (Sam Elliott) is a master class in method acting. Who knew Cooper had a filmmaker in him who could make close-ups look as sizzling as they do in an Ingmar Bergman movie?

However, it still begs the question whether the movie needed to be remade at all. The acting is fine as are the dialogue and the mise-en-scène. Maybe in these frayed post-Trump times, America needed a movie as simple as this. Ally’s on-screen transformation from singing an Edith Piaf song at a seedy bar to performing on Saturday Night Live is the success story America needs right now. 

My personal favourite, though, is the 1954 version — the one made by George Cukor, which was a headlong morality romp with oodles of screwball humour (a Cukor staple). Cooper's film doesn't match up to that but it might make for decent viewing for a first-timer. 

Lots of cuss words are thrown around and the post-internet celebrity culture is given a tongue-in-cheek twist when Lady Gaga is asked to colour her hair platinum by the record label executive. Of course, being a major Hollywood movie, Cooper didn’t bother to include the part about the current state of the music industry where streaming websites call the shots and the game is about numbers. For all that, you might want to check out Donald Glover's wickedly enjoyable TV series, Atlanta.

For all the modern-day appurtenances the movie is dotted with, the climax is contrived, manipulative and extremely schmaltzy. That was the moment when I wished I had stayed home listening to the 1980s’ British synth-pop group Human League's virulently catchy monster hit, “Don't You Want Me”, over and over.

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