A Star Is Born (Bradley Cooper)

[Henry Gale]

Let me just say that the first hour of this movie I was pretty convinced this could've been "favourite of the year" stuff for me, and I still hold the movie in generally high regard because of it being able to give me that portion of it, but yeah, it definitely begins to feel like it's straying from the path of greatness somewhere after that.

Perhaps it's when the movie speeds along the initial tour (and as a result, their relationship) in quick montage mode, or it's also more possible that it's when the somewhat distracting meta-ness of Ally's very Gaga-like ascent takes over the narrative of the relationship between her and Jack that it starts to feel more about real-life parallels than the world they're creating. And I realize in basic narrative terms her becoming the pop star is an intended strain on them, but I was just left mostly thinking about if Gaga was finding a way in code to comment on how she hates songs like "Love Game" and others from her debut The Fame, despite what they may have done for her. (But for the record, "Paparazzi" still owns.)

Otherwise I think it may be more to-the-point if I just share which moments got me so good that I gleefully shed tears:

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- "Shallow." Obviously. Just the emotional momentum of that sequence, all leading up to him introducing the moment on stage, that even someone like myself who thought they'd be pretty memed out by the song already couldn't wait to suddenly see it unfold. I choked up pretty much once Jack whispers to Ally to just trust him, and from there I was just whisked off to "Forget How To Breathe" Land as the performance actually took place.

- Sam Elliot backing out of the driveway. Which I love how hilariously mundane that may sound to someone who doesn't know the scene, but it really hit me unexpectedly. It's still such a simply delivered character moment made unimaginably better by the two performances in the scene.

- The ending, though not at first. The guy next to me absolutely broke early on in the final performance, and I thought that was great, but I was disappointed that it wasn't hitting me as hard, perhaps due to some of the issues with the third act that I'd had leading up to it. And then in the middle of her singing, that cut to them on the piano together happens and there broke the floodgates. It's such a genius edit that I almost wonder if Cooper had the idea for it early on in the process and just wrote the movie backwards from there (a la Aronofsky openly saying so with some of his work, like The Wrestler). I'm not sure loved the choice of the look down the lens Ally gives right after that, but at that point I was more concerned with the fact that my face was soaked and generally very satisfied.

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So anyway, I think it's mostly pretty excellent, but not entirely. Though for when it is, it's a extremely endearing and engaging cinematic time that I'd have trouble not recommending to anyone because of those strongest stretches.