A Star Is Born, written, directed and starring Bradley Cooper - 7 out of 10

A Star Is Born, written, directed and starring Bradley Cooper
7 out of 10


This motion picture has enjoyed not just a success with the audiences that have rated it with an average of 8.2 out of 10 and with that placing it at number 212 on the Top Rated Movies list, but also with critics.
These have been even more generous and appreciative with a Metascore of 88 out of 100.

Therefore I am surely wrong in saying that this is just an ordinary, rather flawed motion picture.
True, my teenage daughter was not impressed either,but two people against large audiences and many critics can and should be dismissed as unable to see what a glorious Star is Born there.

However, I will say my piece and then you go watch it and see for yourself.
Lady Gaga is too artificial, unnatural, improper, amateurish, bizarre, unpleasant even when she is supposed to make us weep to give this film a chances of have any significant value.

Granted, the specter of the preposterous star with her meat dress and outrageous, flaunting shows is haunting this and any other movie she is in for this cinephile.
This needs to be repeated - I must be dead wrong considering she has had success before this, winning some Golden Globe for a previous acclaimed apparition, in a series I think...but I will never see it.

There is also the issue of Bradley Cooper.
He may be even more to blame, for he is the director and and accomplished actor.

Lady Gaga is well...gaga and more of an amateur in cinematic terms.
Copper on the other hand has been near or exactly perfect in:

Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, Limitless and The Hangover ...for the latter I would just referr to the first one.

His choice of interpretation might be, probably is extraordinary, for it enjoyed such acclaim...it does not matter that some silly viewer hates his Jack.
But the manner of speaking, the southern accent, have had a very negative impact on yours truly.

He is a musician, Jack, addicted to alcohol and drugs.
Lady Gaga is Ally, a waitress that has a such a spectacular voice...I guess, evidently I am not a fan.

Jack is in such a destitute state that all he seems to want is to sit in a bar- any bar - and drink till he is unconscious.
He happens to walk into the bar where the waitress is singing at night and he loves her act.

As they hang out together, a man comes to the famous Jack to take a picture, with a rather offensive story...his wife is cheating or even run away with someone who is supposed to look like the celebrity.
So the photo is meant to show her something, probably that her love is nothing like Jack, but it is not a photograph taken for the right reason.

Now I am begging to wonder if Lady Gaga hits this or some other man.
Anyway, she uses her fist in what most people liked as a funny, assertive, brave act and I just thought ridiculous and gratuitous.

Jack takes care of her, shopping for some frozen peas, placing the package on the hand that would swallow otherwise.
To cut a rather uninteresting, lacking charm story of love - is it? - short, he says he loves her and she reciprocates.

Another character lacking charisma is inserted Ally's father, with his supposedly amusing stories of the past, Sinatra and some other sweet memories.
Jack and Ally marry.

Nevertheless, this seems to be the climax from where everything goes downhill.
The man is drinking with dedication and aplomb.

The Star that Is Born is nominated for the Emmy Award as the best new singer, in fact there are three nominations for her and I am not sure about the best new or young artist, whatever it is called.
She wins it.

Alas, Jack is so drunk as to spoil the party.
She takes him to the stage, but he drops on the steps in his inebriated state.

When he finally makes it to the microphone, he is an embarrassment.
Eventually, he drops on the floor abjectly.

He had discovered the star, but he is now in the process of burying her career.
After enlisting in a rehabilitation program, he has a fight - or a few - with the spouse that he calls ugly.

Eventually, he may do something drastic to try and give her singing back to her.
There is something worthwhile in there, but for this cinephile, it is so small, hidden so well by the sorry Lady Gaga performance and the mistaken approach taken by Cooper that this is a movie to forget and not to remember.