Review: Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga shine in the schmaltzy A Star is Born

This fourth remake of A Star is Born should not work. When details first leaked out of yet another remake of the perennial Hollywood story, this time starring superstar Lady Gaga in her first starring role and co-starring and directed by Bradley Cooper (making his directorial debut), it almost seemed like a punchline to the industry’s current reboot culture, one that endlessly digs through existing IP in search of anything that might be repackaged and resold to a new generation of audiences. In spite of those initial hesitations, A Star is Born manages to update a very familiar story while maintaining the emotional core that has allowed the story to exist in our collective consciousness for over 80 years.

This version of the story stars Cooper as Jackson Maine, a rootsy Americana singer (who somehow has a level of fame and recognition that no one in that genre has ever managed to obtain in real life) who crosses paths with a part-time singer named Ally Campana (Lady Gaga). Drawn in by her incredible voice, Jackson convinces Campana to work together, bringing her on tour to duet on her songs in front of his massive audiences. A video of the duo performing together quickly goes viral, and suddenly Ally is in demand in her own right. She’s swooped up by an agent in no time, and is suddenly on her own trajectory as a star, giving into advice from her agent and changing her look and sound to embrace the current pop cycle. Yet as Ally’s star continues to rise, Jackson is sinking deeper into his hole of alcohol and drug abuse. Even after a hastily thrown together marriage, the duo are on opposing wavelengths, and only grow further apart as they each navigate their own paths through stardom and its potential pitfalls.

One of the issues with A Star is Born is just who the “star” is meant to be — for the first (and better) half of the film, we follow Ally’s sudden rise to fame, and the film is very much her story. As wildly unrealistic as that rise is (we see her go from singing a few lines of a song to Maine in a parking lot to performing a full-band arrangement of the same song during one of his shows the next day), it’s hard not to get swept up in Ally’s success. Cooper does a great job of framing those early songs the pair perform together, keeping close on Gaga’s face as she realizes her words are resonating with the thousands of people in each venue. It also helps that this first half features the best songs in the film, from the Jason Isbell-penned  “Maybe It’s Time,” to the massive “Shallows,” the only song in the movie that truly showcases the strengths of both characters’ styles.

The film loses a bit of steam when it switches focus halfway through and begins to fix in on Maine’s downfall, as he enters rehab to try to clean up once and for all after embarrassing Ally during a pivotal moment of her career. Cooper is obviously pining for an Oscar in these scenes, but he manages to convey the pain and shame of an addict in a heartbreaking way, while never losing Maine’s aww-shucks charm that Ally fell for in the first place.

A Star is Born is at its best when it showcases the underbelly of fame, from the quietly muffled SUV ride back from the show to the expensive but lonely hotels rooms that Maine inhabits. This is a film as much about the cost of fame as it is about enjoying the fruits of one’s success — Maine is wildly successful but his inner demons give him no peace, and even Ally barely finds time to enjoy her new success. The only person who seems truly happy about Ally’s stardom in this movie is her father (Andrew Dice Clay), a limo driver who still maintains that he unfairly missed his own shot back in the day.

As hokey as much of the story is, Cooper and Gaga are excellent in these roles, exhibiting a loose, improvisational feel that truly feels like two people connecting in real-time. While the romantic aspect of their relationship nearly feels inconsequential, their respect and admiration for each other’s talent is always front and center, making for a very different kind of relationship story. The supporting roles are also uniformly strong, from the aft-mentioned Andrew Dice Clay, to the mealy-mouthed Sam Elliot as Maine’s tour manager, to a surprisingly calm Dave Chapelle as Maine’s neighbour and friend.

What this film is missing is a great cathartic tear-jerker, something to tie in the two divergent arcs of the plot. The film’s final song, a solo performance from Ally, is meant to elicit those emotions, but unfortunately falls strangely flat. It’s a totally forgettable song, the sort of schmaltzy 80’s ballad that could’ve been slotted into The Bodyguard soundtrack (the song has a very Whitney vine). “Shallows” has that desired impact, but the song is front-loaded into the movie, briefly launching the film into an emotional stratosphere that it never reaches again.

So what does this film actually have to say about success in the music business? Regardless of what you think about La La Land, another recent musical that tackled many of the same issues, but that film did have a point of view, demonstrating the sacrifices one has to make in order to pursue their dreams and art. A Star is Born seems to imply that there is “real music” (the rootsy rock that Maine performs, along with Ally’s early material), and then there is the sort of disposable pop music that Ally eventually turns to, complete with the dreaded background dancers that she reluctantly begins working with. That goes against the current trend of “poptimism” that rates pop music on an equal stage with all other genres, not to mention Gaga’s actual career, one that was careened wildly through styles and genres (including a reverse trajectory of Ally’s career, going from club anthems to country rock for 2016’s “Joanne” album).

While it never truly lands the cathartic emotional impact it hinted at in its earlier half, A Star is Born features striking performances from its two leads, and marks a strong directing debut for Cooper. The story may be familiar, but there is no denying the joy of watching Gaga demonstrate her massive vocal (and acting) chops on the big screen.