SPOILERS
The highly anticipated A Star is Born revives an old story with fresh talent and a wee-bit on-the-nose commentary about the contemporary pressures and fleeting nature of fame and the tension between artistic integrity and profitability. It’s highly romantic, complete with implausible scenarios, over-the-top-gestures, and extreme passion. It’s somewhat derivative, once again portraying the growth of a male protagonist through his relationship with an underdeveloped female character. And yet the performances from Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, and Sam Elliott will wrangle tears from even the harshest cynic as the film brutally takes us through Cooper’s character’s hellish battle with alcoholism and depression.
The title suggests that the story will revolve around Ally, Gaga’s moonlighting cabaret singer who doesn’t think she’ll make it in show business yet quits her job to follow rock star Jackson Maine to a gig. And in a sense, the story does revolve around her—but through Jackson’s eyes. After a brief exposition that doesn’t tell us much about her, it follows her story from the point Jackson, aka Jack, meets her. He watches from the sidelines as her career rises and his fades. It is his story, but I would like to counter the (fair) criticism that she only provides motivation for his growth and has little development of her own with the observation…
