The new Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga movie, A Star Is Born was, without a doubt, one of the best movies of the year. One could assume that this movie is not much other than a clichéd romantic movie that stars a famous actor and a famous singer, but as the movie goes on, you start to realize that it is much more than that. Although the movie does have some minor flaws, the movie’s virtues are much more prominent than its flaws.
The movie follows Jackson Maine, a popular rock and roll singer, and Ally, a waitress and aspiring singer/songwriter. Throughout the film, we see the two fall in love in a beautiful and heart-touching way. The first thing that immediately stood out in the movie was that the acting is some of the most convincing acting seen recently in a recent romance film compared to a mainstream film like a Crazy Rich Asians, which is a cliched romantic movie that has average acting. It really seems as if Cooper and Gaga were not acting, but rather genuinely feeling the emotions they portrayed in the scenes. One example of this is when the two main characters meet for the first time. Their meeting strikes the viewer as though they were having a meaningful conversation and starting to fall in love. This is something that a lot of movies attempt to do, but do not accomplish. This stellar acting results in the audience feeling the emotions of the characters.
While it was not the biggest virtue of the film, the cinematography in the movie is also quite good. There were certain shots that were made really well and clearly had a lot of thought behind them. Most of the scenes where Jackson is having a concert exemplify this. The shots in those scenes felt very unique and different in the sense that it looked as though the cameraman was part of the show, rather than just someone shooting a set.
The last thing that was very enjoyable about this movie is that it was very charming. In one scene, Jackson invites Ally on the stage in front of hundreds of thousands of people to sing a song that she wrote and it is clear she is resistant towards doing so. The performance ends up being a huge success, with the audience loving every bit of it, and leaves Jackson’s fans very curious as to who she was.
The major drawback to this movie was that it moves at too fast of a pace, with major plot points that feel underdeveloped. For example, all it took for Ally to become a global singer/songwriter was to go on stage with Jackson once. In fact, not only does she have this new career, she goes from being an underground indie artist to becoming mainstream in a very short period of time. The movie is more than two hours long, but somehow they managed to rush through the best scenes in the first hour of the movie. The movie could be improved by increasing the amount of time the characters took to achieve their goals, in order to increase the audience’s sense of relief and pride.
A Star is Born is a funny, sad, and uplifting film that is worth the time and money you will spend at the theater. The cinematography, charm, and outstanding acting was sometimes dragged down by the film’s fast pace, but overall it is a success 4/5.
