Watching A Star Is Born (2018) @ The Cabinet Rooms, Winchester
Happily to the secret cinema room of the delightful Cabinet Rooms in Winchester — this time to watch A Star Is Born with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. And how good they are…
Such a good movie, though as with Ken in Barbie, I think Bradley Cooper steals the movie away from Lady Gaga, in sheer sympathy and charisma. Plus he’s also directing and co-producing! A remake of a remake of a remake of a classic weepie movie and women’s pic. It’s 1950’s Judy Garland and James Mason that spring to mind, with one career rising in the plot and another’s fame falling; but there was also a Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson version, a 1937 Janet Gaynor and Fredric March version, as well as a 1932 version which wasn’t even shown under the same name!
Lady Gaga (Ally) and Bradley Cooper (Jackson Maine) act so well, their characters are so fully rounded. But so are the smaller parts — Ally’s dad (Andrew Dice Clay), Jackson’s older brother and tour/life manager, Bobby Maine (Sam Elliott) and Anthony Ramos as Ally’s BFF, Ramon. Even Jackson’s long-suffering driver Phil (Greg Grunberg) shines as he’s sent to stalk Ally essentially until she agrees to ditch work and go to the concert. Not to mention Jackson’s friends who rather than puttin’ on a show, put on a wedding with no warning! The cast is charming, which makes the denouement all the more stomach churning as we really care about them.
I came away feeling that we need more and better stories about characters struggling with addiction. We see Jackson’s struggles, pain and shame and destructive removal of himself from Ally’s life — but we also need stories where people fighting addictions survive and fight back, are supported. Jackson’s counsellor worried me as when Jackson shared a painful story — they both laughed. Whilst there is a fight-back (and control) in laughing at the most hurtful things, this lack of professionalism was scary — as no support or way forward or just empathy was offered. Instead Jackson was left with his painful past and memories — there was no working through them, healing, restoration, remembering that he was a very hurting and neglected child in all of this. He loved and emulated his dad — yet many of these behaviours and habits were harmful and hurtful, and suggested that once the child of someone battling addictions, always an addict yourself. But it doesn’t have to be like this — and for the sake of those fighting addictions, we need better stories. But this wouldn’t make A Star is Born, if another story did not burn out dramatically and fall to earth.
I love the way that Ally and Jackson’s relationship develops. He drunkenly staggers into a bar where Ally is performing and singing up a storm as Edith Piaf. The anthesis of the super famous, Jackson happily and almost shyly interacts with the other singers and performers at the bar — but it’s Ally’s voice and song-writing abilities that he’s really digging.
He is both encouraging and kind, with some tough love thrown in. Jackson really wants Ally’s best — he appreciates her nose (which others might not find a USP), he encourages her singing and lyric creation, he invites her to a concert just to get her out there — and get her the exposure she deserves, stepping back to allow her centre stage, to even overtake his own career. He appreciates what she create in terms of vocal power, and lyrics, and enjoys seeing her succeed, even helping her to focus on her first recording demo. It’s unfortunate that she’s pushed into pop rather than being allowed to be a more serious singer-song-writer and Jackson is right to have concerns about her image and content — and her somewhat horrible Brit boss. However, whatever she does, she goes stellar!
In contrast, whilst being a thoroughly decent guy, Jackson struggles with drinking, with his brother’s control, with his dad’s example and with some very painful memories. He’s also suffering from (and running away from) long-term hearing loss. Again I want a different story where he’s able to force himself to wear the aids, or even learn sign language — something more akin to Sound of Metal. None of these things have to be the end of life — easy to say, but I long for Jackson to fight back, to reclaim his talent and even if his life takes a different turn to expected, to live. To rise back to life from the unreliability and chaos — like Robert Downey Junior. As it is the moral of the movie is that those experiencing major hearing loss or fighting addictions won’t.
But this is also A Star Is Born so there has to be epic love and epic tragedy…. Jackson deteriorates as he literally bottles up all the things he’s not telling Ally. Ally’s career takes off and at the same time, she has to manage her husband’s frightening and nasty behaviour. He tries to make a change by going to a private treatment clinic — where he meets the less than professional counsellor. Most of all, he feels that he isn’t worth anything, that there is no more fight and everyone would be better off without him. Leaving a sad pining dog behind and a heartbroken wife, Jackson eliminates himself to allow Ally to shine more brightly. Heart-rendingly, but very truthfully conveyed is the ‘why’ — as Ally frustrated lashes out at her husband’s framed tour posters; all that he has left behind. And yet he hasn’t — he’s left her a song — which she makes her own, and remembers him in.
The music is tremendous here as both Cooper and Lady G sing, almost as much as the delicious gown Ally wears to collect her first major award. All the same, it’s the writing, the nuance, the way that these actors really live out their characters on screen that draw us in — and Ally’s story from feisty shadows to spotlit solo-ist.
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