{"id":73936,"date":"2018-10-04T20:28:10","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T00:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/a-star-is-born-is-electric-entertainment-movie-review\/"},"modified":"2018-10-04T20:28:10","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T00:28:10","slug":"a-star-is-born-is-electric-entertainment-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/a-star-is-born-is-electric-entertainment-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A Star is Born\u2019 is Electric Entertainment: Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018A Star is Born\u2019 is Electric Entertainment: Movie Review<\/b><\/p>\n

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Lady Gaga about to be reborn in \u201cA Star is Born\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Overnight success is a myth. Great artistic success in show business generally comes from working hard and learning the craft, often for years, so that you\u2019re ready should a big break ever come. \u2018Overnight\u2019\u00a0 is only just that moment when the world suddenly notices your long-standing gifts.\u00a0A Star is Born<\/em>\u00a0as a franchise always synthesizes this myth and this truth for something like a fairy\/cautionary tale; just as quickly as a star rises, a star can fall. Talent is never the question, but the starting point; whether the world notices and for how long, is out of your hands.<\/p>\n

The screenplay for the latest telling of\u00a0A Star is Born<\/em>, emphasizes this last point, as Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) urges Ally (Lady Gaga) to give it her all because the world might not always be listening.<\/p>\n

For those who\u2019ve been living under a cultural rock the story of\u00a0A Star is Born<\/em>\u00a0is ancient and simple: One already established successful showbiz man<\/a> \u2018discovers\u2019 an absurdly gifted but basically unknown female<\/a> performer and takes her under his wing. They fall in love but as her fame rises, his falls, plagued as he is by personal demons in liquid form. The story never has a happy ending so if you need a good cry, queue up.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see why this enduring showbiz tearjerker attracts star performers who know a thing or two about life in the spotlight (Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, James Mason, Fredric March, etc\u2026) though its appeal to filmmakers is perhaps a bit less obvious. Enter Bradley Cooper, famous actor and now an overnight success as a director\u2026<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s clearly been honing the storytelling side of his gifts for years on the sly. Perhaps he was purposefully hovering, soaking up the magic of multitudinous decision-making on the sets of the gifted directors he\u2019s been fortunate to work with: Clint Eastwood (American Sniper<\/em>), David O. Russell (American Hustle<\/em>), and Derek Cianfrance (The Place Beyond the Pines<\/em>) chief among them. There\u2019s little other explanation possible as to how Cooper so confidently dons this new hat, born anew as a director behind the camera<\/a> while simultaneously giving the performance of his career as a movie star in front of it.<\/p>\n

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Bradley Cooper and Sam Elliott, Oscar-worthy onscreen brothers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Though it would be silly to say that Cooper is unrecognizable as Jackson Maine, his voice at least is totally new \u2014 to his vocal chords that is. Like a more benevolent Ursula, he\u2019s magically stolen the voice of Sam Elliott while letting Sam Elliott keep those molasses-gravel pipes, too. In effect there are two Sam Elliotts before you since Elliott is on hand (and terrific) as Jackson\u2019s older brother who raised this rock star and now manages him on the road. It\u2019s a full time job given the infinite booze. Aside from the new speaking voice, Cooper has thoroughly recalibrated himself physically and emotionally never feeling anything less than authentic as a casually mega famous but frequently sozzled rock star.<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s iteration of this old story is the first time an actor has directed the material and it shows. Arguably more than the other versions \u2013even the magnificent Judy Garland classic from 1954 \u2014\u00a0 this one conjures up a romance that\u2019s deeply rooted in the spirit of artistic collaboration. This\u00a0Star<\/em>\u00a0is not just concerned with the yin and yang of fresh and dimmed spotlights but in the act of creation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s smart performance-focused read on the material and his generosity as an actor is obviously a huge boon to Lady Gaga as his discovery \u201cAlly\u201d. Gaga is still a novice actor rather than a true natural but paired with Cooper she\u2019s relaxed and expressive and moving.\u00a0 It helps of course that the role is tailored to the superstar in an almost comically meta way. She\u2019s even cheered on by a gaggle of gays<\/a> in her first big scene, then symbolically released from the gay<\/a> community into the real world via Jackson Maine accidentally stumbling into a drag bar on the hunt for more booze. But this role tailoring has always been the case with\u00a0A Star is Born<\/em>, which lives or dies by the gifts of its female<\/a> Star, the one being Born.<\/p>\n

Lady Gaga knows what a once-in-a-lifetime gift this role is and she\u2019s taking no chances delivering some of the best songs of her career. Lady Gaga came to slay so that \u201cAlly\u201d could be Born This Way.<\/p>\n

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image via The Ringer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If either Cooper or Gaga had any doubts about their ability to pull this off you\u2019d never know it from what\u2019s on screen, the movie operating at all times from an electric place of total confidence, even when the subject of the scenes is the lack of it. For Gaga\u2019s part she walks this high wire with no safety net. Within the first reel of her performance she\u2019s directly inviting comparisons to major legends.<\/p>\n

The first time she sings, under the title card no less, it\u2019s the seldom sung intro verse to Judy Garland\u2019s \u201cOver the Rainbow\u201d which she then chases with a full performance of Edith Piaf\u2019s signature song \u201cLa Vie En Rose.\u201d Once she\u2019s risked communing with those formidable ghosts, she\u2019s talking about her nose in profile in a way that would make Barbra Streisand blush. This is a fearless performance demanding your fealty. All you can say in you seat is \u201cyaaaas queen!\u201d when she finally lets loose with \u201cShallow\u201d.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m off the deep end
\nWatch as I dive in
\nI\u2019ll never meet the ground
\nCrash through the surface
\nWhere they can\u2019t hide us
\nWe\u2019re far from the shallow now<\/p>\n

The song is thrilling and so is the movie. Watch as these two great artists dive in. Oh, the treasures they dig up together. Once the movie lifts off (with this very song) it never meets the ground again.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

An embarrassment of riches,\u00a0A Star is Born<\/em>\u00a0delivers this moment earlier than you\u2019d think.\u00a0<\/em>Before the already\u00a0<\/em>iconic moment when Ally blows the roof off of a Jackson Maine stadium concert with her hhaaawwwooahaaahahwoaha caterwauling \u2014 the centerpiece of the ubiquitous promotional campaign \u2014 we\u2019re treated to a verse of the song in the humblest of ways. Ally sings a bar for Jackson in a parking lot as they talk the night away. The scene is quiet, long, and watchful, as fascinated with this nascent romance as Jackson is with this singular new woman<\/a> he can\u2019t stop staring at. The new tune is presented casually as the seed of an idea Ally has been tending to. It suddenly blooms in Jackson\u2019s presence, one artist inspired by another. A song, a romance, and a new classic movie born right before your eyes.<\/p>\n

The post \u2018A Star is Born\u2019 is Electric Entertainment: Movie Review<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad Gay News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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‘A Star is Born’ is Electric Entertainment: Movie Review<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n