A Star is Born
In the movie, A Star is Born, Ally – played by Lady Gaga- is an average, everyday woman living out her life with wasted potential, until she meets a famous musician – Jackson played by Bradley Cooper- and her world is changed forever.
This is a love story entwined with the making of a star as true talent is unleashed. The story of Jackson (Bradley Cooper) and Ally (Lady Gaga) as their lives cross paths and are changed forever is somewhat predictable with Jackson being a famous musician who lives with addiction to alcohol and drugs to numb his destructive childhood. This causing grief for important relationships in his life. Jackson meets Ally in an unexpected setting and falls in love with her talent which leads him to giving her an incredible opportunity to showcase herself as an artist. The love story between Ally and Jackson is an obvious occurrence whilst still being refreshing as the love lasts and they stick together to the end. The audience gets a snippet into the reality of stars lives as success in the industry lies not on talent alone but with the pressure to have a certain appearance and attractiveness. The role of Ally being casted as Lady Gaga was brilliant as we see a parallel between the character and actor as the reveal of Ally as a star for the first time relates to Lady Gaga being seen on stage uncovered by make-up. This is quite a difference from her usual stage extravagance.
The best scene in the film was when Jackson was performing on stage in front of thousands of people and pauses the show to go to the side stage to beg Ally to join him on the stage, almost forcing her to sing a song she had written the day before when they had met. The cameras following Jackson from the stage were well used to give the audience the sensation of being a star on stage among the busyness of the performance. This created a spectacular build up to the moment of Ally’s realisation that this was her moment to shine and show herself to the world. The lighting was intriguing as you saw her uncertainty lit with red lighting suddenly turn to confidence with a switch to green lighting. It was inspiring to see Lady Gaga taking to the stage as Ally, performing with just her beautiful voice and no techno changes and heavy make-up hiding her natural beauty.
Lady Gaga as Ally gave a real and down to earth performance, quite different to that of which we are used to from her extravagant stage performances. She was captivating in her rawness and allowed the audience to feel her emotions, especially her love for Jack which allowed the audience to empathise with her. As her character evolved you could clearly see the confidence in Ally grow however Lady Gaga managed to still hold on to the character of the down to earth girl who knew what she wanted. She shared real tears and so did the audience.
This film gets 3/5 stars for me as whilst it was cast brilliantly and had a good story line which was easy to follow, it left little to surprise and was quite long and drawn out in some scenes. Whilst the ending made many in the audience well up, the rest of the film was slightly lacking in emotional connection from my perspective. The music was enjoyable to listen to and the Lady Gagas voice unaltered was spectacular and added value to the movie.
There is a lesson to be learned – words have power and meaning and affect people’s lives drastically, just like the songs written by Ally in ‘A Star Is Born’.
Rating: M Sex scenes, offensive language & drug use.
FILMGUIDE rating:
