with Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, Dave Chapelle, Rafi Gavron.

Bradley Cooper has directed his first movie.  His beautiful face is in many many shots.  The story justifies it, as the star of the title must be born of her marriage to Jackson Maine who is already a star, a Lynrd Skynrd kind of country blues musician with a loyal following.  Jackson has a drinking and a drug problem.  We learn that his father was his drinking buddy at age 13.  When he meets Ally (Lady Gaga) at a drag club where she sings La Vie en Rose in an exaggerated staging the gay men love, he is there because he needs a drink, not because he wants to hear the music.  But he does listen, and is impressed by the singing and Ally’s commitment to her art. Then he teases out that she writes her own songs too.  The love story percolates along, slowly.

When the two finally get married, a whole wedding with all the trimmings is produced in the space of one day, and I just wanted to say,  Hollywood, take it easy.  Can this really be done?  Dave Chapelle shows up as Jack’s old buddy, but we get no back story to speak of, and it doesn’t ring true.  The rhythm of the movie is glacial, with many starts and stops. The movie is about a half an hour too long.  When Sam Elliott turns up as Jack’s much older brother, the melodrama takes on some gravitas.  The inevitable rehab scenes are a bit slow and cliche.  There is a pro forma feeling to the movie, except when you watch Bradley Cooper genuinely act in awe of Lady Gaga’s talent.  She is a genuine star who commands whatever stage she happens to be on.

There are other things I liked about the movie.  The duet with Cooper and Gaga that starts their partnership in music is musical and touching.  The scenes with Andrew Dice Clay as Ally’s father strike home.  Here is a man who makes a living driving limousines but still covets Frank Sinatra’s career, and thinks of his daughter’s promise like his own, doomed to failure.  Jack and his brother fight and then reconcile like real brothers.  Cooper is devoted to making a genuine musical movie about real musicians.   Jack can not stand watching his authentic wife made into something more palatable to the pop culture machine, complete with orange hair and different eye makeup.

A Star Is Born has been made four times now, and each time it depends on a guilty survivor, whose suicidal husband launched her career, sing a beautiful love song at the end, and declare herself the wife of that man.  I still think Judy Garland did it best, but I liked the music better– “The Man that Got Away” can move me to tears when she sings it.   What Lady Gaga and her co-writers have composed in music is just as heartfelt.  I keep hearing certain songs in my head. They just don’t go away, especially “Maybe It’s Time to Let the Old Ways Die,” which Cooper sings beautifully.  “The Shallow” moved everyone to think that this was a genuine love story.  What Lady Gaga has in common with Judy Garland are the three talents on view here:  she can sing, she can dance, and she can act.  I look forward to her next role.