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Post by quetee on Oct 4, 2018 15:58:57 GMT
Didn't Bradley have an addiction problem? I thought I read that somewhere. If that’s true, the places he has to go with this character make the performance AND the direction even more impressive to have to channel such dark energy and yet remain capable as a director. I can't link right now but I did google. Yep, he was an alcoholic. He gave interview in 2016 with Barbara Walters so that means he's 13 years sober now. That is probably why he took this project.
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Post by stephen on Oct 5, 2018 3:49:10 GMT
I just got back from it.
I thought it was solidly acted, with Gaga in particular showing some really strong chops as the film went along (after a worrisome first scene in the bathroom, she ramped up quite nicely). But I gotta say, Bradley Cooper’s direction really got in the film’s own way. It felt like there was a five-hour cut of the film, and while they were cutting it down, Cooper insisted there be two seconds minimum of every scene they did shoot, making some transitions really bloody awkward. And I think if you cut out every time someone repeats themselves to Jackson Maine, the film might be a half-hour shorter.
There are some good things about it—the music, in particular, is excellent damn near across the board. But I didn’t really think the relationship between Jackson and Ally had any real sizzle to it after their initial meet-up, and their general spats and disagreements lacked much in the way of weight. I never got the sense of Jack’s resentment of Ally’s burgeoning success and branching off into different genres, and I feel like the conflicts between them felt forced rather than natural. It didn’t help that I found Jackson thoroughly unlikable throughout the film, which is kind of par for the course with that character in all incarnations, but at least March and Mason had a trajectory throughout their films that felt smooth rather than haphazard.
Cooper is very good at the start of the film, but around the half-hour mark it starts to dip, and by the midway point it comes off as a very surface-level, first-year drama student’s idea of alcoholism at times. It didn’t help that his Sam Elliott impression sounded like he’d been gargling gravel. Speaking of, Elliott’s scenes are decent but way too brief and leave a lot to be desired—a victim of the editing bay, by the looks of it. If he wins for this, it’d be a bit of a letdown for me personally, because it’s an extremely promising role that lacks the bite it could’ve had with a few more scenes (which would’ve involved paring down much of the bloated second act). Andrew Dice Clay looks like Armin Mueller-Stahl now, and Dave Chappelle and Eddie Griffin are fuckin’ old now and it makes me sad. But it’s Lady Gaga who steals the show, and nails her final scene so wonderfully. I wish Cooper had kept the camera on her the entire performance, rather than splicing in the flashbacks. It undercut that scene so much at the worst time.
It’s not a bad movie. It’s an overly and unnecessarily long one, one that feels built around the songs rather than having them built into the film, and I think that the direction needed the even-handed approach of Eastwood rather than the cut-happy tack of Cooper. He’ll make a decent Best Actor winner—better than Oldman/Affleck/Redmayne, but far weaker than the rest this decade—but it’s a shame he’ll be taking a slot from a more deserving directing nominee.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Oct 5, 2018 7:05:38 GMT
This song just screams instant classic... it has the feel of an old-school ballad
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Oct 5, 2018 19:02:11 GMT
I really dug it. Movie felt kinda montage-y with how it was cut together, leaving us more with impressions and moments than full-fledged scenes at times, but that mostly worked for me. Felt like a character-centric decision, everything moving so fast and emotions running all over the place and I could get on that groove. A little surprised at its acclaim given I feel like for some other people that technique would be more disorienting than affecting.
Anyway, the acting was strong and the songs are terrific, with the first time they sing together on stage feeling like a case of old movie magic. Whenever the movie shifts away from the central relationship and their music together, either to focus on Ally's burgeoning career or Jackson's decline then it loses some of that momentum but by the third act Cooper finds a proper balance with those elements.
Overall, it's a nice little crowdpleaser that tells its classical story well and I hope it doesn't suffer too much backlash from this awards season because it's frankly getting exhausting seeing a lot of well-liked smaller-scale movies age like milk because of the bombardment of discussion online over them. And whenever there's a lot of talking on the internet, it inevitably turns negative and nitpicky.
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Post by therealcomicman117 on Oct 5, 2018 22:39:48 GMT
My review. I quite enjoyed it. Cooper's performance in particular has grown on me the more I think about it. dailyuv.com/968328
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Post by evilbliss on Oct 6, 2018 0:35:38 GMT
I really dug it. Movie felt kinda montage-y with how it was cut together, leaving us more with impressions and moments than full-fledged scenes at times, but that mostly worked for me. Felt like a character-centric decision, everything moving so fast and emotions running all over the place and I could get on that groove. A little surprised at its acclaim given I feel like for some other people that technique would be more disorienting than affecting. Anyway, the acting was strong and the songs are terrific, with the first time they sing together on stage feeling like a case of old movie magic. Whenever the movie shifts away from the central relationship and their music together, either to focus on Ally's burgeoning career or Jackson's decline then it loses some of that momentum but by the third act Cooper finds a proper balance with those elements. Overall, it's a nice little crowdpleaser that tells its classical story well and I hope it doesn't suffer too much backlash from this awards season because it's frankly getting exhausting seeing a lot of well-liked smaller-scale movies age like milk because of the bombardment of discussion online over them. And whenever there's a lot of talking on the internet, it inevitably turns negative and nitpicky. Is Gaga gonna be an Oscar-nominated person?
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Post by DeepArcher on Oct 6, 2018 0:37:30 GMT
From my Letterboxd review. In other words ... I didn't like it, as I expected, though I didn't outright hate it as I thought I would, and most of my problems with it were actually not what I thought they'd be. It's a weird case that I'm gonna need some time to fully realize my thoughts on. Aside from what was mentioned in my review ... this movie was actually kinda funny. Mostly with the drag club and Ally's dad. The entire thing is pretty entertaining of course, and I won't discredit it for that. Also: cool use of LCD Soundsystem in that one scene. In terms of awards potential and whatnot, I actually think it's pretty deserving in a lot of the areas it's a legitimate contender in -- other than Best Picture, naturally.
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Oct 6, 2018 0:42:48 GMT
Is Gaga gonna be an Oscar-nominated person? Probably. I don't see any reason she'd be snubbed.
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Post by stephen on Oct 6, 2018 0:52:59 GMT
As a side-note: can we also all agree that one friend of Ally's dad (you know which one) is the perfect guy to play Steve Bannon in the inevitable miniseries about the current administration?
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Oct 6, 2018 1:00:34 GMT
I really liked it. Cooper was great and Gaga was very good. They had outstanding chemistry and the music throughout was fantastic. Elliot shined in his brief role. I also haven’t seen any of the previous versions which was a plus to go into the story fresh.
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Oct 6, 2018 1:59:37 GMT
The more I think about the film, the more interested I am in its ideas regarding artistry and artifice. Jack is clearly against the direction Ally's image and music takes, but the film doesn't fully lean into that and grants Ally the agency and benefit of never truly selling out. She maintains her sincerity off-stage and can still exhibit it in front of an audience when she pleases, whereas he has a difficult handling himself off-stage and relies on his art to say what he really wants. And on a meta-level I find that even more fascinating, given Cooper's performance has a lot of on-the-surface artifice between the popping red blood vessels and watery eyes let alone that gravelly voice in contrast to a frequently no-makeup Lady Gaga deliberately downplaying her part. I don't know, just some thoughts I'm mulling over in my head.
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Post by stephen on Oct 6, 2018 2:10:28 GMT
The more I think about the film, the more interested I am in its ideas regarding artistry and artifice. Jack is clearly against the direction Ally's image and music takes, but the film doesn't fully lean into that and grants Ally the agency and benefit of never truly selling out. She maintains her sincerity off-stage and can still exhibit it in front of an audience when she pleases, whereas he has a difficult handling himself off-stage and relies on his art to say what he really wants. And on a meta-level I find that even more fascinating, given Cooper's performance has a lot of on-the-surface artifice between the popping red blood vessels and watery eyes let alone that gravelly voice in contrast to a frequently no-makeup Lady Gaga deliberately downplaying her part. I don't know, just some thoughts I'm mulling over in my head. That's one of the things that really irritates me about the film in retrospect. There are definitely some strong ideas percolating there that you keyed into, but the trouble is that the film glosses over it. It's funny that we rip on La La Land for its ethos regarding the sanctity of jazz, but the thing most of that film's critics miss the point of is that La La Land was not siding with Sebastian's viewpoint that jazz was dying. He (or at least his mindset) was what was holding it back, while John Legend was actually pushing jazz to a natural progression, as all the jazz greats did in the first place. With A Star Is Born, we never really get a sense of Jackson having any resentment towards a specific type of genre, or that he even resented "selling out" (remember, this is the dude who was performing for pharmacists). The only time the film pays any sort of lip service to this is Ally's lack of confidence about her nose, but Jack tells her that she's beautiful nevertheless. But at no point do we see Jack's own art form suffering beyond his physical limitations, which everybody basically kowtows to until he is replaced at the Orbison tribute, and for moments like Jack mumbling about how Ally didn't "win" her Grammy . . . it just feels like a great deal was left on the cutting room floor. I don't mind it when a director abides by "show, don't tell", but Cooper neither showed nor told us there, and the key conceit of the film really comes up lacking. It forces the audiences to fill in the gaps, which is fine for connective tissue but not when there are bones in the skeleton missing.
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Post by cheesecake on Oct 6, 2018 3:03:47 GMT
I really dug it. Movie felt kinda montage-y with how it was cut together, leaving us more with impressions and moments than full-fledged scenes at times, but that mostly worked for me. Felt like a character-centric decision, everything moving so fast and emotions running all over the place and I could get on that groove. A little surprised at its acclaim given I feel like for some other people that technique would be more disorienting than affecting. Anyway, the acting was strong and the songs are terrific, with the first time they sing together on stage feeling like a case of old movie magic. Whenever the movie shifts away from the central relationship and their music together, either to focus on Ally's burgeoning career or Jackson's decline then it loses some of that momentum but by the third act Cooper finds a proper balance with those elements. Overall, it's a nice little crowdpleaser that tells its classical story well and I hope it doesn't suffer too much backlash from this awards season because it's frankly getting exhausting seeing a lot of well-liked smaller-scale movies age like milk because of the bombardment of discussion online over them. And whenever there's a lot of talking on the internet, it inevitably turns negative and nitpicky. Is Gaga gonna be an Oscar-nominated person? She already is.
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Post by Ryan_MYeah on Oct 6, 2018 3:15:12 GMT
This song just screams instant classic... it has the feel of an old-school ballad Yes! That one reminded me so much of those classic Dianne Warren power ballads. I stayed through the credits to see if she actually wrote it, and she did write a song for the movie, just not that one.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Oct 6, 2018 6:55:37 GMT
With A Star Is Born, we never really get a sense of Jackson having any resentment towards a specific type of genre, or that he even resented "selling out" (remember, this is the dude who was performing for pharmacists). The only time the film pays any sort of lip service to this is Ally's lack of confidence about her nose, but Jack tells her that she's beautiful nevertheless. But at no point do we see Jack's own art form suffering beyond his physical limitations, which everybody basically kowtows to until he is replaced at the Orbison tribute, and for moments like Jack mumbling about how Ally didn't "win" her Grammy . . . it just feels like a great deal was left on the cutting room floor. I don't mind it when a director abides by "show, don't tell", but Cooper neither showed nor told us there, and the key conceit of the film really comes up lacking. It forces the audiences to fill in the gaps, which is fine for connective tissue but not when there are bones in the skeleton missing. I mean, I thought it was at least pretty clear that he thought her new image was bullshit and that she had abandoned her original artistic voice. I actually liked that the film didn't dwell too much on that dimension of the story and his jealousy toward her success, because that mid section was probably the least interesting part of the film for me. The first third and the last third were the strongest parts of the film imo.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2018 11:13:53 GMT
I liked it. Gaga absolutely kills it, not only in the music department, but she also gives a great performance with plenty of heart, soul, and nuance. Cooper also delivers on the directing and acting front (I daresay it’s a career-best role), and while they carry the movie, I thought Clay and Elliott gave strong supporting performances. A lot of those songs were pretty good too, though I can see “Shallow” getting the most focus. My one major gripe is that it does feel a bit long in some stretches.
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Post by stephen on Oct 6, 2018 15:14:47 GMT
With A Star Is Born, we never really get a sense of Jackson having any resentment towards a specific type of genre, or that he even resented "selling out" (remember, this is the dude who was performing for pharmacists). The only time the film pays any sort of lip service to this is Ally's lack of confidence about her nose, but Jack tells her that she's beautiful nevertheless. But at no point do we see Jack's own art form suffering beyond his physical limitations, which everybody basically kowtows to until he is replaced at the Orbison tribute, and for moments like Jack mumbling about how Ally didn't "win" her Grammy . . . it just feels like a great deal was left on the cutting room floor. I don't mind it when a director abides by "show, don't tell", but Cooper neither showed nor told us there, and the key conceit of the film really comes up lacking. It forces the audiences to fill in the gaps, which is fine for connective tissue but not when there are bones in the skeleton missing. I mean, I thought it was at least pretty clear that he thought her new image was bullshit and that she had abandoned her original artistic voice. I actually liked that the film didn't dwell too much on that dimension of the story and his jealousy toward her success, because that mid section was probably the least interesting part of the film for me. The first third and the last third were the strongest parts of the film imo. But don't you think that the reason the midsection was the least interesting part was because it was also by far the messiest? I personally feel like if you're barely going to touch on themes of jealousy and artistic integrity and yet have that be the linchpin of one of your characters' downward spiral, you need to emphasize it more and give it more of a solid foundation. When it came to Ally's image, she put up more of a fight than Jack did in regards to the changes (i.e. her hair color), but it was still an empty conflict.
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Post by DeepArcher on Oct 6, 2018 16:38:51 GMT
I mean, I thought it was at least pretty clear that he thought her new image was bullshit and that she had abandoned her original artistic voice. I actually liked that the film didn't dwell too much on that dimension of the story and his jealousy toward her success, because that mid section was probably the least interesting part of the film for me. The first third and the last third were the strongest parts of the film imo. Except...it's not clear. At all. The only thing Jack ever expresses resentment towards is that he thinks Ally's lyrics are about him. The film never really suggests that Jack disapproves of Ally's new image. And considering how on-the-nose (horrible pun not intended) much of the dialogue is, i.e. that godawful scene where Jack and Bobby "argue" by literally just explicitly explaining their long-standing conflict, I think the script would've had Jack directly come forward and confront Ally about her new image if we were to believe he had a problem with it (not to mention, that would've been the in-character thing for him to do), but he never does. He actually remains pretty damn supportive throughout.
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Oct 6, 2018 16:54:46 GMT
I mean, I thought it was at least pretty clear that he thought her new image was bullshit and that she had abandoned her original artistic voice. I actually liked that the film didn't dwell too much on that dimension of the story and his jealousy toward her success, because that mid section was probably the least interesting part of the film for me. The first third and the last third were the strongest parts of the film imo. Except...it's not clear. At all. The only thing Jack ever expresses resentment towards is that he thinks Ally's lyrics are about him. The film never really suggests that Jack disapproves of Ally's new image. And considering how on-the-nose (horrible pun not intended) much of the dialogue is, i.e. that godawful scene where Jack and Bobby "argue" by literally just explicitly explaining their long-standing conflict, I think the script would've had Jack directly come forward and confront Ally about her new image if we were to believe he had a problem with it (not to mention, that would've been the in-character thing for him to do), but he never does. He actually remains pretty damn supportive throughout. Did you miss the scene where Jack drunkenly wanders in while she's in the bathtub, calls her messy, says she's too worried about what everyone else thinks (a pretty direct reference to her image I'd say especially since this comes right after her SNL performance), and calls her ugly?
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Post by stephen on Oct 6, 2018 16:59:29 GMT
I mean, I thought it was at least pretty clear that he thought her new image was bullshit and that she had abandoned her original artistic voice. I actually liked that the film didn't dwell too much on that dimension of the story and his jealousy toward her success, because that mid section was probably the least interesting part of the film for me. The first third and the last third were the strongest parts of the film imo. Except...it's not clear. At all. The only thing Jack ever expresses resentment towards is that he thinks Ally's lyrics are about him. The film never really suggests that Jack disapproves of Ally's new image. And considering how on-the-nose (horrible pun not intended) much of the dialogue is, i.e. that godawful scene where Jack and Bobby "argue" by literally just explicitly explaining their long-standing conflict, I think the script would've had Jack directly come forward and confront Ally about her new image if we were to believe he had a problem with it (not to mention, that would've been the in-character thing for him to do), but he never does. He actually remains pretty damn supportive throughout. Yeah, that argument scene really rang false for me. I think there was definitely an undercurrent that Elliott and Cooper brought to their dynamic that made it believable, but I really didn't like that particular confrontation in terms of staging or plot. Bobby knew that Jack was drunk when he told him about the ranch sale, and if Jack has a propensity to forget things while under the influence (which never really comes up again in the film, if memory serves; Jack's blitzed a fair bit throughout the film yet he seems to remember most things, certainly enough to galvanize an entire relationship out of it), why would he expect that a.) Jack would remember after telling him about selling the ranch, and b.) if he knew it was a sore subject in the first place, why not tell him while Jack was sober and understood that the bones were washed away in the flood? So much of this film had confrontation built into it purely for the sake of convenience. Bobby has to leave so that Jack loses his "anchor" (even though Bobby was a shitty anchor) and has to rely more and more on Ally (which he never really does, because the story focuses more on her growth as an artist and how he's becoming an albatross rather than an anchor for her), but the ruin that Jack brings to Ally's reputation ("She looks like a jerk staying with you.") never feels like it matters at all to Ally, and that while being supportive to her suffering spouse is commendable, it feels out of character for the woman who had a private freakout in a bathroom in her first scene and who got into a bar fight within five minutes of meeting Jack. I don't buy for a second that Ally would stick with him so forgivingly, love or no love. Things like this aggravate the hell out of me because there is so much that the film does right, but there's an awful lot that feels like freshman-level storytelling, hamfistedly squashed in between two strong bookends.
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Post by stephen on Oct 6, 2018 17:08:20 GMT
Except...it's not clear. At all. The only thing Jack ever expresses resentment towards is that he thinks Ally's lyrics are about him. The film never really suggests that Jack disapproves of Ally's new image. And considering how on-the-nose (horrible pun not intended) much of the dialogue is, i.e. that godawful scene where Jack and Bobby "argue" by literally just explicitly explaining their long-standing conflict, I think the script would've had Jack directly come forward and confront Ally about her new image if we were to believe he had a problem with it (not to mention, that would've been the in-character thing for him to do), but he never does. He actually remains pretty damn supportive throughout. Did you miss the scene where Jack drunkenly wanders in while she's in the bathtub, calls her messy, says she's too worried about what everyone else thinks (a pretty direct reference to her image I'd say especially since this comes right after her SNL performance), and calls her ugly? But there was nothing that really built a foundation to that scene. Yeah, Jack goes for the bottle the moment that the performance begins (when Bobby steps in "because he's working for Willie"), but that's not exactly out of character for him. Jack drinks when he's happy, when he's sad, when it's 4:37 on a cloudy afternoon. It's unclear what his real issue is. I never got the sense that he was calling her ugly in a physical way but rather, as I'm sure was intended, that her "selling out" and surrendering her "natural talent" was what made her ugly (re: corporate). But this is a man who is fairly successful in the industry for doing just that, and aside from calling the pharma gig "bullshit" in a dismissive sort of way, he never seems to resent anything that he did to get to the point that he was at -- in fact, he's happy to continue doing what he's doing to a self-destructive end. Maybe that's fine for him and maybe he doesn't want Ally to go down that path, but he drags her into an impromptu marriage (which, fuck you Dave Chappelle for playing into that routine; whirlwind marriages are one thing but it's clear Ally is still finding her own path and to pressure her into that lifestyle while knowing how self-destructive Jack is, that's a low-key dick move), he never vocalizes his dissatisfaction with the industry or image changes beyond talks about her nose (which is just highlighting a flaw that she herself pointed out). I just think that one of the key issues with A Star Is Born (not just this version, but all versions) is how alcohol is seen as the wedge driving them apart, when in reality it merely drops the inhibitions of the characters and allows them to say what they really mean. But this film doesn't know what it really means, except that it knows conflict must arise so it muddily forces it with arguments about dead dads, stolen voices, unearned Grammys and backup dancers.
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Oct 6, 2018 17:15:52 GMT
The more I think about the film, the more interested I am in its ideas regarding artistry and artifice. Jack is clearly against the direction Ally's image and music takes, but the film doesn't fully lean into that and grants Ally the agency and benefit of never truly selling out. She maintains her sincerity off-stage and can still exhibit it in front of an audience when she pleases, whereas he has a difficult handling himself off-stage and relies on his art to say what he really wants. And on a meta-level I find that even more fascinating, given Cooper's performance has a lot of on-the-surface artifice between the popping red blood vessels and watery eyes let alone that gravelly voice in contrast to a frequently no-makeup Lady Gaga deliberately downplaying her part. I don't know, just some thoughts I'm mulling over in my head. That's one of the things that really irritates me about the film in retrospect. There are definitely some strong ideas percolating there that you keyed into, but the trouble is that the film glosses over it. It's funny that we rip on La La Land for its ethos regarding the sanctity of jazz, but the thing most of that film's critics miss the point of is that La La Land was not siding with Sebastian's viewpoint that jazz was dying. He (or at least his mindset) was what was holding it back, while John Legend was actually pushing jazz to a natural progression, as all the jazz greats did in the first place. With A Star Is Born, we never really get a sense of Jackson having any resentment towards a specific type of genre, or that he even resented "selling out" (remember, this is the dude who was performing for pharmacists). The only time the film pays any sort of lip service to this is Ally's lack of confidence about her nose, but Jack tells her that she's beautiful nevertheless. But at no point do we see Jack's own art form suffering beyond his physical limitations, which everybody basically kowtows to until he is replaced at the Orbison tribute, and for moments like Jack mumbling about how Ally didn't "win" her Grammy . . . it just feels like a great deal was left on the cutting room floor. I don't mind it when a director abides by "show, don't tell", but Cooper neither showed nor told us there, and the key conceit of the film really comes up lacking. It forces the audiences to fill in the gaps, which is fine for connective tissue but not when there are bones in the skeleton missing. I think Cooper didn't have that much of an interest in the jealousy angle and was more interested in a psychological approach with Jack's downfall having more to do with him never reconciling more personal issues involving his father and brother. My problem was more that the issues with the father and brother were pretty muddled and never directly tackled because the movie in its middle act was too busy moving along and showing Ally's meteoric rise from unknown to Grammy winner in seemingly no time (shortly after waking this morning I was asking myself what is the timeline of the film - a year? Certainly can't be much more than two). The whole artistic honesty angle seemed to be a contrasting of viewpoints: Jack is so damaged and in a rut away from music that his work is where he feels most at home, Ally is more well-adjusted off-stage so she is fine with doing the more provocative and image-conscious stuff since she's appreciative for the opportunity at all and it doesn't interfere with her ability to be more authentic in her performance when she wants. But it's not much of a conflict because it's not the real core of Jack's problem. I think Cooper may have wisely sidestepped what could have been an easy trap if he made a movie where the crux of it was about a male has-been discovering a female pop sensation only to criticize her for not achieving his standards of authenticity. I can already hear the cries of sexism if the movie had gone that route, and for what it's worth I feel like having Jack's main concern be "popular stuff is shallow and anything that isn't baring your soul is trash" would have lost steam pretty quick.
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Post by stephen on Oct 6, 2018 17:24:12 GMT
I think Cooper didn't have that much of an interest in the jealousy angle and was more interested in a psychological approach with Jack's downfall having more to do with him never reconciling more personal issues involving his father and brother. My problem was more that the issues with the father and brother were pretty muddled and never directly tackled because the movie in its middle act was too busy moving along and showing Ally's meteoric rise from unknown to Grammy winner in seemingly no time (shortly after waking this morning I was asking myself what is the timeline of the film - a year? Certainly can't be much more than two). The whole artistic honesty angle seemed to be a contrasting of viewpoints: Jack is so damaged and in a rut away from music that his work is where he feels most at home, Ally is more well-adjusted off-stage so she is fine with doing the more provocative and image-conscious stuff since she's appreciative for the opportunity at all and it doesn't interfere with her ability to be more authentic in her performance when she wants. But it's not much of a conflict because it's not the real core of Jack's problem. I think Cooper may have wisely sidestepped what could have been an easy trap if he made a movie where the crux of it was about a male has-been discovering a female pop sensation only to criticize her for not achieving his standards of authenticity. I can already hear the cries of sexism if the movie had gone that route, and for what it's worth I feel like having Jack's main concern be "popular stuff is shallow and anything that isn't baring your soul is trash" would have lost steam pretty quick. I mean, the story is inherently a little sexist if you look at it from the perspective of "talented young woman who still needs a strong, successful male influence to get her to superstardom." I get that it's still pretty much true to life in the industry, but still, the story has that built right into its DNA. I think there's a lot to be said for what Cooper (the director) was interested in pursuing with dealing with the fall of a musical legend due to the bottle. Problem is, that's only half the movie (and in all honesty, not the most important half; the movie is called A Star Is Born, not A Star Has Fallen). Cooper spends so much time showcasing Jack's bouts with Bobby, with Ally's success, with the bottle, with his tinnitus, that he seemingly forgets that the movie is supposed to be more about Ally. It's the trouble when you have dueling leads going in two wildly different directions. If Cooper wanted to do his Crazy Heart, fine. But it clashes immensely with Ally's story, because her tale loses an awful lot of the conflict that was seemingly built into her character in the start. She just capitulates to Jackson's whims, then her agent's, and any sort of stand she takes for herself (like choosing not to use the dancers) lacks the fiery passion we saw from a woman who got into a bar-brawl in the first act. Ally becomes the supporting character of her own story up until the last twenty minutes, which I find to be unforgivable for a story that is about her meteoric rise and finding herself without needing to be shackled by a troubled, poisonous influence. In short, I think this film is really let down by pedestrian screenwriting, with the second act having all the grace and nuance of a Wikipedia entry. Cooper's direction doesn't do it many favors. It's the performances and the music that elevate it, but it frustrates me because so many of my problems with it seem to be borne out of what appears to be Bradley Cooper's own ego. The second act is almost entirely seen through his eyes, which should not be the case because that is when Ally is becoming the eponymous character, and discovering this world on her own without needing him to guide her.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Oct 6, 2018 17:56:40 GMT
I mean, I thought it was at least pretty clear that he thought her new image was bullshit and that she had abandoned her original artistic voice. I actually liked that the film didn't dwell too much on that dimension of the story and his jealousy toward her success, because that mid section was probably the least interesting part of the film for me. The first third and the last third were the strongest parts of the film imo. But don't you think that the reason the midsection was the least interesting part was because it was also by far the messiest? I personally feel like if you're barely going to touch on themes of jealousy and artistic integrity and yet have that be the linchpin of one of your characters' downward spiral, you need to emphasize it more and give it more of a solid foundation. When it came to Ally's image, she put up more of a fight than Jack did in regards to the changes (i.e. her hair color), but it was still an empty conflict. I found it to be the least interesting bit not necessarily because it was the messiest, more that it was the point at which film slipped into more formulaic territory. The whole film is built on a well-worn formula obviously, but for me it was all elevated by the intimacy of the early and later scenes where the camera just sits there and lets the actors behave. As far as as the jealousy/artistic integrity angle, I think I got what I needed from the bathtub fight and the SNL performance, which to me seemed to deliberately present Ally's new music as vapid. I didn't really feel like that needed to be plumbed any more than it was or else it could have felt heavy handed in a trite way (to me at least). I suppose it would have been nice to get a clearer picture of her perspective on her own image, but I'm just talking in terms of conflict between the two leads. Personally, I was more interested in Jack's personal issues stemming from his relationship with his father and brother than I was the jealousy/artistic integrity angle.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Oct 6, 2018 18:30:26 GMT
I suppose I can see why someone would have a problem with the fact that Cooper frames the movie around his character at the expense of Ally's perspective. This is really his story, and if you go into it expecting more equal treatment of the two leads, then I can understand being disappointed with the final product.
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