Movie Review: A Star Is Born, One of The Best Movies Of 2018

Jeff D Lowe10/09/2018 5:46 PM

This is one of the biggest reviews of the year for us as ‘A Star Is Born’ continues to dominate the movie industry. Did we like it? (yes) Did our audience like it? (yes) It’s time for our reviews…

Jeff Lowe (96/100): ‘A Star Is Born’ is an incredible experience of stellar acting, great music, and a deep and meaningful story. First-time director Bradley Cooper’s vision plays out on the screen in his debut with near perfection in one of the best movies of 2018. The movie has garnered a lot of well-deserved hype and I expect that to last all the way through award season.

A lot of the hype is in large part due to the star power of Lady Gaga and her stunning performance in the movie. She is for sure the odds-on-favorite right now to take home both a Golden Globe and an Oscar. Her singing is as good as ever, but her acting shows how much talent she really has. In her first real major motion picture role, a lead role to boot, Gaga slips into it with impressive depth and emotion. Her character’s storyline is very raw and up and down, and it just feels like a perfectly natural fit for the entertainer. This will be the first of many future big roles, one would imagine, for Gaga.

Bradley Cooper meanwhile just decided to say “fuck, I want to sing now” and he did a pretty damn good job. He too will get a ton of Oscar buzz, though I am not sure he is the odds-on favorite like Gaga. With that said, his performance is one of the best of his career in my opinion. You feel for his character, a popular musician with alcohol and drug problems, because of how gritty the performance is and Cooper’s usual dedication to getting fully immersed in a role. I haven’t even gotten to the singing yet for Cooper, something he fucking nails the entire movie. It’s crazy to say, but I think Jackson Maine (Cooper’s character) is now my favorite country music artist.

The story is a brutal one to get through and tackles some very tough issues from addiction, relationships and finding the courage to take a leap in life. Nothing really beats getting invested in the characters on screen and ‘A Star Is Born’ does a great job doing just that. My only real complaint is about the middle act, which felt a little rushed pacing wise at times, but the movie nearly hits every single beat anyway. The music, as expected, is all great from start to finish and I’d say my two favorite songs are ‘Shallow’ and ‘Maybe It’s Time’.

I can’t finish this review without noting how great three of the supporting actors were in this movie. First up, how about the Diceman! Andrew Dice Clay plays Lady Gaga’s character (Ally) and it might take you a few seconds to realize it is him. I love him in this role and Cooper and co. did a great job with the casting. Another big-time comedian in Dave Chapelle makes an appearance as one of Maine’s longtime friends. His speech about life, as seen partly in the trailers, is one of the more relatable parts of the movie. Lastly, Sam Elliott, who will for sure be nominated for an Oscar, balances out the successful-yet-tragic life of Jackson Maine in the role of his brother Bobby. Besides having an amazing voice, Elliott delivers possibly the most emotional performance of the movie and sets the tone for nearly every single “tough” scene.

There are a lot of candidates from here on out, but it will be hard for a movie to dethrone ‘A Star Is Born’ for me at the top of my list right now. The movie delivers it all, from great acting to great music a great story and everything in between. Don’t walk, make sure you run to go see this movie as soon as possible.

KenJac (92/100): I am 100% on board with Feits on this in that Bradley Cooper is such a goddamn asshole for being this talented. His directorial debut was an absolute and total success at just about every phase possible. It was a great appetizer to award season, and pretty much a mortal lock to at least make you well up in tears once (especially if you never watched the first two, like me).

Bradley Cooper plays Jackson Maine, an established rock star struggling with alcohol and drug addiction who discovers Lady Gaga’s Ally, an unknown singer with a phenomenal voice. The story follows the ups and downs of their relationship and respective careers, and it feels extremely real due to their outstanding performances. Being a superstar and the day-to-day struggles that come with that isn’t something instantly relatable to anyone other than .00001% of the world’s population, but Cooper’s performance really helps you feel empathetic to what Jack goes through. Lady Gaga struggled a tad at the emotional extremes but nailed the part of being just a normal, blue-collar person thrust into that world. She made so much of the dialogue feel incredibly natural, making it seem almost like you were watching a documentary at times more than a scripted movie. The last performance I really need to mention is Sam Elliot. God damn him, dude. Him and Cooper’s scenes had me crumbling down into a billion pieces like a Nutrigrain bar.

I can’t express how much I loved the way this was filmed. They thrust you right on-stage in wide-shot concerts, tight-knit intimate situations, and some dramatic tracking-shots. Cooper and Director of Photography Matthew Libatique did some of the latter that gave you just enough view of what was happening but made you anxious to see what was out of frame. They pace it perfectly to show the development of both Cooper and Gaga’s characters as people and as a couple, leading to an insane ending that you feel a visceral connection to. The sound mixing crew did a great job as well, particularly with amplifying Lady Gaga’s incredible voice. She sent chills down my spine multiple times throughout the movie.

Time to get a little real. The movie revolves a lot around Jackson’s struggle with alcohol and drug addiction. Like an unfortunately large number of people in this country, this is an issue that struck home for me personally as I grew up with an alcoholic in the family. I found the way they presented Cooper and Gaga’s struggle to be so profoundly accurate and in-touch with what it’s really like to love someone struggling with the disease. For Cooper, he was shown as a loving, good person who can’t accept that he wasn’t in his struggle alone. Media, in general, can sometimes make alcoholism/addiction seem like a selfish and evil choice, which is what drives so much shame into the afflicted. In turn, this drives them away from seeking help in favor of trying to fix it themselves. For Gaga she perfectly expressed that every-day fear some of us go through of not knowing which version of your loved one is coming home, or even if they’re going to come home at all.

Again, this is basically a mortal lock to make anyone with a soul cry. I’m impressed with everything they were able to do from top to bottom, and it is a must-see of the season. This was an incredible month for directorial debuts between this and ‘Mid90s‘, and I can’t wait to see what Cooper has up his sleeve next.

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This movie is easily Officially Buttered and the top movie of the year from our audience. Make sure to subscribe to Lights, Camera, Barstool where we will review ‘A Star Is Born’ on Sunday and reveal Trillballins’ score. Make sure to rate all 2018 movies below.