A Star Is Born Review

Photo courtesy of MCT Campus 

“Poker Face” by Lady Gaga used to play on a loop on my iPod nano. I was gaga for Gaga (still am). But when I first saw the trailer for “A Star Is Born” starring the pop icon, I was confused. I didn’t see any of her trademark looks — where was the meat dress?  

Hoping to figure out how she came to be the brown-haired, sans-makeup woman in the trailer, I had to go see “A Star Is Born.”

Directed by and starring Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born” follows the relationship between struggling artist Ally, played by Lady Gaga, and already-famous-country-star Jackson Maine. The two meet during one of Ally’s regular gigs at a drag bar, enter a whirlwind romance and Ally accompanies Jack his country-wide tour. She becomes a regular guest performer during his shows, belting out notes I didn’t know were humanly possible and straying from the typical electrico-pop I’m used to hearing Gaga sing.

The soundtrack to the movie is full of catchy songs and powerful duets between Gaga and Cooper. I didn’t even know Cooper could sing, but his opening lines to “Shallow”, the movie’s stand out anthem and number one on my Spotify playlist, had me convinced he should win a Grammy.  

It’s not long before Ally signs with a record company, dyes her hair, and embraces rising stardom. For the first time, I recognized Lady Gaga — she finally had orange hair, outlandish outfits and was performing on SNL in the movie. However, I missed the original Ally and her simple dream of songwriting.

Jack’s drug and alcohol addiction is a recurring theme throughout. The movie doesn’t sugarcoat anything (you see him pee his pants while drunk). Ally’s success only amplifies his struggles. While she’s on the rise, he heads downhill. The portrayal of raw love was refreshing — Ally was always the one picking Jack up when he falls or spraying him awake with a shower when he’s had one too many.

Because of Jack’s issues and Ally’s new fame, their relationship status fluctuates as they attempt to balance it all. But the obvious charisma Cooper and Gaga quickly established kept me rooting for them to work it out. Who else would be Ally’s duet partner?

But I found myself annoyed with Ally during the second half of the movie. In the beginning she made a point of remaining true to her image and actually saying something with her music, but by the second half of the movie she was just another pop star repeating the same chorus over and over.

Despite the movie portraying heavy content like Jack snorting pills, there were some lighthearted moments that provided a necessary balance. The entire drag bar scene was one of those times — Jack peels off Ally’s fake eyebrow and later performs and autographs some, ahem, intimate spots on the drag queens. Kudos to Cooper for creating a movie that included humor but still had an ending that left me reaching for Kleenexes three days later.

Even though I didn’t root for Ally by the end of the movie, this movie is my new all-time favorite with its portrayal of deep love that not even “The Notebook” could rival. Not to mention the play-on-repeat soundtrack.