Review Roundup: The Critics Weigh in on A STAR IS BORN with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper

In this new take on the tragic love story, Cooper plays seasoned musician Jackson Maine, who discovers-and falls in love with-struggling artist Ally (Gaga). She has just about given up on her dream to make it big as a singer... until Jack coaxes her into the spotlight. But even as Ally's career takes off, the personal side of their relationship is breaking down, as Jack fights an ongoing battle with his own internal demons.

In addition to playing Ally, Gaga performs original songs in the film, which she wrote with Cooper and a handful of artists, including Lukas Nelson, Jason Isbell and Mark Ronson. All the music is original and was recorded live.

The film, also directed by Cooper, had its debut screening today ahead of its theatrical release in the US on October 5th.

Let see what the critics had to say...

---

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: Bradley Cooper plays the boozy and downwardly mobile alpha-star laying his pride on the showbiz altar of the woman he loves. Cooper directs and co-stars in this outrageously watchable and colossally enjoyable new version, supercharged with dilithium crystals of pure melodrama. He appears opposite a sensationally good Lady Gaga, whose ability to be part ordinary person, part extraterrestrial celebrity empress functions at the highest level at all times.

Stephanie Zacharek, Time: It's wonderful to see a first-time filmmaker who's more interested in effective storytelling than in impressing us; telling a story effectively is hard enough. Best of all, Cooper has succeeded in making a terrific melodrama for the modern age. This is a story of big personalities and even bigger human mistakes. These days we're always ready for our own close-ups. What a relief to turn the stage over to someone else for a change.

Robbie Collin, The Telegraph: For any singer, following Judy Garland in your first major movie role would be a nightmare brief, but Gaga more than meets it, even paying gorgeous, subtle tribute by singing the opening few lines of a certain show tune as the film's title fades up on screen.

Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly: Gaga's serious-actress transformation for her first major film role will undoubtedly lead the conversation, and she certainly deserves praise for her restrained, human-scale performance as a singer whose real-girl vulnerability lands miles away from the glittery meat-dress delirium of her own stage persona. And the original songs (most of which Gaga and Cooper share full or partial credit for) are memorably, sturdily melodic -though not the conspicuously flat dance-pop Ally moves toward as her career swerves closer toward the mainstream.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: Gaga's skill as an actor isn't at the level of her impeccable vocals. But while this is not going to replace either the 1937 Janet Gaynor-Fredric March original or especially the beloved 1954 Judy Garland-James Mason remake as the classic version, Cooper's fresh take finds plenty of mileage left in the well-trod showbiz saga.

Michael Nordine, IndieWire: Even with everything Gaga's already done, "A Star Is Born" feels like a coming-out party for her. Cooper is a co-lead but, in much the same way that his Jackson Maine takes Ally on tour and facilitates her burgeoning superstardom, it often feels like his onscreen goal is to play second fiddle and help us see that, as both an actress and a singer, his co-star is a singular talent.

Owen Gleiberman, Variety: As a filmmaker, Bradley Cooper gets right onto the high wire, staging scenes that take their time and play out with a shaggy intimacy that's shorn of the usual "beats." The new "Star Is Born" is a total emotional knockout, but it's also a movie that gets you to believe, at every step, in the complicated rapture of the story it's telling.

Alonso Duralde, The Wrap: Cooper and Lady Gaga are dynamite together; this is a story that lives and dies by the central relationship and the instant chemistry that must blossom between them, and these two have it in spades.

Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily: The fourth screen iteration of a vintage property, A Star Is Born won't be for everyone: somewhat resembling a de luxe episode of TV series Nashville, it may not impress lovers of previous Stars, nor is it likely to appeal to fans of Gaga's outré performance-art persona, a skin she determinedly sheds here. But, taken on its own terms as an unashamedly anachronistic attempt to muster the emotional intensity of the Hollywood melodrama tradition, Cooper's film must be at least grudgingly acknowledged as a success. And both stars, Gaga in particular, emerge with honour. That might not be enough to draw a wide public, although the film could register respectably with older viewers who want old-fashioned romance with a grittier touch than Mamma Mia! and a less artsy one than La La Land.

Leonardo Goi, The Film Stage: A Star is Born is not innovative. It does not seek to offer some radical twists and turns to a story that's been dissected and revisited for over 80 years. But it remains a miracle of stage chemistry, a touching portrait of a couple who click to such a wondrous extent to pay justice to the timeless scope of a Hollywood classic. The real surprise here is not Cooper, but Gaga. More than a newly born star, hers never stops growing.

Glenn Kenny, RogerEbert.com: Cooper proves an able director. The opening scenes show him displaying a penchant for Kubrickian one-point-perspective shots, but he's at his best, as so many directors who came up though acting tend to be, when the camera gets close to his performers and captures their intimate interplay. Playing the dissolute country-rock star, Cooper imitates Sam Elliott's speaking voice, which makes a different kind of sense when Elliott himself turns up playing Maine's older brother and mess-cleaner. The movie gives the Maine character more of a back story than he's ever had, and it's a good one. Gaga's Ally is a credible update of Esther Blodgett, and this "Star" uses the character's songwriting talent and ambitions to explore notions of artistic integrity that few prior versions of "Star" had much overt concern for. But the movie is still a tear-jerker at heart. Not to disparage the talents of any individuals who worked on it (and I should emphasize that Cooper does damn well playing a musician, and Gaga is her usual disciplined marvel), but this is an example of Big Movie Studio Craft at its most well-thought out; among the many contingents of moviegoers it will please will be the "they don't make 'em like that anymore" crowd.

To post a comment, you must register and login.