Review: A Star is Born

There are tales - biblical, mythical, Shakespearean - that can be told over and over again and, with each telling, always have some sort of relevance because of their universality. A Star is Born is such a warhorse, first incarnated as a drama by George Cukor in 1932 under the title What Price Hollywood? starring Constance Bennett and Lowell Sherman. It was remade five years later, this time as A Star is Born with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. Seventeen years would pass before Cukor would rework it as a musical with Judy Garland and James Mason as the leads. Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson would then take the reins in 1976 and that was the last audiences heard the tale until now for along comes the fifth iteration of the classic story of love and sacrifice and the perils of fame with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. Nothing will ever touch the majesty that was the 1954 film, but wow does this version, marking Cooper's directorial debut, firmly stand alongside it.

There's a great deal to love in this rapturous regeneration and every listing will inevitably have Lady Gaga at the foremost. Lady Gaga, of course, is one of the most famous stars in the world but, here, audiences are witnesses to a rebirth, a reintroduction to the woman behind her, and that woman, Miss Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, is a revelation as Ally, a waitress who's been trying to make it as a singer for years but whose confidence has been eroded by a roundelay of rejection. Yet the talent is undeniable as is her purity and authenticity. There's a moment during her first performance, a stirring rendition of "La Vie en Rose" that would make Edith Piaf proud, when she turns her head to Cooper's Jackson Maine and the camera holds on her face for just a second longer than it should - and it is the exact moment that Jackson falls for her, the audience falls for her, and A Star is Born hooks its tentacles into you and never lets go.

Every love story hinges on the chemistry between its two stars and Cooper and Lady Gaga have it in spades. One can well understand why Jackson, whose alcoholism is threatening both his reputation and successful career, would want to spend as much time with her as possible. Moments that may seem hokey on paper - Jackson stripping off one of her false eyebrows or running his finger down the length of her nose - are erotic and sensual onscreen. One can empathise with Ally would stay despite the alcoholism, which she's already endured with her father (a moving Andrew Dice Clay), and the negative effect it's having on her burgeoning career. These are two people connected not only by their love for one another, but their love for each other's talent - and, for the both of them, there's no separation between the two.

This is also a film that truly immerses viewers into what it feels like to be on stage and in the crowds. There's a caught-on-the-fly vibe that Cooper captures here that also extends to everything else, which deepens our emotional investment in Jackson and Ally because everything feels so lived-in and true. To say Cooper's achievement as a director is remarkable would be an understatement, but he also delivers one of his finest performances as the emotionally wounded Jackson who, deep in his heart, knows that the only way for Ally to soar is for him to let her go.

A Star is Born

Directed by: Bradley Cooper

Written by: Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters; based on the 1954 screenplay by Moss Hart, the 1976 screenplay by Joan Didion, John Gregory Dunne, and Frank Pierson, and a story by William Wellman and Robert Carson

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, Rafi Gavron, Dave Chappelle, Anthony Ramos, Alec Baldwin, Ron Rifkin