A star is bored

The film business is a high stakes game and the stakes are getting higher all the time. There was a time when a film like My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) could grow gently by word of mouth to become a colossal hit. Not any longer. The days of the sleeper hit are far behind us. In the modern movie business films have in theory a single weekend to prove themselves at the box office. In practice, sophisticated computer modelling means they have really only a few hours.

In this climate the marketing of the movie is crucial, a new audience has to be bought for every movie and that elusive ‘want see’ commodity has to be created. Hats off then to the marketing department behind this version of A Star is Born. They have created such an enormous amount of hype around this film that I even paid my own money to see it.

To be honest I cannot recall a recent film that has been more overpraised – not even La La Land (2016). Newspaper ads are full of four and – remarkably – even five-star reviews for a film which, to me, is at best workmanlike and at worst unbelievably dull. It’s a bore for the most part.

The appeal of the film to the studio is obvious, A Star is Born has been a hit three times already with Janet Gaynor (1937), Judy Garland (1954), and Barbra Streisand (1976) so in these risk averse times green lighting it seems like a no brainer. And yet this film seems especially  pointless.

The plot is well worn. It’s a story of the love between an established star and a wannabe in which the Svengali-like influence of the superstar will mould and shape the talented ingenue. The twist is that the established star’s career is on a downward trajectory, although he may not know it, and is about to be eclipsed by the rising newcomer. There is, as there has been in all three previous versions, a fateful conclusion and triumphant resolution.

This time round the star is Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper), a country-rock star of inexplicable global popularity and the newcomer is Ally Campana (Lady Gaga), a waitress who wants to be a songwriter but lacks confidence. It’s simple stuff but very heavy going. The first half is light enough despite Gaga, of which more later, but the second half is a bit of a slog as we find ourselves wading through very predictable treacle.

Part of the problem is a very poor script for which Cooper is partially credited along with Will Fetters and Eric Roth. This is a script that leaves nothing to the imagination, it has no sense of subtext. Every point is hammered home and we are left in no doubt about the back story of every character because they cannot be prevented from narrating it at every opportunity. The first clash between Jackson and his older brother Bobby (Sam Elliott) is an especially egregious example of information dumping. There are no characters, just talking plot points.

Cooper is by some distance the best thing in the film. He is an attractive actor in every sense of the world and the film never lets you forget that. Gaga may have top billing but he’s the director, so he gets all the close-ups.

Lady Gaga on the other hand is extremely problematic. As Ally she has no presence at all, she’s no actor. I suspect this might be down to a consistent inability to find her lens, so she doesn’t have the impact she should have. It is nonetheless a passionless performance which only comes to life when she becomes, effectively Lady Gaga. Ally, as she is now singularly named, is Lady Gaga to all intents and purposes and performatively she provides a much-needed shot in the arm. There is however no explanation for how the soulful Suzanne Vega type songwriter turns into this overhyped creature.

Jackson meanwhile is going from bad to worse with a season ticket for the rehab facility. Unlike other versions of the story, the focus here is on the male lead rather than the female. It’s his story not hers and much less interesting for it; so much for #metoo. Whether or not Gaga could have lifted that dramatic weight is mercifully untested.

As a director Cooper deserves some credit for his choice of subject but that’s about it. Unlike other actors making a directing debut he has not chosen to do some vanity indie piece of emo navel-gazing. This is a big film with big budgets and big issues to deal with.

He deals with them competently and in a workmanlike way. The film’s visual trick is to put you on stage with the performers – previous versions gave us largely the audience perspective - but this is just a product of new technology. Cooper, to be fair, does his own singing and playing; it’s pleasant enough but not something you’d pay money to hear.

As a filmmaker there is very little flair or imagination in Cooper’s direction; he does not strike you as a director with something to say or an interesting way of saying it. He does deserve credit for getting through his first picture, but there’s nothing here to suggest that I’d be in any hurry to see his second one.