“Everyone in the world is talented, but just a few have something to say and it’s those that the world is willing to lend an ear to,” rock star Jackson Maine, fighting the pressures of stardom with a dire mix of alcohol and drugs, tells Ally, a struggling artiste he discovers one fine evening at a bar. The long sequence, at the very start of the film, is all about what A Star Is Born gets so right — the instant connect with a stranger; the personal sharing and the pain; the love-filled gazes of the two; the now mundane, now uplifting talk, and the unobtrusive camera following them lightly, at a distance yet framing them up close and personal when needed, with the ease of a friend than an intruder.
Wonderfully realised
There are many such wonderfully realised intimate, one-to-one moments in the film, which had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Like those between Jackson and his elder brother and manager (Sam Elliott), especially one in which Jackson dredges out the ghosts of the past while being driven by him. Elliott drops him, backs the car, sporting a face that is shattered and broken — and impossible to forget. Or a friend talking about dropping anchor in a port in the here and now than bother about the journey ahead in the future, triggering a long and lovely proposal scene. In the wrong hands, they could have easily turned embarrassingly schmaltzy but debutante director Bradley Cooper handles them with immense economy, delicacy and poise.
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A Star Is Born is a tale that has been told previously. You know the broader arc, yet it moves the audience genuinely and gently than being brazenly manipulative.
A human story
The musical sequences and the stage performances have been captured just as well as the human story; with fabulous vim and vigour. Lady Gaga’s acting debut as Ally is confident, charismatic and subtle all at the same time, but it’s Mr. Cooper on the margins, making her take centrestage, who is remarkable as the man who turns her into a star while also being the source of her many embarrassments; a man hopelessly in love with her and for whom her reciprocity of love is the only deliverance.
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