A Star Is Born review

Lady Gaga is already earmarked to win the best actress Academy Award for her role in A Star is Born.

Watch interviews with Steven Colbert, Ellen or at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Gaga gushes about director and co-star Bradley Cooper – plus how the real reward for the film was the working experience, and how awards wouldn’t matter.

As humble as that is, Gaga (real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) is wrong. Her role as Ally is a ground-breaking piece of work involving some of the strongest on-screen chemistry you’ll see this year.

As much as A Star is Born is a sweeping musical, there’s raw emotion that can only be attributed to Cooper and Gaga’s close working relationship before and during filming.

What the two created gives the same feeling you get watching Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind, or Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca. It’s cinematic magic that will stand the test of time.

Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born. Picture: Warner Bros

That success is attributed to a collaborative environment.

“I never thought, ‘how do I make it original?’” says Cooper.

This is the fourth incarnation of A Star is Born, a story that has had nips and tucks over the years.

“I just knew I had to make it authentic to tell the story I wanted to tell,” says Cooper, who, in addition to directing and co-writing the screenplay plus starring as Jackson Maine, produced the film.

He and Lady Gaga individually co-wrote some of the music.

A Star is Born is more skewed as a tragic love story, which meant both actors needed to be able to go to dark emotions.

Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born. Picture: Warner Bros

Cooper said: “She’d done incredible work as an actress, but to make this huge transition. It felt like we were at the same point in our work, and we both needed the same thing from each other, essentially, in order to jump the tracks to this other place.”

A Star is Born takes a look at what it’s like to feel, love and make choices. That realism is why this film will ensnare you from beginning to end – but add in a few killer songs, gorgeous cinematography during concert scenes and two actors at the top of their game, and you have award-season gold.

It’s an unmissable event you need to watch with Dolby sound on the biggest screen you can find.

Info

Rating: ★★★★★

Starring: Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper and Dave Chapelle.

Director: Bradley Cooper.

Classification: 16 LSD.

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