A Journey I Wouldn’t Have Wanted To Miss

Theatrical Poster 'A Star Is Born'

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57620360
By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57620360

Last week I wanted to watch a movie, so I started up Netflix. Usually, selecting a movie takes me about half an hour before I have found one that feels right. This time though, a film was recommended to me by Netflix where it said the chance of me liking it was 98%. That’s really high and, unless it’s one of their Originals they want to push, usually Netflix isn’t that far off. And so, without any prior knowledge of this movie, I watched ‘A Star is Born’. And loved it.

Remake

Since I didn’t know anything about this movie, I didn’t know about its history. Apparently, this movie is a remake of versions going as early back as 1937. Other versions appeared with Judy Garland in 1954 and with Barbra Streisand in 1976.
For the 2018 remake, it took a long time to find the actors. There was talk with Beyonce, Will Smith and many others. They settled on Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga.

Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga

Just as I had little knowledge of the movie beforehand, neither did I know the two main characters very well. I have never heard of Bradley Cooper before, and I know of Lady Gaga of course, but only as she appeared in the media with her extravagant outfits and her pop music. Except for this video with a special appearance of that actor 😉

The story of ‘A Star is Born’ is simple. A waitress gets the attention of a veteran rock star, and he pulls her onto the stage and effectively launches her career. While he struggles with drug- and alcohol abuse, she acquires a contract with a big label and becomes a great pop star.

Loves

There were many things I loved about this movie. First of all, I believed the two main actors. Their performance was outstanding, and I never doubted them. The love between them was tangible. I loved how they stayed together until the end.
The way the music was part of the entire movie was well-done too. I could see how music was integral to their lives. They took me on a journey, and I’m happy to have joined.

Dislikes

I didn’t like how they made it seem so easy to write songs. Yes, occasionally I can see someone writing a song in one go, but usually, it’s a process that takes longer with words being scrapped and rewritten and rephrased. I thought they oversimplified that in the movie.
Another thing I disliked was that they gave Ally a career in traditional pop music instead of the more singer-songwriter music which she wrote before. But I guess that would happen in real life too.

Since I hadn’t seen any of the earlier versions of this film before, I wasn’t exactly prepared for the ending. It was foreshadowed, and I had guessed it, but it definitely hit me hard. Let’s just say it was very emotional.

Five Stars

I’m not a singer or performer, but as a fan-girl, the movie ‘A Star Is Born’ hit all the right notes for me. It was the perfect portrayal of what it would be like to be selected as a commoner to suddenly get catapulted into the world of fame. After all, that has been my dream since I was a teenage girl.
I hadn’t thought I would love to see Lady Gaga perform, but I believed her every step of the way in this movie. And I totally understood why she stood by Bradley Cooper the way she did. I would have done the same.
So yes, this movie is a definite recommend from me. Now that I know the ending, I don’t think I could watch it again, but if you haven’t seen it, you definitely should. It’s the perfect rockstar romance, but for the ending. Five stars from me.