Year: 2001
Director: Bradley Cooper
I can’t believe that a significant proportion of our membership has not been or thought about going to see this blockbuster, even if prodded to by others. Family Moles saw it at the new Hummingbird cinema in the Custard Factory on Sat night, and a great 2.5 hours entertainment was had by all. So, be prepared to put your scene-based rockistry away for once and bow down before the altar of Big Entertainment. Everything is Big in this amped-up version of the evergreen showbiz tale of woe.
Gaga is immense, literally so, as the camera cannot get enough of her otherworldly robostar persona which fills the screen in close-up countless times. Her voice is gigantic, whether turning everything up to 11 for La Vie En Rose at the start, or giving it the full tragic diva Big Ballad at the end. This will sound so much better through the cinema sound system than our Samsung at home. There’s even a meta-moment when the face we’ve been staring into for a good hour and a half appears on a billboard the size of a football pitch: now everyone knows what we know, she’s a star.
Bradley Cooper’s voice is deeper than the Mariana Trench. He’s pretty damn convincing as the kind of rock-good old boy-a bit country star we just don’t get over here, but which fill stadia over there – hang on, no his voice is only coming second to the Gravel King, Sam Elliott, whose voice emerges from the cinema floor.
All of the beats from the 50s and 70s editions are there: the chance discovery in a little joint (again here amplified with drag queens with huge wigs), the initial shyness and doubt giving way to steeliness in the spotlight; the drinking problem of the fading star only intensified by the gathering shadows; and the final disgrace. The Grammys awards ceremony will have you squirming in your seat.
Cooper and Gaga are both excellent, as is Elliott. The only false note comes from Rez Gavron (no me neither) whose accent and demeanour settle in the mid-Atlantic. He is both obvious and underpowered in the admittedly thankless role of the scheming manager who drives them apart to ensure Gaga’s rise to success.
If the Garland/Mason iteration riffed on Garland’s megastar wattage, and the heyday of the Hollywood musical; and the Kristoffferson/Streisand one brought this story into the rock era, this one explores much more than either the musical generation gap. Cooper’s jeans and guitars rock is displaced by Gaga’s twitchy electropop on film and in real life. The best scene in the film sees Cooper, already fading, turn up to a rehearsal in which Gaga and a troupe of dancers are working on a performance for a track. He’s lost, in every way. She starts out banging a tambourine and doing backing vocals in his concerts like a tuneful Linda, by this point she’s developing a career that Cooper’s character can have no part in, anymore than Kinkladze could fit into Pep’s swarm of scurrybots. The game has changed.
It’s immensely enjoyable, and there’s more than enough booze poured and white stuff chopped out to convince. Does it show it’s a lot easier to make a great rock film about fictional characters (Quadrophenia, Almost Famous) than a biopic, when compromises and approved stories are the name of the game.
Fun fact: Elvis apparently was first choice for the 70s remake in the Kristofferson part. What a film that would have been. I’m guessing the film insurers nixed that.
Might appeal to people who enjoyed:
Rock biogs, close-ups, Gaga.
The scenes that play against big are Gaga’s family life, in which Andrew Dice Clay plays a touchingly clumsy father lost in his own dreams of ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’. They, like almost everything in this film, are perfectly carried off. If Cooper carries on like this he’s nailed on for Clint’s mantle of gruff actor/director.
Two and a half hours?!? Bloody hell …
It kept a fidgety 15 year old boy involved. I cannot stress enough how perfectly machine-tooled the script is. The Garland version ran nearly 3.
All big Hollywood films are at least two and a quarter hours long these days, and it’s quite normal for them to get to three. One of the many, many reasons I’m not interested. I blame Lord of the Rings.
Superb review
Superb review of a superb film. Me and Mrs thep saw it the other night and were completely entranced. Blown away. 2 1/2 hours just flew by. Never previously paid much attention to Lady G because old (me, not her), but she is astonishing – her voice and her jolie-laide features just leap out of the screen.
I’ve always turned my nose up at previous incarnations of ASIB, but I’m slightly tempted to investigate, although now I’m confused by the notion of James Mason as a rock star.
Here’s one of the more shiversome moments.
Mike, the original ASIB were set in the acting world. So you are safe from James Mason singing. I remember that version as a fine film though
I was slightly surprised at how old fashioned it was, in that the digital revolution supposedly changed the music industry, but you’d never know it watching this. The only acknowledgement to the changes in the last 20 years was Gaga’s dad and mates watching her via Youtube on a mobile phone. Otherwise you’d be forgiven for thinking that the movie was shot 20 years ago.
I guess in some respects that whole background milieu is unimportant as it’s a story about one person on the way up while the other’s on the way down….they could have set it in any field of endeavour, really (James Mason was a film star, after all, not a musician).
Bit worried when they got the dog, too – films like this you just know the poor mutt’ll cop it before the end credits.
Hey! No spoilers!
Dogs, who cares? Now, if it had been a cat … different ball game.
I fell in love with lady Gaga in this fabulous film. This is a very good review of a film that I would be surprised doesn’t garner a handful of Oscars.
Her first tentative appearance on stage had the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and the final scene had my wife and I in bits.
What a brilliant film.
Thinking about casting the UK remake.
Charlie XcX in the Gaga role, Nick Knowles as the grizzled rock star.
Of all the Yes shirts Lady Gaga could wear in the film… Tormato? 😕
Right there is a fundamental difference between men and women.
A man will choose a t-shirt that shows off the excellence of his musical taste. A woman will choose the one she looks best in.
Men look great in black XXL band t-shirts.
To each other.
Enjoyed the first hour. The rest degenerated into the usual Hollywood cliched Meh !
Saw it today. My screening was 2 and a quarter hours! Thought it was great. Both leads were convincing, the live on stage stuff was mesmerising and Elliot, at least, should win an Oscar (but he wasn’t nominated for a Golden Globe).
Suppose you would expect me to have a differing opinion but I was somewhat disappointed – cliche after cliche. Saying that, who knew Lady G could act so well – I predict a big future for her!