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As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.
TODAY’S CRITIC: Lafronda Stumn
Lafronda Stumn is a student at Madisonville Community College and intends to graduate with an Associate's degree in Associate of the Arts. She plans on earning a Bachelors Degree in Motion Picture Studies and English at Wright State University. Her favorite Directors are Scorsese, Spielberg, and Spike Lee, and her favorite actors are Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, and Halle Berry. Lafronda contacted this page looking for a place to get published and I enjoy giving people that very kind of opportunity. She recently reviewed Alfre Woodard’s powerhouse drama Clemency and the troubled romance Blue Valentine. Welcome back, Lafronda!
HER REVIEW:
When I first heard that Warner Bros was going to another remake of A Star Is Born, I wondered, is this necessary? Why now there were three other versions in 1937, 1954, and 1976. You know what happens already, please try something original for a change? I heard outstanding notices at the Venice, Telluride, and Toronto Film Festivals; then, I felt maybe it right after all? Overall, the film lived up to the hype.
Bradley Cooper took over the realms of this new version as a not only actor but director, producer, and Co-writer and plays Jackson Maine, an ounce famous rock star who has spent too much time drinking and snorting coke and because of not taking care of his voice and body. Wasted, he goes into a gay bar desperate for a drink. Jackson then sees a female singer sing French and in amazement by her performance. Her name is Ally (Lady Gaga), who works as a waitress by day and once a week sings at a gay club where she loves the gay community. Jackson tracks her down, and they strike up a conversation and captivate! by him too, knowing from the very beginning, Jackson Maine drinks too much.
On their second date, they go to a cop bar where Jackson and Ally confront another drunk, and Ally, disgusted, punches him in the face. Jackson tends to her wounded hand at the grocery store with a frozen peas bag and later asks her to join him and his band on tour. She later quits her job and immediately joins in on time. While touring, Ally meets a manager who likes what he sees. He asked to be her manager and recorded her debut album. She accepts, and while Jackson is happy for her at first. His drinking and drugging take a toll on his voice and career as Ally ascend to superstardom. In contrast, Jackson's career descends into oblivion as rehab cannot ignite his career, and well, you know where the story ends after that.
Despite the familiar aspects of the story, it fills the movie with memorable moments. When Ally sings "Shallow" and" Always Remember Me this Way," and" I'll Never Love Again" are sensational. Lady Gaga can blow and has the voice of an Angel. I love the sequence when Jackson and Ally meet Jackson's friend Noodles (played with such ease by Dave Chappelle). You see Chappelle's character's wife and kids. Over dinner, Jackson proposes to Ally and get married by another friend of Jackson's (Eddie Griffin); there a scene earlier in the film where Jackson takes Ally to the pecan farm. He grew up in Arizona, and with surprise by what he sees and confronts is the much older brother and manager Bobby (Sam Elliot). Elliot is right in limited screen time. I also love that there is no score meaning that it is more of a drama with music in the background. The film with no score increases the feeling of the jobs as a performer and the dramatic aspects that you feel more empathy for the main characters and the situations they are entangled themselves.
The performances are all first-rate. Lady Gaga is perfect as Ally; she's better in the first half than in the second where things happen to Gaga; is character and doesn't much respond to what occurs. Cooper is terrific as Jackson Maine. I believe he gives his best performance as a man has broken down alcoholism, which, unfortunately, the disease of addiction has made love the drink and drugs more so than Ally and his Career and his brother. Cooper's direction is that of a seasoned veteran with a close taught to approach and make you believe you are in the actual film with its concert scenes and away from show business when it just Jackson and Ally spending time together. There's excellent chemistry between them, and I see many of the films to come for Gaga.
Among ranking of the best, A Star Is Born films, where does this rank? The 1954 Judy Garland and James Mason version will always be the best. No one ever tops that version. The 1937 version hasn't aged well but has an outstanding performance by Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, comes in third, and the 1976 versions are too campy for my taste. This 2018 version ranks second. Well done, great entertainment but the overly familiar ending will make the film memorable for younger audiences. Older audiences or younger people who are cinema savvy will appreciate how well done it is, but nothing compares to Garland and Mason's. Still, it is a gratifying and fulfilling movie-going experience.
Rating: ***1/2 (out of four)
CONCLUSION
Thank you again, Lafronda! You are welcome anytime. Friends, if you see a movie that I don't see and want to be featured on my website, hit up my website's Facebook page and you can be my next GUEST CRITIC!
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