I considered leaving A Star Is Born several times. For his directorial debut, Bradley Cooper remade the 1954 musical drama with himself playing the grizzled, alcoholic country rock star Jackson Maine and Lady Gaga as Ally, an unknown singer he discovers in a drag bar (her lack of a surname hints at just how much attention was given to her character development).
Cooper clearly does not know how to read a room: He wrote the script with two other dudes (red flag number one). Although it’s presumably about the rise of Ally, the whole thing is told from Maine’s perspective—we even hear the ringing of his tinnitus and see the room spin when he’s drunk. And he’s constantly degrading her! It’s upsetting to see a film so blatantly romanticize an abusive relationship in 2018.
I’d hoped this new version of A Star Is Born would somehow challenge the destructive narrative that a woman is worthless until a man deems her worthy of love, validation, success, or fame. Hahah, nope!
Thank you for this review. I was kind of excited to see the movie but now not so much.
If you look up the movie on Metacritic, you’ll see that Ciara is way in the minority on this one: most of the reviews have been strongly positive. I’m going to wait to see it in a second run theater though ’cause that’s how I roll.