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Best Picture - Bill Gerber, Bradley Cooper and Lynette Howell Taylor
Actor in a Leading Role, Bradley Cooper
Actress in a Leading Role, Lady Gaga
Actor in a Supporting Role, Sam Elliott
Cinematography, Matthew Libatique
Music (Original Song), “Shallow” Music and Lyric by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt
Sound Mixing, Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic, Jason Ruder and Steve Morrow
Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Written by Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper and Will Fetters
It's a tale as old as... 1937. There have now been four versions of A Star is Born, and I have to admit that when I saw the preview for this film I was skeptical that we needed yet another retelling of "aging, bitter, alcoholic singer meets and launches talented ingenue, they fall in love, he is jealous of her success, story ensues." But when I saw this version, I concluded that we did need another version, we just needed a slightly better version.
Here's what I mean. First, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga were astonishingly good in the film. Cooper changes everything about himself to become this character including his voice and mannerisms, and is a surprisingly terrific country/rock singer. I heard in an interview with Cooper that he fashioned his voice after actor Sam Elliot, and when he needed to cast the lead's brother, it was clear who was the right choice (lucky Sam Elliot, who earned his first Oscar nomination with this film!) This is the role that Gaga was born to play. Though she is not a "rising" singer, she is an actress on the rise (having already won acting awards for her role in American Horror Story and this film), and in her totally stripped down performance (no Gaga monsters here), she introduces herself to us in a whole different way. The energy between the two is electric.
I was entertained the entire movie, and the song Shallow which is nominated this year, is the song that this movie deserves. It is powerful and takes advantage of the full range of Gaga's voice, and creates a duet that I want to listen to all the time. Bradley Cooper performs songs that are entertaining and really feel like songs that would be hits outside of the film. The same cannot be said for the rest of songs performed by Lady Gaga. Even the "eleven o'clock number" - the big finale song she sings at the end of the film after tragedy strikes is just a little too nine o'clock. This song should have been her "And I'm telling you" that won Jennifer Hudson the Oscar in Dreamgirls or the "I dreamed a dream" that won Anne Hathaway her Oscar in Les Miserables. The songs just come up a little too short in what should be Gaga's gut punch in the film. Don't get me wrong, Gaga performs the heck out of what she had, but what she had was just not enough.
I know a lot of people who were just crazy about this film, and I really wanted to be one of them. If there is a choice between seeing it and not seeing, it is worth it just for the performances. (Speaking of which, major props to Andrew Dice Clay who played the most charming version of Gaga's dad.) But Best Picture? I don't think so.
Hear the nominated song:
I loved it. The music was fun. She is reinventing herself again, and there are important lessons about addiction within the story. If they would edit out the four-letter words, I 'd like Aydin to see it.
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