powerbelly said:

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KidDoc said:

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We saw this tonight and it was enjoyable I loved the acting, cinematography, and much of the music but I felt the story was 100% predictable. Essentially from the drag queen bar scene onward it felt like I was just waiting for the next shoe to drop and it was formulaic and basic.

Great acting, great production, boring and tired story.

3/5 would not see again.

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A movie that has been remade three times is usually predictable.

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True. But I don't think that makes the criticism less valid.

Exactly. If I was an academy voter the lack of originality would completely factor in. And like the previous poster, I hadn't seen any of the previous releases and it was pretty telegraphed what was coming.

Let me preface this comment by saying I loved the movie. I'm also a huge Isbell fan and really like the Isbell song in this movie.

But man, these two songs sound similar...

I saw this posted on Twitter and Isbell replied and then other peoples replies basically ripped it to shreds. Unfortunately it looks like the tweet was deleted but numerous musicians and music scholars chimed in saying that it's no ripoff and that structure is as old as time and a foundation of country music.

For myself I will say that yes the structure is similar. I still love the song though

Certainly the song structure is commonplace. The melody and chords just sound incredibly similar to me. So much so that when I heard "Maybe it's time", the first thing I thought of was "Wonder where my baby is tonight".

All that said, the chord progressions are also common. Could certainly just be a coincidence. Either way I like both songs.

Great movie! I expect Gaga to get that Oscar.

Great movie.

I love that the movie is a statement against pop music from one of its own people.

I also love that Queen songs are trending way up on the iTunes Charts and a band like Greta Van Fleet is the #1 Rock Band in The Universe.

Maybe there is hope for live music in this world.

After seeing both Bohemin Rhapsody and A Star is Born in the same weekend, I think Malek should beat out Cooper for best actor, but Cooper's directing was fantastic. Cooper's character just felt like he was spending the entire movie stumbling around wasted. And while I understand that was the character and Cooper did a great job playing him, Malek as Mercury just felt like it had so much more depth and I couldn't look away. Not to take away from BC, I just liked Malek's performance a bit more.

I liked this movie. Not omg great for me, but I really enjoyed it. I've been a fan of Gaga for a while. Always knew she was talented. But she did an amazing job with this movie.

Agreed..... I saw them within a few days of each other.

for me:

Malek is the better performance - partly because it's a real known character that just had to be right or the entire film fails and it was not just right but incredible. It's definitely Oscar worthy. Coopers character was fictional it could be whatever he made it. It could not be wrong in effect except if it was poorly written and not true to itself. Coopers performance is also at least nomination worthy and might be a win (sometimes hollywood awards the more known actor and sometimes it's a reward for their body of work as much as that role they were nominated for) but it should go to Ramek.

For actress - Gaga is gonna be tough to beat here but there are usually a slew of late year dramatic movies that have strong female performances from the usual crowd of nominees.

Star is Born is the better movie. While I enjoyed Bohemian Rhapsody and was awestruck and amazed at times it wasn't the filmmaking so much as just the story of Freddie and how talented and flamboyant he was. The exception being the jaw dropping 20 minute Live Aid show. Incredible stuff. But overall Star is Born was actually incredible filmmaking - the directing, for a first time director especially, was stunning actually. His choices for how it was filmed were perfect in nearly every scene - tight where it needed to be, long long periods of silence which is so hard to do effectively, some very personal moments that were raw, almost no wasted time, big concert scenes too, etc... and the cinematography, editing, sound, music, etc. was all amazing. That's the definition of Best Picture.

Best director - Cooper. Very deserved I was just awestruck by how well that film was made. At times Bohemian swayed off track a bit - some stuff that was borderline cheesy, campy or too self referential. It is what it is and it works for the most part but it's far from perfect. the fact that the director changed part way through is also a factor.

So I give Malek the best actor - but Star is born gets best Picture, Director, Actress and likely some other big technical and perhaps supporting roles. Sam Elliott has never won a major award and only a few noms for Golden Globes and Emmy's. that might change here. But seriously Andrew Dice Clay is another possibility here. He got some credibility with roles in Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine" and Scorsese's "Vinyl" series he might just get rewarded for this with a nom at least.

Just saw this movie on Saturday and it has still stuck with me. I thought it was incredible and so very powerful. Even though the story was predictable at times (I didn't know the ending) it didn't matter to me. The way they portrayed the story was what I keep thinking about. I loved it.

Quick question though - In her final scene with Sam Elliott- Gaga says that the last thing she said to him was a lie - what was that? Was it that she was going to cancel the tour?

yea, the "why' of cancelling it. She was going to throw away this huge opportunity in her career for him.

Thanks. That's right. She said she was cancelling the tour to record another album, but the lie was that she cancelled it because Rez said she couldn't take Jack on tour with her. I'm guessing she wanted to be there for him through his rehabilitation and prioritized Jack over her career. After Rez's talk with him (what a ****ing slimy ******* btw) and realizing he was holding her career back (maybe he saw through the lie) he decided to kill himself. Makes sense and makes the story all the more tragic. He thought he was helping her and this was the only way he could truly love her and help her succeed. (In his mind)

As that was going on...

I was just outside Park Theater doors winning at Blackjack.

Finally saw this last night and loved it. Listening to the soundtrack now. A few things I haven't seen mentioned. The behind the scenes/making of feature on the bluray was great. You learned that the day they filmed the last scene, Gaga lost a close friend to cancer and the song to Jack came from her real emotion from that loss. Also, they filmed some of the music gigs at Coachella and Glastonbury. At Glastonbury they had 4 minutes before Kris Kristofferson's show to shoot and had only brought one cameraman. They had another camera that they gave to Lars from Metallica to shoot Bradley along with the camera guy they brought. You could really tell they built a chemistry on set and Bradley's ability to direct and then hop into the scene was impressive. Bradley compared it to a QB being a coach on the football field.

Gaga, Bradley, Chapelle, Lars, and Dice Clay are all fairly regular guests on Stern and are known listeners. I really think Bradley targeted Gaga because of her very real and intimate interviews/performances on Stern. If you have a subscription check out all of her interviews with Stern. I wasn't a Gaga fan until her first interview with Stern. They may be available on demand through the app or by logging in online. While you're there also check out Bradley Cooper and Mark Ronson's interview. Stern also recorded a song with Mark Ronson recently but that hasn't released yet.

Here are some clips from Youtube.







Full 2011 Interview start at the 18 minute mark.

So maybe it was obvious to everyone else but I didn't get it until the end that maybe she saw his suicide coming. When the lyrics of the final song hit I remembered their conversation at rehab when she asked if he was coming home.

I feel like it was clear to her at that point but wasn't to me at least.

Finally saw this and thought it was magnificent. In a perfect world it would sweep every award. Truly one of the most incredible movies I've ever seen.

That's what movies are all about.

Dr. Teeth said:

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A movie hasn't hit me like this since Manchester by the Sea.

Never been a Lady Gaga fan, and don't plan to start listening to her pop stuff, but holy **** what a voice. So powerful and beautiful.

Very impressed by Bradley Cooper's direction and acting. I noticed the group meeting leader was one of his cast mates from Alias. He was already A-list, but I think this movie will propel him even higher.

Sam Elliott's character resonated with me due to some current family issues.

Major Spoilers: As someone who has dealt personally with depression and suicidal thinking and has survived one attempt, this movie hit me hard. This movie, more than any other I've ever seen, nearly exactly explains how I felt that night. That belief that you are holding someone back, that they could never be truly happy by your side, and that they would be better off without you... even if it's not true, but in your head it's a 100% fact. You just feel like you'd be doing everyone a favor by relieving them of the burden of you. Very, very difficult for me to watch, and I nearly walked out after Ally's manager spoke to Jack and I realized what was about to happen and why.

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Thank you for sharing this, Dr. Teeth. As someone that has lost a close friend to this before (and more if you count how many friends did very stupid things on motorcycles that had to evolve from some deeper-seeded problems), it was the hardest part of the movie for me. Like another poster indicated, I knew once the manager showed his ass that it was going to happen but just hoped I was wrong.

I do not mean to cause offense, but I have to agree with the poster who talked about there being a selfish angle to the act and, for that reason, no matter how difficult things might get in my life, I do not believe I could ever make such a choice. That said, everyone is working from their own entirely different deck of cards with regard to upbringing, life experiences, support, family, friends, etc. so trying to understand how or why someone else cobbles all of that into any given viewpoint is difficult, at best.

I think the movie was supposed to make you feel like he didn't feel he could talk to his support system about this. Today everyone has tons of "friends" thanks to the Facebook designation but how many of those are people we really connect with or would trust our innermost feelings to? His friend Chappelle was in such a good family place that he probably felt like he couldn't go to him, his brother had always mothered him and he didn't feel that sort of relationship with him and how could he feel he would hear Allie's true feelings?

I do like that the scene brings the issue of mental and emotional well-being to more mainstream discussion and, selfishly, I love that my 18-year old daughter was so affected by the scene. It opened up an opportunity for me to talk to her about my friend and things she has been lucky enough to never experience first-hand and reminded me again how empathy is one of her best qualities.

Sorry so late to this party.

I lost my job shortly before this debuted or we would have gone to see it early because I'm a sucker for music biopics or pseudo-biopics but had never seen the previous iterations. When it got good reviews from most sides and Oscar talk started, we knew that if they re-released it we would have to suck it up and spend the money so I took the wife and two oldest to this last week.

I get that there are some issues with the movie but I live life with the nitpicking "What's wrong?" and overly logical mentalities 24-7 so when I read fiction or go to a movie, I try to mute those tendencies and just enjoy the diversion. While I don't know if it deserves Best Picture, I did really enjoy this movie and it did stay with me for a good while after leaving the theater.

The contributions of Elliott, Dice Clay and Chappelle are the little things that hold a film together and they were all on point. The scene between Cooper and Elliott where he is trying to explain that he doesn't just resent him but wishes he were more like him struck me as especially genuine and speaks to so many sibling relationships.

Gaga's acting surprised me but I guess it shouldn't have. Her typical pop fare isn't really my thing but having teenagers means I have heard a lot of it and you can't argue she can really sing, write and has the showmanhip and fan deity angles down pat. Then, with a detour pairing her up with Tony Bennett, she showed her range and now she tries acting and ends up stealing scenes where she isn't even the focus. Being so outgoing and experienced and yet able to portray an uncomfortable "Should I even be here?" person on stage and then seeming disdain for the type of pop antics that have made her so successful in her actual career are fair indication that she can seriously act.

Cooper is very, very talented and this is a shot across the bow for anyone (me included), that didn't take him seriously enough because of his other projects. We've seen serious and workman-like performances from him as well as some solid comedic chops and timing but he did a lot of transformation for this one. Sure the character was a little formulaic but at some levels I think that was the point. He did a great job of looking like someone trying to keep his head above rough water and he obviously spent a great deal of time working on his singing. I bought the soundtrack and find myself listening mostly to his contributions because I love southern rock and the blues, drum-heavy stuff in Black Eyes and Alibi are right in my wheelhouse and, like so many other people here, Maybe It's Time and, to a lesser degree, Too Far Gone just speak to me.

Watched it last night finally. I know exactly how it ends but still had all the feels all the way through.

Great job on everybody's part in this movie. Already knew Cooper had some good range but the direction and singing topped the cake.

Then for some reason my wife finally decided that we're watching Room today and just finished that.

After that 14 hour window I need a drink and some slapstick comedy.

Watched last night. I had high expectations and I loved it even more than I anticipated. Never saw the Kristoferson and Streisand version, but I kinda knew it would not end well from hearing how sad it was. Cooper absolutely killed it in his performance. Hope he gets the Oscar.




spoiler:





Kinda figured out how it was gonna end early due to the obvious foreshadowing when Jackson's driven directly underneath the big nooses on the movie marquee.

Okay, I knew this film was a remake, but the THIRD remake ? Wow.

TCM is showing the first movie, made in 1937 followed by a second version made in 1954 with Judy Garland. I always though the 1976 version with Streisand and Kristofferson was the first.

Interesting.

Quote:

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She is worried he might have cleaned up and find he doesn't want or respect her.

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Yes! She said something along the lines of 'I didn't know if you'd still like me now that you're sober'

GiveEmHellBill said:

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Okay, I knew this film was a remake, but the THIRD remake ? Wow.

TCM is showing the first movie, made in 1937 followed by a second version made in 1954 with Judy Garland. I always though the 1976 version with Streisand and Kristofferson was the first.

Interesting.

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Which is why I hold firm that in 40 years, the Texags Entertainment Board gets together to produce the 4th remake. Its basically a guaranteed Oscar

Just watched so didn't feel left out watching the Oscars.
Pros - Gaga - if you haven't seen her documentary on Netflix, highly recommend, few more tata shots, and felt like she was playing herself - which is a good thing - great in this
- rags to riches stories are always a fun ride
-Cooper - I think he's great in everything, really liked him in Limitless. He was great in this
- Never Love Again - we thought what a super sad song but when they flashbacked to the two writing on piano it gave the song the opposite meaning in a good way

Cons
- Gaga punching the guy in the bar - is that how you'd react when a rock star invited you on a night on the town and he's getting recognized, seems out of nowhere.
- there have been drunk, stoned, wacked out people at award shows, but in the state Cooper/Jack was in, he never gets in the room, let alone close to the stage, and certainly ushered off before you piss yourself, that was way over the top
- the garage scene - I get it, but imagine a movie where he thinks about it, but then ends up trumphantly returning to the stage - saved by the girl that he made a star and she returns the favor reviving his career - that would be fairy tale but a lot more fun.
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That's not reality

Life is pain

Great movie. Cooper was fantastic. Gaga the singer was incredible. Gaga the actress? Meh... but it was worh sacrificing some of the chops of the lead actress for her vocal performance,

GiveEmHellBill said:

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Okay, I knew this film was a remake, but the THIRD remake ? Wow.

TCM is showing the first movie, made in 1937 followed by a second version made in 1954 with Judy Garland. I always though the 1976 version with Streisand and Kristofferson was the first.

Interesting.

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I loved Sam Elliott's lines at the end of the movie about the octave repeating as a homage to it being a remake.