GENRE:
Drama, Romance
RATING:
R for language, nudity, substance abuse
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 16 minutes
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 16 minutes
STARRING:
Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook,
American Sniper)
Lady
Gaga (American Horror Story), Sam
Elliot (Tombstone, The Ranch)
DIRECTOR:
Bradley Cooper (newcomer)
WRITERS:
Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Munich, Ali, The
Insider),
Will
Fetters (The Lucky One), Cooper
(newcomer)
PLOT:
A musician helps a young singer find fame while his star is quickly fading due
to alcoholism.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Only watched this because of the Oscar buzz.
STORY STUFF: Could not get into the story. Maybe because I didn’t want
to see Lady Gaga, sorry Ally, succeed. Maybe because it’s hard to watch someone
destroy their life with alcohol. I don’t know. I did find the Grammy Award
scene cringingly well done. I could just imagine the memes and how that would
end up on every highlight package.
ACTING STUFF: Cooper does an excellent job. I enjoyed his chameleon-ish
low growl along with the brilliant pairing of Sam Elliot as his brother. I’m
really not a Lady Gaga fan, she just doesn’t seem authentic to me. I did enjoy
the mini Alias reunions with Will
Tippin (Cooper) hanging with Eric Weiss (Greg Grunberg) and learning from Arvin
Sloan (Ron Rifkin).
ARTISTIC STUFF: The songs are okay but I’m not rushing to buy the
soundtrack. There was a lot more guitar than I expected. Cooper’ directing was
pretty good. There’s a great scene where we just see the bottom half of the
body for a while, it’s a spoiler though, so I can’t really expand on that.
VERDICT:
Two and a half stars out of five
SEE IT IF:
You’re one of Lady Gaga’s little monsters?
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Welcome to Marwen,
Vice
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