explain the inexplicable: Bradley Cooper’s A STAR IS BORN feat Lady Gaga

When targets are big and easy, just aim.

As far as non-sequel non-comic entertainment goes, it works at its C+ level.

Why does almost every gaga song take a nonsense syllable and repeat it endlessly as its hook

Ro ma ma ma ma

Sha ha ha ha ha Hallows

Pa pa paparazzi

her name is Gaga tbf

I thought this was mostly good. The story by its very nature is boilerplate, but the acting and directing is pretty strong, and if I didn't like the way it handled her pop star rise (too fast! too far!) or the cheeseball post tragedy sentimental big song ending, I thought that the beginning and much of the rest was pretty good, too. At the very least I know it's got to be a million times better than Bohemian Rhapsody.

And I totally recognized that as the Diceman by the end. Dice and Chappelle in the same movie, that's some A+ comedian stunt casting.

This movie takes place in an alternate reality wherein Ryan Adams actually became the Superstar the industry banked on him becoming in 2001.

― Ubering With The King (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, October 14, 2018 2:00 AM (four months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

TBH, I'm still fine with that reading, even now.

No problem with the reading, it does open up a different sort of world though.

Coop has better hair and tats though.

Camille Paglia has opinions

Surprisingly, despite its progressive gestures toward masculine sensitivity and transgender inclusiveness, this A Star Is Born is the most sexist film of the entire series.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/camille-paglia-sexism-star-is-born-films-guest-column-1186741

A Paglia fan who gave up on everything in the mid-afternoon

(j/k tho her Birds BFI monograph is still among the best in that series)

I don't believe in love in the afternoon.

This movie was too long. Dice was the best thing in it by far.

He was great as Gaga's gay friend

Lady Gaga Quashes Rumors That She Ever Thought Bradley Cooper Talented In Any Way

I’ve never been more in touch with my inner normie than during that oscars performance

It’s messed up how people try to pretend the ‘80s version of A Star Is Born never happened pic.twitter.com/PSMfBSnYYz

— Eric Allen Hatch (@ericallenhatch) March 4, 2019

Just realized that this movie is where Cameron Crowe ended up in a parallel film universe.

coop does kinda hide behind/dwell on the sam elliot voice but its a smart decision to do so, & to purposefully build it into the story

― johnny crunch, Friday, October 5, 2018 2:17 PM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

my viewing notes on this:
hey, bradley cooper's singing sounds like... sam elliott?
wait, isn't sam elliott actually in this movie
oh, there he is! and cooper's character is apologizing for... stealing his voice?

really nebulous as to whether it was intentional outside of the plot, or if cooper's country-man singing affectations just sounded like that and then they wrote it into the plot

the one thing that kept coming to mind is... how deep did j.j. abrams work his way into cooper's brain? not only is every afterparty inexplicably scored by beastie boys music, but cooper ended up casting his old acting buddies from when he was on 'alias'! the couple i spotted were greg grunberg (his driver) and ron rifkin (guy at the rehab place)

this was a good film to watch with your old mum who keeps asking what the high pitched noises are for because she missed the deafness part of the storyline.

does the auteur kill himself in the other versions or did they ramp that up for this version because people do not generally understand what's at stake in life with regard to suicide? because it did not seem to me that this person would commit suicide. at all.

i still liked it and still cried although i will cry at anything at all. my mum mentioned BC's eyes like ten times while we were watching it.

I really enjoyed the drag bar scenes and thought those very nicely pitched indeed. i missed the hispanic friend of Ally and thought they should have brought him back in more.

anthony ramos! (he was in the original b’way cast of Hamilton)

does the auteur kill himself in the other versions

yes

In the 70s one I think he drink drives and crashes his car

yeah, it's ambiguous whether it's an accident or suicide

A more ambiguous ending would have been better. They have him drunk at the wheel of a car a few minutes prior anyway.

He drunkenly walks into ocean in the earlier ones, iirc.

it's an ambiguous drunken car crash in the 70s one and intentionally walking into the ocean to drown himself in the original according to a quick google

Did he drown himself in deep water? Or was it...

...

...

shallow

Reviving to discuss MAESTRO, which I saw yesterday thanks to MUBI GO and kind of liked.

Do we see the Maestro mentor little Lydia Tãr?

Heh

One thing I kept thinking about the younger B&W Lennie: he looked like Richard Benjamin and sounded like Art Garfunkel.

It's a watchable bad movie.

counterpoint: this is going to bomb

― ghost beef (bizarro gazzara), Saturday, 18 August 2018 14:10 (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink

willing to consider the possibilty that i wasn't 100% otm with this

Bradley Cooper's been in Hollywood so long that he can only think in biopic cliches; the last half hour consists of waiting for Carey Mulligan to die so that he can feel guilty about the bisexuality we rarely see.

Bradley Cooper IS Steve McQueen

Danny DeVito IS Bradley Cooper in the Henry Winkler Story

I watched this with my sister last Xmas and the only thing I remember about it is thinking Sam Elliott's entire performance needed subtitles.

it had subtleties u mean

Didn't notice too many of those tbh.

I'm glad that there seem to be Maestro showtimes in Chicago even after it debuts on Netflix.

My possible challops is that the three main performances were all really good and made this worth watching.

who's the third, Snoopy?

(I broke down and watched this on Netflix)

I'm so tired of this kind of film, this approach to narrative.

who's the third, Snoopy?

Star of Screen & Meme, Maya Hawke.

excellent performances, movie was absolutely missing something, felt like it needed another 30 minutes to fill some of this out.

I did think the makeup was extraordinary in this, particularly the aging work they did.