This is the newest version of a film that Hollywood loves to remake again and again. I’d never seen any of the previous ones but my wife asked to watch this one so here we are. I have to admit that this is a well-executed film with strong performances, solid music which is especially surprising from Bradley Cooper, and so on. Yet its heart is still the kind of fairy tale that Hollywood loves so much along with a willingness to forgive the excesses of the lifestyles of artistes because they are special. I just can’t buy into this kind of story these days and so this doesn’t work for me at all.

After performing a gig, the alcoholic country rock star Jackson Maine spontaneously decides to drop by a bar after running out of drinks. The place turns out to be a queer and there he watches an Édith Piaf tribute performance by a 31-year-old woman Ally. After the show, they spend the night getting to know one another. Her day job is a busser in a restaurant and while she has always wanted to be a musician and is even a songwriter, she is held back by her lack of confidence and in particular being disparaged for not being attractive enough. The next day Jackson has to leave for his next show in another city but Ally declines to follow. However he has a driver follow her around in case she changes her mind. She relents after being annoyed by her manager at the restaurant and is flown by a private jet to Jackson’s concert. There he invites her onstage to perform one of her own songs and so she becomes a star literally overnight. The two inevitably become romantically involved but Ally has to contend with Jackson’s alcoholism and drug abuse especially as her own star rises and his begins to fade.

So it’s immediately obvious why Hollywood loves to remake this again and again as it’s a fairy tale about a nobody being picked out of the faceless masses to become a superstar. From what I understand, the first two versions were about film stars. The 1976 remake switched to a musical star with Barbra Streisand and naturally this newest adaptation does the same with Lady Gaga. The execution is spot on and it’s genuinely impressive how Cooper managed to direct, act and sing as well as he does here. None of the songs are particularly memorable to me but they work well enough. I also liked how it handles dialogue, letting in some stammering and run on sentences to make the dramatic moments feel more naturalistic. Unfortunately all that doesn’t add up enough to make this a film of substance. I dislike how it keeps stacking flaws onto Jackson, alcohol and drug addiction, child abuse, depression and suicide ideation, tinnitus and so on as a form of character development. Yet his love for Ally is true and untainted and of course this isn’t really a film about his issues at all. It’s psychologically shallow and structurally it’s there to remove him from the picture once Ally becomes a superstar.

Despite what happens to Jackson, there’s a kind of implausible wholesomeness in this film that makes it feel dated. Ally remains reasonable, grounded and self-assured in the face of Jackson threatening to pass his bad habits onto her, a slimy manager and absurdly fast rise to superstardom. The embarrassment at the Grammy awards is presented as the worst thing Jackson did to her, but it amounts to nothing to real people. There’s just nothing here that ordinary mortals can relate to. I do like how some details of the Ally character seem to reference Lady Gaga’s own career, such as how she is a straight woman but is welcomed to perform in a queer club, and how she achieved success despite being perceived by some as not being conventionally attractive. But that’s pretty much it.

It’s entertaining and easy to watch and I suppose the music is alright. The soundtrack was a hit in of itself. But it is in no way a serious film. Now that I have watched this, at least there shouldn’t be any need to go back to the older ones.