Maybe it’s time to let the old ways die
Maybe it’s time to let the old ways die
It takes a lot to change a man
Hell, it takes a lot to try
Maybe it’s time to let the old ways die
I approached this remake of the “classic” tale of stardom with a lot of trepidation. I’ve never really understood the appeal of this story or why pop culture seems to demand that it be told yet again for each new generation. I suppose there’s a certain kind of tidiness to the fact that it’s able to tell two stories in one: the rise to glory and the fall from grace happening in direct opposition to each other, but something about that has just always felt really forced to me. But let’s talk about what works here, because I think Cooper has really told the best version of this story that anyone could. The performances are really wonderful. Cooper is a marvel as a self-destructive addict and Lady Gaga is absolutely believable at every second, bringing a grounded realism to the film. Sam Elliott is also really excellent in support. Dave Chappelle effortlessly steals all of his scenes with a really masterful touch. The music is downright fantastic. The gorgeous acoustic lament, Maybe It’s Time, is beautiful and ragged. The epic Shallow is rousing and powerful. I particularly like how the film is able to really encapsulate the budding partnership between the two main characters with the shaping of Shallow. Ally provides the original lyrics and a basic tune; Cooper creates a musical arrangement and expands the lyrics; Ally riffs on the bridge and you’ve got a hit. It’s as organic a musical partnership as I’ve seen in a film for some time. The script is really quite good, surprisingly so, in the way it captures the way the characters speak, everything from the rhythms to the words to the double meanings. Ally and Jackson feel very real and very human and that comes across from their very first conversation to their very last and that’s a testament to both the writing and the performances. And Cooper’s sometimes surprising directorial choices as well; he knows how to step back and let a conversation breathe on screen, as in an early scene at a grocery store.
But the film has problems, most of them inherent to the material. Before I even get to the problematic aspects of the story, the original problem is just that it becomes so obvious and predictable. Rising fame begins to tear a couple apart and we’ve all seen this about a hundred times. There’s tension about the new material, there’s the pushy agent who comes between the couple, etc. etc. Still, there’s something about the life of this movie that I was still entertained by even the more predictable scenes. But the one truly problematic element of the film is that it ends with a suicide that is always a bit romanticized. Cooper does his best to strip the romanticism out of the event and he lands it a lot better. But still, one wonders, why does it have to happen at all? Apparently Cooper did consider scrapping it and coming up with a more uplifting ending and, as great as that last shot is, I wish he had. Suicide isn’t something that we can allow to have even the slightest tinge of romanticism and, even in the deglammed way it’s handled here, there’s still the nagging feeling that, in the arc of the story, the character was “right” to end their own life. They accomplish what they meant to accomplish and that has always imbued the death at the end of this story with a kind of heroic self-sacrifice. That isn’t a message we should be pushing. Or even whispering actually. I wonder if we’ll see Cooper’s alternate ending on the BluRay. I hope so. As far as the theater goes, well, it stands up as a damn fine movie hamstrung by the traditionalism of its problematic ending. It is hard to let those old ways die, I suppose. Everyone here is trying like hell and they come as close to a complete rehab of this story as anyone ever will, I reckon. 3 ½ stars.
tl;dr – problematic story issues remain, but the strength of the performances, the music and the surprisingly smart script elevates the material into a mostly entertaining, moving film. 3 ½ stars.