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A Star Is Born (Bradley Cooper, 2018) / The Great Willow Maclay
🕑 Added 2018-11-24 03:14:46 +0000 UTC
I don't have a great deal to say about this film. Overall I was impressed with Cooper's pacing and direction, which struck me as undergirded by a general respect for 1970s Hollywood. In fact, I'm a bit surprised the film is such a hit, because in certain formal respects it's so out of step with contemporary storytelling. Cooper takes his time, such that -- even more than the patent flimsiness of Ally's pop song about the guy's ass in jeans -- the very form of the film shows itself to be on Jackson Maine's "side" of the rock / pop authenticity schism. Nothing in A Star Is Born soars like the moment when Ally overcomes her fear and joins Jackson on stage to perform "Shallow" for the first time. It's because, with his help and love, she is finding her own voice.
Anyway, I thought I would take this opportunity to signal-boost part of a really wonderful review of ASIB by one of my very favorite critics, Willow Maclay. If you are not subscribed to her Patreon, you really should consider joining up. Here is a sample of her beautiful writing:
Jackson meets Ally backstage and immediately there is something between the two characters. It’s a crowded room full of queens, but their eyes seem to follow each other. Even with everyone surrounding them they’re framed like the only two people in the world. Jackson is interrupted occasionally to sign a pair of fake breasts or take a picture with a starstruck fan, but his attention to her never wavers. Jackson is acting, as if in a focused trance, after Ally’s performance and Ally, not completely realizing it just yet, because, she too is somewhat starstruck, has been captivated by him the entire time. Despite her obvious interest Ally keeps a shield up. Folks in the music industry have always burned her in one way or another and she’s worried Jackson may be the same, but that changes later that evening when the two of them find their way into a cop bar. After another fan insists on getting a picture with Jackson, this time rudely, Ally punches him in the face, because he’s invading the space she and Jack have created for themselves that evening. Jack’s impressed, and Ally laughs it off, not knowing what got into her.
They travel to a grocery store at his insistence and he cares for her swollen hand, using diy medical techniques, like using duct tape and peas to keep her piano hand from further injury. Jackson and Ally sit in the grocery store parking lot and in a low-angle wide image they’re the only two in frame. The entire world is theirs in that moment. Everything belongs to them, and they can be as comfortable and vulnerable with one another as possible. They talk about childhood troubles, songwriting and cheetos. Ally is wearing Jack’s leather jacket so she doesn’t get cold, and after hearing about Jack’s childhood issues she writes a song on the spot that would become the grand centerpiece of the film, “Shallow”. The entire sequence in the grocery store and the parking lot drifts. The images take their time and these two characters slip into one another in that way people do when they’re having a perfect conversation. Everything is smooth and easy and trapped in time. Minor on the surface, but the sort of evening you’ll remember for the rest of your life. It’s the beauty of falling in love in the single image of Jackson and Ally’s warm isolation from the rest of the world. Their intimacy spreads beyond the scene, and outwards, like all the best love stories. In the back of our mind we know how this story ends, because we’ve seen this story before, but in this moment, everything is perfect, and you forget that this won’t last forever.
That's someone with something to say about A Star Is Born.
