Location: Cinemark Theater in Stroud Mall
Time: 12:10pm
Party: 2 (my mom and I)
Director: Bradley Cooper
Writers: Eric Roth ("Forrest Gump," etc.), Bradley Cooper, and Will Fetters ("Remember Me")
Composers: [there's so much music in this movie that I can't list everyone... but Gaga and Bradley Cooper both have writing credits on the soundtrack, which is pretty awesome]
Notable Cast (for me, main characters and also people that stood out):
Jackson Maine- Bradley Cooper
Ally- Lady Gaga
Ally's father, Lorzeno- Andrew Dice "Dice-Man" Clay
Bobby Maine, Jack's brother [not father]- Sam Elliott
Rez Gavron- Rafi Gavron
Ally's friend, Ramon- Anthony Ramos
Jack's driver, Phil- Greg Grunberg (I had to include him cuz I recognized him from "Heroes")
Drag bar MC- Shangela
Emerald- Willam Belli
Duration: 136 minutes (+7 trailers... I sense a common theme in this theater, it's always 7 trailers...)
Opening Comments:
So this came out over a week ago and since my mom was going to a conference with my dad, she asked if I could wait a week to see it. No problem, just as long as I'd get to a theater to see it at some point. Not sure why, but it's been really hard getting me out to the movies this year. Maybe I'm over movies in general or having to drive half an hour to a theather takes the motivation out of it... we were so spoiled having the theater down the road from us.
I remember that this had been in the making for a long time. According to Wikipedia, it'd been even longer... but I did hear a couple years ago that Bradley Cooper was doing this with Gaga and now it's finally here.
A few things to say about these two people...
Bradley Cooper
I'm such a nerd for remembering this, but when he was named Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine in 2011, I didn't really get the hype (and Ryan Gosling not winning had nothing to do with that, I'm not that into him either). To me, he was just part of the Hangover wolf pack and the bully in Wedding Crashers at that point.
But after seeing him a bunch of dramatic roles, I really got to like him. He is good looking and the more I see him interviewed, I really think he's a nice guy that'd be cool to spend time with. The attraction still isn't at the level of some other famous people.
Whether it's The Words, Silver Linings Playbook or Burnt, he just becomes these characters to the point where I don't see him anymore. Not counting the Avengers movies, this is the third time I'm going to see him in a theater release. And again, it has more to do with the subject matter than him as a person. But he's still a highlight of the movie. And something in those movies always hits me in the gut or moves me so I'm crying... not ugly crying, just a tear or two and then we move onto the next scene.
Lady Gaga
Where to even start with her? I'd been a Little Monster since maybe 2011 after seeing the Monster Ball HBO special. I'd been listening to her and buying her stuff before that- I love pop music and her stuff was the first music in a while (since maybe 2002) I'd been enjoying off the radio. "Born this way" is still my favorite album. The message appeals to the outcast in all of us (I'm a straight white female, we're the same age, and still don't feel like I have my place a lot of the time... unless of course it's among people who love Prince on Facebook or Twitter). And the music has such creative amazing energy.
I won't be like other fans who've given Artpop and Joanne a lot of crap. There's still something on both albums I can latch onto and really get behind.
A lot of her activism is really admirable: supporting gay rights, anti-bullying... I wouldn't have watched the "Hunting Ground" documentary if she hadn't written a song for it, which SHOULD have won an Oscar.
But hopefully with this movie, she will finally will cuz she REALLY deserves it for this one.
Trailers:
A full length trailer of "The Crimes of Grindewalld" from the Fantastic Beasts franchise. I swear I'd have to watch it a dozen times to catch everything in it. I think there was a snake in a scene that was actually called Nagini and it was an Animagus. Makes me wonder if Voldemort's snake was an Animagus that never changed back.
The Mule- apparently Clint Eastwood is pushing/transporting drugs in his old age? It seems like a very odd concept and I don't know if it'll work.
The Girl in the Spider's Web- for whatever reason, the sequel to the Dragon Tattoo, "The Girl who played with fire" got completely scrapped (along with the whole cast) and they decided to focus on the sequel to the trilogy... I struggled to read the first book and gave up before getting to page 100 and the movie was so risqué that I didn't want to see it on those grounds alone. This looks more like a solid R-rating than NC17, but I feel kinda bad for Rooney Mara not reprising the role that earned her an Oscar nomination. Also, Lisabeth Slander doesn't seem nearly as autistic as she did in whatever trailers I saw of the first movie.
Rocketman- a teaser trailer, really, about Elton John's life... why not? Queen is getting one that looks AMAZING. Although it seems weird that Elton John is getting a biopic and he's still alive. Don't you usually only do those for dead people? Not to be rude, but isn't that usually the case?
Beautiful Boy- it's been getting a lot of air play on TV already. It looks like a really good movie that deals with addiction and family. Starring Steve Carrel and the actor from "Call me by your name"
The Upside- it seems to be a pattern that Kevin Hart always does a movie that comes out in January... and it's almost always terrible, which is unfortunate cuz that dude's hilarious. But this seems like a sweet movie where he's down on his luck and gets a job helping quadriplegic Bryan Cranston. Some of the comedy might be over the top, but some of it seems well written. Either that or this trailer was shot REALLY well. (Makes me think of that scene from "The Holiday" where Cameron Diaz does a trailer for a Lindsay Lohan/James Franco movie that makes it look amazing, but she and everyone else knows it's crap)
The Favourite- apparently the Queen (whoever this queen is, I have no idea, don't really care) is really depressed and Emma Stone (maybe searching for her next Oscar?) and Rachel Weisz are vieing for her attention. I honestly don't know if this meant to be a comedy or a drama... it's just hard to take completely seriously.
The Main Event:
I'll just preface in saying I'd never seen any of the original versions of this movie and at some point, I should at least watch the Judy Garland version. But I knew this was an older movie being remade, so I thought maybe Bradley Cooper and Gaga were paying homage to old Hollywood like La-La Land and The Artist. While they certainly could have pulled that off, it wasn't the case. This take is very modern and current and that's why it's so compelling.
Bradley Cooper plays an established country singer with addiction issues (drugs and alcohol) to deal with hearing issues he's starting to have in his left ear. (I think the term is tinnitus, which is an incessent ringing. The titular character in "Baby Driver" also had it, which is why he always played music in his ear buds on the job... still need to see that movie). It's a constant struggle. At one point, his brother (yes, his brother) played by Sam Elliot suggests he wear inner ears to perserve what he still has, but he refuses because it cuts him off from the energy of the audience.
I've seen it on American Idol and The Voice a lot. Singers wear these inner ear inserts so they can hear themselves, but sometimes they'll take one out so they can hear the music or the audience. When you're not used to them, they make it difficult to do your job, but they can also be helpeful. (I'm sure I'd seen Prince wear them a couple of times in concert footage- one was at Hong Kong in 2003 where he did "Shh"... amazing... ok, moving on).
By chance, Bradley Cooper stops by the one bar that Gaga's character is performing. Not a gay bar (although a lot of the crowd probably fit the description), but a drag bar.
There was a lot of hype, particularly from my favorite reality singing competition blogger, Lyndsey Parker, about the fact Gaga had the idea for the drag bar in this movie and she recruited two "RuPaul's Drag Race" alums to having speaking roles. (According to Wikipedia, they were from season 3 and they also appeared in her "Applause" lyric video). I'd never seen that series, but it has a huge following and recently won an Emmy for best reality show (RuPaul won three years in a row for reality show host... which is great, but I feel bad for Cat Deeley for not winning one for SYTYCD- she's such a sweetheart, always great with the contestants. And unlike Carson Daly on The Voice, when she asks them questions after they perform or get eliminated, it doesn't sound scripted. It sounds like she actually cares about them and I know she does).
But it got me thinking that maybe at some point, I might watch the show to see what all the hype is about. (I also thought I was going to binge sometime on Project Runaway- another reality show I'd never seen and I have yet to do that either... I have so little time for any sort of binging, unless of course it's YouTube videos on video games...)
Gaga plays Ally (sounds stupid, but I was upset at the spelling of her name- I always imagined it as "Ali", anyway, moving on)- waitress by day and singer by night. And this drag club is a place where she feels comfortable and at home. And it's a really sweet relationship she has with the people there.
Anyway, Ally and Jackson (Bradley Cooper) start hanging out and he finds himself fascinated by her. He thinks she's an amazing singer and songwriter, but she's afraid to give it that extra shot. She said record companies rejected her because her nose is too big: the whole conundrum of "you sound great, but you don't look great"
But he gives her the opportunity to sing her song on stage with him and the wheels start to go into motion... and what a wild ride it is. And sadly he does spend a good chunk of it drunk or wasted and the people around him struggling to help him.
Ally's character arc was really cool to watch over the course of the movie because it was very similiar to Gaga's own career. She was a struggling singer/songwriter playing at all the clubs and wanting desperately to make the big time. I came across a website that had a bunch of her songs from before she became Gaga. Of course there were one or two comments on the link, saying "you're not a real fan if you're just finding this now"... it's kinda sad that there's a little of that arrogance in every fandom and I'm occasionally guilty of that myself.
But Joanne was also meant to be a return to that- stripping away all the gimmicks and focusing on vocals and raw songwriting. If anything, Ally's songs from this early part of the movie were even more stripped down than that and that's why there's so good. This is a soundtrack I'll definitely be getting in the future. It's also cool that Gaga and Bradley Cooper co-wrote a lot of it. And his singing voice isn't bad, either.
Later, Ally is approached by a record producer who wants to help her do an album. An offer she ultimately takes and the tide of the movie turns for better and for worse.
And funny enough, it does follow the arc of Gaga's career where she went from the singer/songwriter thing to the pop thing. Some aspects are similiar, but others... it kinda speaks against pop music and the whole machine of record companies. How they make their artists adhere to a certain image and they have to stick with that or else they get dropped, therefore real artistry is extinguished.
Gaga's music had a lot of flash and polish, but her lyrics weren't this explicit. Ally's first hit song under the label and she performed on SNL had a chorus saying something like "how are you walking around with an ass like that"... I know butts and asses sell records, but give me a break... a lot of the songs just took her completely away from what made her great in the first place. That, coupled with Jackson's addiction issues, created a lot of problems.
I think one issue I had with this movie was that there was good chunks of plot, but there were also huge chunks where nothing was happening. Montages of sex scenes (which were done tactfully, not too overdone) or hitting different venues and performing and such.
For me, while the movie was 2 hours and 16 minutes long... it felt a little too long. I spent maybe the last 20 minutes waiting for the movie to be over.
I won't give away everything that happened, but there were a couple times throughout the movie I wanted to punch her manager in the face. Just because he has a cute British accent doesn't mean he's excused from some of the stuff he does.
And by the end of the movie, Ally returns to form and does one last song... and it's amazing and a bit of a tearjerker.
My mom called this a "three tissue movie" and that's totally a good way to describe it. I think I cried at least three times and they were at good parts, during good songs. One was when she finally took the spotlight for the first time in front of a huge crowd- we were all just so happy that she finally owned what made her so good. It was also a tad awkward cuz I think we were the only ones in the audience clapping or cheering and it wasn't even loud cheering either. There wasn't a lot of people in the theater, but a lot of them were a little older and it was crazy that they were seeing something with Gaga in it. I guess cuz she stripped away that whole image and all that risque quirky stuff, she's now more approachable. On the one hand, it's great that more people are appreciating her, but part of me hates that it took this long... kinda like how it suddenly became cool to like Taylor Swift because of her 1989 album- SNL did a whole sketch about that. Kinda funny, but kinda lame cuz a lot of her stuff before that album is really good. (Her "Red" album is my favorite, although "Reputation" I've really gotten into these last few months).
And yeah, the final song is meant to be a tearjerker and the lyrics are very manipulative cuz of what happens in the movie to bring it out... but yeah, it was so good.
Other than the length, I really couldn't complain. It was a great movie.
It was also kinda funny seeing Andrew Dice Clay playing her father... I didn't have any idea it was him until the end credits rolled. Talk about playing against type. I first saw him years ago on an old VHS where we recorded a bunch of stuff off the TV and I got to see his "Little Miss Moffet" routine. I also saw him in "The Adventures of Ford Faraline"- for him, but also cuz Morris Day (he was in "Purple Rain" with Prince), although his role was very small. It's not the greatest movie, but it was entertaining in its own little way. And recently I saw him on this reality show where celebrity couples threw dinner parties and he won just because his girlfriend did all the cooking and was really good. There was this hilarious scene at his house where Lance Bass stumbles into his closet and comes out wearing one of his leather jackets. Suddenly, everyone is wearing one :P classic!
As Ally's father, though, he's a driver who also likes to gamble and has a lot of his friends hanging around the house all the time. He also keeps telling a story, saying how he could have been bigger than Sinatra. And he's always bragging to his friends how great a singer she is- long before she became famous.
Probably the best part of the movie was that the two main actors were so good. They didn't feel like people playing roles- they WERE these characters and I really enjoyed spending time with them through all the ups and downs of their lives and careers.
If Bradley Cooper gets nominated and wins, I'm sure there's going to be a big uproar about it that goes back to the whole #Oscarssowhite movement. The movie hasn't even come out yet, but I can totally see Rami Malek winning for playing Freddie Mercury in "Bohemian Rhapsody"- that movie looks really good.
But I really hope Gaga gets nominated AND wins- there's a lot of momentum going her way, between her Julie Andrews tribute, her SuperBowl performance (the best one since Prince- which will forever set the standard for me), and " 'Till it happens to you" being nominated (and losing to Sam Smith cuz he did the latest James Bond theme). If she has any shot of getting an Oscar, this is it and it has to be now. I think she also won an Emmy for "American Horror Story" so if she does Broadway, she has a shot at the EGOT title, something that Whoopi Goldberg, Audrey Hepburn, Rita Moreno, and, most recently, John Legend have won. And of course, Robert Lopez- half of the husband/wife duo who wrote the songs for "Frozen" and are responsbile for "Let it go" becoming one of the most beloved/hated songs of all time cuz EVERYONE had to cover it on some YouTube video or singing competition.
Lyndsey Parker mentioned this on a podcast where she and Jeffery Austin (4th place finisher on The Voice, season 8... I'm still mad he didn't win) bemoaned the fact that the songs from "A Star is Born" are destined to be covered a million times on every possible reality show that involves song and dance.
I didn't realize it until they said it, but they're right and that fills me with dread. Especially considering how overdone the songs from "The Greatest Showman" are already- "This is Me" in particular. Fun fact: Jenny Lynd's song "Never Enough" was dubbed by someone from season 3 of The Voice, Loren Allred. I don't remember her from the show at all, although I don't remember a lot of people unless they're in the top 12 and I really wanted them to win (and a lot of the time, they don't- I think Cassadee Pope was the only winner I really backed, all the way from the blinds through the whol show- I loved her voice and she sung a lot of pop songs I loved). But I read about Loren after finding this out from The Voice, when someone auditioned with her song, and she said that the producers were trying to create an image around her that she just wasn't buying into. I think she was eliminated in the Live Playoffs.
Interesting how it all comes full circle- all this talk about artistic integrity and record companies trying to package artists to fit a certain mold or image. It's probably the biggest issue this movie goes into and it's sadly true in real life. Particularly when artists are thrust into the spotlight, don't get to hone their craft and unless they have the right machine behind them or they sell out to a certain market, they're not going to lost beyond their first album or two.
That's probably a big reason why these days, I really don't buy into a lot of new music. There doesn't feel like anything original anymore and it's all about flash with no substance. Not to mention more rap and hip-hop than I ever want to have in my life... when I listen to the radio, I try to find stations that at least mix up different decades and there's more variety.
The last albums I have bought: Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, and Jessica Meuse, who I'd been following since she was on American Idol back in 2014 and that album was worth the wait for sure. I'm sure some of their image is being produced in some way, but they feel like the few people that have their own sense of artistry and haven't completely sold out to an image just to sell records. "Reputation" can be argued that it was a move to be edgier and get rid of that squeaky clean image, but some of the old Taylor is still in there. It's just knowing where to look.
Even Prince (sorry for all the references to him, they just have so much relevence I can't help myself) had to deal with the industry trying to package him a certain way- early in his career, he told his manager and his label that he didn't want to be just another black artist. And he did albums like 1999 and Purple Rain to crossover to the white audeince and gain appeal across all the demographics. (Although he did such a good job creating that image for himself, it sadly defined his career and created a ceaseless battle where people wanted him to always be that guy from Purple Rain when he just wanted to keep going forward and evolving).
What I've noticed is that the industry always tries to put artists into boxes, but the artists that are in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, the peaks of their careers were in the 80's or earlier and they played their own instruments and wrote their own material. There was a craft of performing and songwriting and playing instruments and that's why older music is so good. I try not to say that current music is crap. Heck, my dad refuses to listen to anything later than 80's music and the only reasons he knows who Gaga and Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars are either because I follow them myself or he saw them on HBO or as part of the Victoria's Secret fashion show. He also loved that song, "Shut up and dance"- I think because it sounds like an 80's song, but I think he found about it by random chance on some YouTube binge. Somehow, I think we're all guilty of binging something on Youtube :P but with good wi-fi and so many videos to choose from, it's hard to resist. But it's almost gotten to a point for me where, sadly, I may be over current music and the only people I invest in are ones I'd followed for a long time and/or I see a part of me in their work.
...well, that got out of hand quickly... but I'll leave it in cuz all of it ultimately fits the point. Record companies work at what they do, but at what cost to the artists?
Grade: A-
(I swear, if it didn't feel too long, I would have given it a higher score... and there was maybe one loose end at the end of the movie I wish they had tied up... and it goes back to that damn manager... just wanna punch him)
No comments:
Post a Comment