Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper are dazzling in this striking portrayal of the music industry’s highs and lowsEach generation has its own version of A Star Is Born, a timeless tale (prefigured by George Cukor’s What Price Hollywood?) of intersecting career trajectories.
In the 1930s, William Wellman directed Janet Gaynor as the young actress on the way up who falls for alcoholic fading idol Fredric March.
Judy Garland and James Mason reprised the roles in Cukor’s 1954 classic, setting a musical template mirrored in subsequent versions.
Barbra Streisand famously wanted Elvis to star opposite her in Frank Pierson’s 70s remake, and it still breaks my heart that Presley never got to play what would surely have been his defining screen role (Kris Kristofferson landed the part of a rock star in decline.)Now, taking the tale to a 21st-century audience, we have Lady Gaga and Bradley
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