by Nathaniel R
When the trailer for the fourth version of A Star is Born hit yesterday everyone was all surprised like "omg this looks... good. Could it be good?" Dear reader, we been saying that via the Oscar charts! It certainly helps that Bradley Cooper enlisted DP Matthew Libatique (Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream, Tigerland, Iron Man) to shoot it and from early images it looks like Libatique knew what an attention grabber this could be and is really going for broke. So much color and beauty. Yes! Let's do a quick Yes No Maybe So™ on this (and a few more trailers) after the jump...
THE TRAILER IN QUESTION
YES
- Bradley can sing!
- Gaga singing live is always a thrill (they recorded the musical numbers live rather than using the more traditional playback method).
- The color! These teasing images (especially Gaga with tear, Gaga with red curtain, and Gaga covering her face) look totally riveting.
- The few notes of music we're hearing sound good.
- This story keeps being told for a reason. It's a good one, and flexible for the eras and the different qualities of its leading men and women.
NO
- Technically we don't need this after two previous musical versions of this story and another straight drama version so they'll have to imbue it with enough passion that we forget that it's wholly uneccesary!
MAYBE SO
- Bradley Cooper is a great actor but directing is a wholy different skill. Can he conquer it first time out while also directing himself and an untrained actor? Seems like a tall order.
- It's been a long time since the masterful Garland version and the polarizing Streisand film so a lot of people won't be bothered that it's the same story again. But for those who've seen the earlier versions will those films cast a shadow over getting to knwo this one as it unspools?
- Prediction: This lives or dies by the song score and Gaga's acting. We already know that Bradley Cooper is a terrific actor and that Libatique is a great cinematographer and that Gaga is a great singer so there's no element of revelation to harness there. But we don't yet know this score or how well Gaga can act (If you're shouting "American Horror Story: Hotel," at us, shush! That was elaborate posing with a few lines of dialogue here and there. This one will demand real acting to keep up with Bradley as an alcoholic fading star.
And this is our favorite tweet on the matter. Well done, Erik.
Girl, where do you think you're going pic.twitter.com/zJTQmUJaZp
— Erik Anderson (@awards_watch) June 6, 2018
Obviously we agree as Lady Gaga is in our current Best Actress predictions.
Obviously we're a big ol' yes and trying to shoo away our fears (see: maybe so). You?
P.S. Here are a few other new trailers that hit this past week or so (we can't keep up!).
THE CHILDREN ACT starring Emma Thompson SHARP ACTS (new trailer. We wrote about it previously here. HALLOWEEN (2018)... How many Halloween movies is this now? Michael Myers really can't be killed! WHITE BOY RICK (Matthew McConaughey is the titular character's dad.