The Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper A Star Is Born remake has been blowing critics away.
A Star Is Born had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival to a literal storm.
A lightning bolt interfered with the screening but once it was back, on the audience was treated to a movie likely to be an Oscar contender this year.
As the movie rolls through its opening weekend, the already high Rotten Tomatoes score may fluctuate.
What are critics saying about A Star Is Born?
The Bradley Cooper helmed remake of the 1937 film is rapidly gaining positive critical reception.
The Rotten Tomatoes score is holding steady at 91 percent, with an audience rating of 85 percent.
The critics’ consensus reads: “With appealing leads, deft direction, and an affecting love story, A Star Is Born is a remake done right — and a reminder that some stories can be just as effective in the retelling.”
Alison Willmore of BuzzFeed wrote: “This movie has everything: a swept-off-your-feet romantic fantasy, an underdog-makes-good journey, a wrenching substance abuse drama, and an industry cautionary tale combined.”
Similarly positive reviews came from Linda Holmes Cooper of NPR, who wrote: “Cooper credibly builds a love story that’s fraught from the beginning, even as it leads to soaring moments for both Jackson and Ally.
“The musical moments that are meant to seem enormous actually do, and the relationship is suffused with a specific, cocooning intimacy that foregrounds the difference between how close they feel to each other and how uneasy both are with their public standing.”
Slate’s Dana Stevens wrote: “[A Star Is Born] feels somehow compact despite its sprawling two-hour-and-15-minute size, with nary a scene or frame wasted as it builds to its inexorable yet heart-shattering finale.”
“A Star Is Born, is simply terrific,” wrote Lindsay Bahr of Associated Press, ” a big-scale cinematic delight that will have the masses singing, swooning and sobbing along with it.”
Brian Lowry of CNN praised the two stars: “For Cooper, it’s a polished directorial debut.
“For Gaga, it’s as comfortable a bridge from pop stardom into the movie world as one could imagine.
“As duets go, that’s the sort of combined star power that’s difficult to beat.”
There are few dissenting voices amongst the reem of glowing reviews.
Kent Turner of Film Forward gave it 2/4 stars, commenting the movie was too long, with a hackneyed plot even for a remake which he describes as: “A young, multitalented artist, mentored by her older superstar husband, rises to the top while he self-destructs and stumbles his way toward becoming a has-been.”
Similarly, Shondaland writer Kendra James says: “I was prepared for the arc of the plot. I wasn’t prepared to have completely lost my taste for it.”
While she does not criticise the film (in fact, she praises moments of it) she does comment on the prevailing narrative in film, and real life, of “troubled men who enjoy a drink (or three, or more) and the upheaval left in their wake.”
It is possible to see A Star Is Born without politicising it, as the plethora of reviews praising the movie prove.
With awards season coming up, it’s likely the film and its stars will receive nominations, if not outright awards, for their work.
A Star Is Born is playing in cinemas now.