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A Star Is Born review – Lady Gaga mesmerises in Streisand's shoes

Bradley Cooper directs and co-stars in this outrageously watchable update of the love story doomed by shifting fame

It’s the romantic epic of male sacrificial woundedness and it’s been regenerating like Doctor Who. We had it in 1976 with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, in 1954 with Judy Garland and James Mason and originally way back in 1937 with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. It’s even been regenerating obliquely in movies such as The Artist and La La Land. Now Bradley Cooper plays the boozy and downwardly mobile alpha-star laying his pride on the showbiz altar of the woman he loves. Cooper directs and co-stars in this outrageously watchable and colossally enjoyable new version, supercharged with dilithium crystals of pure melodrama. He appears opposite a sensationally good Lady Gaga, whose ability to be part ordinary person, part extraterrestrial celebrity empress functions at the highest level at all times.

Gaga's ability to be part ordinary person, part extraterrestrial celebrity empress functions at the highest level

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2PSaHDX

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