A Star Is Born (Bradley Cooper, 2018)

A Star Is Born (Bradley Cooper, 2018)

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, Rafi Gavron, Anthony Ramos, Dave Chappelle. Screenplay: Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters, based on screenplays by Moss Hart, John Gregory Dunne, Joan Didion, Frank Pierson, and a story by William A. Wellman and Robert Carson. Cinematography: Matthew Libatique. Production design: Karen Murphy. Film editing: Jay Cassidy.

I should admit from the outset that I resisted watching this movie until it finally reached the top of my queue of Movies I Should Watch. I thought remaking A Star Is Born was a bad idea back when it was going to be Clint Eastwood directing Beyoncé, and to a large extent I still do. The arc of the story, familiar from the three previous movies -- not to mention the fons et origo of them all, George Cukor's 1932 What Price Hollywood? -- leaves nothing to the curiosity except how Norman Maine (as he was called in 1937 and 1954 before becoming John Norman Howard in 1976 and Jackson Maine in 2018) is going to off himself so that Esther (who became Ally in 2018) can nobly go on with the show. And I still think that the remake does a disservice to the considerable talents of Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, who deserve fresher material. I'm also not a big fan of the hybrid country/rock/pop music the film is designed to showcase -- for my taste, the best musical moment in the film is when Lady Gaga sings the hell out of Edith Piaf's "La Vie en Rose." That said, I still enjoyed the movie, which manages to introduce some genuine moments amid the well-trodden ones. I like, for example, that instead of accidentally slugging Ally at the Grammys (as Norman did Esther in the 1937 and 1954 versions), he pisses himself onstage, an incident that deepens his shame beyond her embarrassment. I like the introduction of an older half-brother, Bobby (Sam Elliott, one of those actors who always make a movie a little better), which gives Jackson a strong backstory. It also provides an amusingly meta moment when Bobby accuses Jack of stealing his voice, which is what Cooper did when he lowered his own speaking voice to Elliott's bass-baritone. And Cooper and Lady Gaga generate some real heat onscreen, which couldn't be said of the Fredric March/Janet Gaynor, James Mason/Judy Garland, and Kris Kristofferson/Barbra Streisand pairings in the earlier films. There are those who think that Cooper carved out a little too much for himself at the expense of Lady Gaga's character, expanding his backstory as I've noted -- we don't learn as much about Ally except that she has a father who's a bit of a blowhard (amusingly played by Andrew Dice Clay). On the other hand, it's her first major movie and it shouldn't be her last.

The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 1998)

Jeff Bridges and Sam Elliott in The Big Lebowski

The Dude: Jeff Bridges
Walter Sobchak: John Goodman
Maude Lebowski: Julianne Moore
Donny Kerabatsos: Steve Buscemi
The Big Lebowski: David Huddleston
Brandt: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Bunny Lebowski: Tara Reid
Jesus Quintana: John Turturro
Knox Harrington: David Thewlis
The Stranger: Sam Elliott

Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Screenplay: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Cinematography: Roger Deakins
Production design: Rick Heinrichs
Film editing: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke
Music: Carter Burwell

The Coen brothers' movies are usually more in the vein of Billy Wilder's acerbic satire than the affectionately loopy take on the varieties of human eccentricity you find in Preston Sturges's films. But The Big Lebowski somehow manages to have touches of both Wilder and Sturges, with the latter, I think, finally predominating. Or maybe it's just that I find that Sam Elliott's appearance, mustache in full bloom, at the end of the film casts the entire movie in a benign light. (Elliott is one of those actors who can make almost any movie better just by showing up in it.) But what also brings Sturges to mind is the special texture he gave to his films with the use of his stock company of character actors like William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn, Jimmy Conlin, and the rest. And the Coens have done something similar by bringing in their usual gang: John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, among others. They also make use of such great actors as Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julianne Moore in supporting roles, and how can you not love a film that gives David Thewlis a bit part in which he does almost nothing but giggle? Still, The Big Lebowski would be nothing without Jeff Bridges, our least appreciated great actor, finding the right note for the stoned and indomitable Dude. He takes a licking -- gets beat up, has his rug pissed on, gets beat up again and has his replacement rug snatched from him, has his car stolen, is threatened by German nihilists, finds his car but its windows get smashed, has a mickey slipped into his White Russian, gets arrested and beaten by the Malibu police, gets thrown out of a cab because he objects to the driver's playing the Eagles, goes home to find his apartment trashed, and finally sees what's left of his car set fire to -- but the Dude abides. And somehow in the middle of all this he finds time to go bowling with Walter and Donny and perform something like Three Stooges routines (only funny) with them. It has been labeled a "cult film," but it transcends that label. Everyone who loves it has their own favorite lines: Mine happen to be "That's the stress talking" and "Hey, careful, man, there's a beverage here!" I suppose I also have to mention the contributions of Roger Deakins's cinematography and Carter Burwell's score augmented by T Bone Burnett's invaluable work as "musical archivist," but then everyone covered themselves with glory by working on The Big Lebowski.