Rocket Raccoon May Have a Future as a Director

Bradley Cooper has it pretty damn alright. Dude's handsome. He's funny. He gets to be in cool movies like Wedding Crashers, American Hustle, and The A-Team. The dude's fucking Rocket Raccoon, for hell sake!! He'll be forever beloved by an entire generation of Marvel movie fans just for that. And now, it appears the guy can really sing. Oh, and if his directorial debut, A Star is Born, is any indication, he's got a bright future as a filmmaker ahead of him. I hate this guy and I want his life... (sob...)

A Star is Born is the fourth cinematic iteration of this particular story. I'm most familiar with the 1954 film starring Judy Garland. It's been a while (since film school, I think) since I last saw it, but I liked it. And while Cooper's new film is a re-telling of that plotline, it's pretty fucking far from the same movie.

Here's the story: Jackson Maine (Cooper) is a famous singer who runs across Ally (Lady Gaga) after playing a show one night. She wows him with her and the two quickly bond, with Jackson soon finding out that Ally is a talented songwriter. Before long, Jackon has Ally on the road with, and she rapidly becomes famous. Meanwhile, the two fall in love. 

Unfortunately, nothing stays gold and things go downhill for our happy couple. Jackson becomes ensnared in a downward spiral of addiction and his career crumbles. Ally's fame leads her to sign with a manager who tries to transform her into an Ariana Grande-style pop tart who sings lame, repetitive tunes about guy's asses. Substance abuse, lies, and rehab begin to dominate their lives. This is a sad tale, but amidst all the sadness, there are some powerful, even inspirational, themes at play.

Cooper and his team have reimagined this story into something gritty and emotionally affecting. The scenes between Jackson and Ally are extremely intimate, to the point where one almost feels guilty for eavesdropping on someone else's conversations. That's not something unique, but it's something that often evades first-time directors. It's done in a way that draws you in and makes you a party participating in their relationship. That way, you rejoice at their breakthroughs and freak out when things go wrong.

This also works because the characters are well-conceived and the acting is phenomenal. Cooper's Jackson is hard-living roots rocker in the vein of Tom Petty or Bob Seger. He plays the role with a layer of cool, like a guy who has it all figured out. This makes the scenes where he drops the cool and lets us into the true tragedy of his life all the more heartbreaking. 

Gaga matches Cooper beat for beat. She starts the film as someone blown away by what she's experiencing, often wearing a look of sheer awe. And though she toughens and changes over the course of the film, she still wears that awed look in her scenes with Jackson, as if she never gets over the way she felt the first time they met. These two have mad chemistry and obviously loved working together. It's fucking beautiful, actually.  

As sad as this film makes you feel, it also offers inspiration and hope. It's as much about creativity and finding your voice as it is about addiction. At one point, Jackson begs Ally to be honest in what she tells the world because they'll only listen for a limited time. Watching her become something she's not actually drives Jackson deeper into despair. It's a powerful message in the value of always being yourself.

This movie is also about strength. About the strength it takes to overcome your fears and self-doubts. Everybody knows what a motherfucker self-doubt is. It's about the strength it takes to love someone. And it's about the strength to move on when good things fall apart. Watching someone take even the smallest step forward after losing so much is so inspiring. In that way, A Star is Born hits right in that emotional between hopeful and devastating. It'll wreck you, but it might just galvanize you to keep fighting the good fight, too.