In a pivotal scene in the new version of A Star Is Born, unknown singer-songwriter Ally (Lady Gaga) and a buddy arrive at their food-service kitchen job dressed in unflattering clothes, talking excitedly about anything but work. Their boss trudges by and says snarkily, “You’re late!” Ally is furious. “I’m late?” she says. “I’m late?!” She quits on the spot, stomps out of the restaurant, and does what her new boyfriend, rock star Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper, who also directs), has been urging her to do—get on a plane, fly out to his latest gig, sing to a packed stadium, and leave her life of drudgery behind forever.
In comparison to the ’76 version, the film benefits from the fact that Cooper has a much greater range, both vocally and as an actor, than the mumbling, shambolic Kristofferson. But the 2018 script is also sharper because it’s more grounded in the dynamics of labor.
Ally resists to some degree; “I am who I am,” she declares, by which she means her music, and her work, have to come from inside her. She sings because she wants to sing, not because someone tells her to.
