RITA DI SANTO draws attention to a new film that features Ken Loach and Jeremy Corbyn, and their personal experience of media misrepresentation
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Going Gaga
MARIA DUARTE sees the pop star give a tremendous performance in A Star is Born
JULIA TOPPIN recommends Patti Smith’s eloquent memoir that wrestles with the beauty and sorrow of a lifetime
MARJORIE MAYO welcomes an account of family life after Oscar Wilde, a cathartic exercise, written by his grandson
KEN COCKBURN guides us through a survey of Chekov’s early short fiction, and the groundwork it laid for his later masterpieces
ANDY HEDGECOCK revels in a hugely enjoyable but deadly serious examination of the 1930s, that is an indictment of our own era
The bard distills our hellish times into fiery words
A Star is Born (15)
Directed by Bradley Cooper
THIS third remake of A Star is Born is a true revelation in its ingenious and powerful on-screen coupling of Hollywood star turned film-maker Bradley Cooper and the iconic Lady Gaga.
The two are extraordinary together. Who knew Cooper could sing or play the guitar as well as he does, while Lady Gaga, stripped of make-up and gimmicky paraphernalia, shows what a talented actor and tremendous singer and artist she truly is.
The film opens with Cooper as the great rock star Jackson Maine performing at an open-air gig and having to take booze and pills before going on. On his desperate hunt for a drink after the concert, he enters a drag bar where he watches wannabe singer Ally (Lady Gaga) sing La Vie En Rose in a goose pimples-inducing performance and realises that a star is about to be born.
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