It’s not like we didn’t see it coming. Movies like director and co-star Bradley Cooper‘s infectiously disarming remake A Star is Born are designed around moments like this, where the underdog, unsung nobody gets the chance to knock our socks off on the public stage, resetting their destinies (good or bad). Yet you know how we are, us bunch of emotionally-driven meat sacks absolutely bereft of the ability to not be moved by it no matter how many times it happens and no matter how obvious we see it coming. What’s wrong with us? Are we so easily manipulated? I personally don’t think so. It’s much more than that. And it’s reason why we’re going to dig a little deeper.
The story is a simple one. There’s Jackson Maine (Cooper), a long-time and very famous singer-songwriter riding the last wave as it were, his alcoholism ruining him while he steadily deals with an increasingly worsening case of tinnitus. After a show, he heads to a bar – a drag queen bar no less – where he’s stunned by the performance of a young woman named Ally (Lady Gaga). Instantly smitten, he invites her to join him for the evening and the two build a connection where he discovers she can also write songs. She confesses that her talents have been rejected because those with the power have said she doesn’t have a good look. You can guess the rest, as Jack paves the way to a singing career, one that explodes into near overnight pop success as he spirals into his own abyss. Okay, maybe not all that simple.
Remind back to that first night together. It’s during these hours as the two bond over drinks and music that Jack realizes he’s got a real diamond in the rough on his hand, Ally a completely untapped talent ready and raw for stardom. She just has no faith in herself and as such, is flailing in her life as a waitress. Knowing he’s slipping into oblivion perhaps, he sees a chance for some enlightenment of his own, taking some the music and lyrics she shared with him in a parking lot and working them into an actual performable song. Now all he needs is for her to show up and do it. He even sends his driver to get her.
With a little hesitation – and a jerk boss as the final push – Ally does get to the concert where she finds the staff is actually waiting for her, leading her right to side stage as Jack and his band are keeping the huge crowd rocking. When he catches sight of her, he lights up and for the next tune, tells the audience he’s bringing out a girl to duet with him, starting to sing ‘Shallow,’ the very song Ally told him about the last time they met. She’s initially unwilling to go out, terrified to make the leap, but hearing how good the song is, she soon gathers a breath and nervously takes the stage. Pumped by the cheering fans, she then lets loose and along with Jack, delivers a rousing rendition of her own song. It being 2018, it’s not long before the Internet grabs hold and makes her a new big thing.
So, let’s consider this moment a bit, knowing where it goes and how it ends for both Jack and Ally. That starts with Lady Gaga herself, a singer already renowned for her outrageous public persona(s) and celebrated displays of absurdity. But no matter how one views her approach and spectacle of stardom, the girl can sing and sing like it’s a gift. The first time we see her in the movie, she’s leaving work to do a late night gig as the only female in a drag bar, singing a French song like she’s headlining a burlesque show, all to a wildly enthusiastic audience begging for more. So how, you ask, could she possibly be frightened to take stage with Jack? Good question. Here’s why.
It’s all about identity. Quite wisely, the film allows Ally to do that song in the drag bar in full, in French, letting her traipse about the big bar as she flaunts herself in a wickedly erotic performance. She’s layered in heavy makeup, a wig and haughty clothes, unrecognizable from when we saw her before. Then, immediately after her song, we see her in the back with Jack, who doesn’t know what she really looks like – having only just met her – watching her strip off the mask as it were (he even helps), revealing the ‘normal’ girl under it all. And it’s this girl that not long after finds herself faced with walking on stage at Jack’s concert, raw and vulnerable, naked as it were without her French get up. The real Ally is about to get her break. That’s terrifying. And also awesome.
Here’s where we come in and why this moment works. Who doesn’t have some dream to do something bigger than what we are now? Jack explains to Ally the night they meet about people like she and him having the gift to write songs means they need to tell the world they can. It doesn’t matter how fleeting it is, because he warns, it will be, but having the ability to say something and be heard is special. We all want that. We all want to be heard. But so few have the chance to get the stage to do it. That’s why, when Ally finally musters up the nerve to do it – Lady Gaga absolutely nailing what it must feel like – it feels so darn good to us. She, right then, is all of us. That’s a great movie moment.