Palaest recommended

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Benas Mcloughlin Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

sarahallen1005 Terrible. Really awful. I'm wondering why and how Barbra Streisand and a hairdresser/wanna be producer even had a relationship to create such crap, but it's out there. Just another reason Hollywood hates Jon Peters.

smoke0 I had to search high and low till I found some definitive info about the Bradley Cooper / Lady Gaga remake, and that plot is basically closest to this film, but with country music instead of rock and pop. So I decided to give this film another look, and I was glad I did.Initially, I had hated this movie, and that had to be because I was too familiar with both stars' music and personas, and I, like a lot of others, distanced myself from the characters and the story, and could not give the film a chance.But something strange happened when I watched it again, with a distance of many years, and with the two stars having passed into legend status and not so ubiquitous or familiar now...I actually bought into the story ( for the most part - sorry, but no way a crowd waiting to see a beloved hard rock band is going to sit still for any lounge act shtick, much less cheer for it ), I believed the two admired each other's talents, I believed they worked together on music, I believed they loved each other ( yes, some of the love scenes are cringe-worthy, but now only because watching any couple being extra lovey-dovey is basically cringe-worthy ), I enjoyed looking at the hair and clothing ( although most of it was outdated even for that time period ), and I actually teared up at the end (!?, yep, I did ).So, due to the fact that this film is now just as dated as the other three, it is now just as enjoyable, and I advise giving it another chance.

mark.waltz Having seen the Janet Gaynor/Fredric March dramatic 1937 classic many times and the Judy Garland/James Mason musical 1954 masterpiece also quite a few, I went into my viewing of this (my second time, and first in many years) a bit cynical. I proved my cynicism to be part wrong but mostly right. But what I realized why this version has no real impact is that the title implies something that really doesn't work. The two stars have fantastic chemistry, Streisand allows herself to go low down (even into the mud), and the movie does take you into the wild world of rock. The problem is that I never believed Kris Kristofferson to be a rock star even though it was obvious that he was emulating a few performers of the time. This is sort of the "Mahogany" of the rock world, like "The Eyes of Laura Mars" was of the photography world. Then, there is the problem with Streisand. She is way too big to be believable as a nobody when Kristofferson first meets her in some Los Angeles dive and takes her under his wing. Even though Garland's talent was big, she was able to transcend the fact that her version of Esther Blodgett had not yet been lucky. Lacking Garland's vulnerability, Streisand's Esther Hoffman seems like someone who by her mid 30's should have been doing live concerts in Central Park like "Mahogany's" Miss Ross.So the beginning of the film does really stretch the line of credibility, but once Streisand's rise begins, she begins to become a bit more believable. What I see here in Streisand as compared to her earlier performances and more recent film work is a desire to command focus. This was also apparent in the previous year's "Funny Lady" where a lot of the heart was missing from her Oscar Winning performance in "Funny Girl". The intensity of Streisand's drive really works in the dramatic scenes, and there are some adorable romantic moments between Kristofferson and Streisand that inject comedy into the romance. I just can't believe either character lighting dozens of candles to place around the huge bathtub in their desert home before their love scene, nor did I feel any emotion at the end where Kristofferson takes drastic steps to ensure his wife's future.A better title for the film could simply have been "Evergreen", the title of the Oscar Winning song that describes the romance between the two. This version becomes more like "A Star is Delayed". In a sense, too, I have to also call this version a mistake, not only because of much of the mediocrity and the multiple feelings the film makes an attempt to express, but there is something cutthroat about the world of rock music where this obvious build-up to soap opera just doesn't make you really want to care about the characters. That world would be much better explored a few years later when Bette Midler got ahold of it and played a performer much like Janis Joplin in "The Rose". Its total lack of sentiment actually made you care more about her; In this "A Star is Born", it feels too forced, and left me cold.

jc-osms I enjoyed this 70's remake of the marvellous Judy Garland / James Mason classic from the 50's (itself a remake, film snobs) more than I expected without accepting that one isolated minute in it was better than its counterpart in the predecessor. A rocky update of the story is a decent idea and in fact lends itself well to the story-line and if the execution is a bit clunky and now dated, that's both pardonable and understandable.Things I liked - well let's start with Kris Kristofferson who, with the more difficult part, certainly convinces as a hell-raising rock star, fuelled by drugs and alcohol, aware of tastes and fashions passing him by but with enough perception to see Streisand's Esther as the future. It's fun trying to pick out rock prototypes for his John Norman Howard character - I'm between Jim Morrison and Leon Russell myself, the latter married at the time ironically to sultry singer Rita Coolidge who herself gets a brief cameo appearance, while Howard's behaviour at Streisand's little night club where he "discovers" her recalls an infamous out of control episode in the "lost weekend" period in John Lennon's life, if memory serves. A pity they couldn't have trusted the writer of classics like "Help Me Make It Through The Night" and "Me And Bobby McGee" to contribute some of his own songs to the soundtrack and certainly his signature song here "Watch Closely Now" gets done to death.I also quite enjoyed the soundtrack. I'm no fan of La Diva Streisand's singing or indeed acting but at least in her vocals she exercises some restraint and delivers a surprising variety of material demonstrating at least some versatility on her part, from the title-theme ballad "Evergreen", (the gorgeous music to which was, surprisingly enough written by her), light Labelle-type funk of "I Believe in Love" and the big torch ballad "The Woman in the Moon" which while beneath Judy's "The Man That Got Away", covers the same territory in a still acceptable way.Things not to like - Streisand herself does a reasonable job and initially tones down her trademark "kooky" and "sensitive" personae a bit but you never really believe in her as a real person. Unfortunately as the film progresses so does her profile and we get embarrassingly lame scenes with the couple coo-ing at each other in various locations including a candle-surrounded bath scene, Streisand overacting furiously as she argues with a cassette-tape of Howard's voice after he's done his James Dean-type exit from the planet and worst of all that single long shot of her singing the finale medley, which is when you appreciate that yes, it's just another Barbie vanity exercise after all (especially when you see her name down as executive producer).The dialogue is pretty rock-star cliché throughout and some of the situations come across very second-hand too (Howard snorting up before every show, his assaults on a critical dee-jay, Streisand's MOR music somehow wowing a crowd of rock 'n' rollers at a benefit gig) and of course the familiarity with the story reduces the surprise element of some of the plot developments.All told though, long as it was, there were far worse films than this made in the 70's. By the way, what a pity they never released the version of "Evergreen" with Kristofferson harmonising on the middle section - it works a treat and adds to an already very pretty melody.