A stunning presentation of a mesmerizing film.
The Film
While the previous incarnations of A Star Is Born have a pretty strong track record, I didn’t hold out much hope for this latest effort. Actor Bradley Cooper fancying himself as a director? Lady Gaga fancying herself as an actor? Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga daring to think they could write rock and roll songs together? I mean, come on. This is just egos on steroids, right?
Wrong. With annoyingly talented knobs on.
In fact, Cooper’s direction is outstanding: crisp and naturalistic, never self indulgent, yet with an almost uncanny eye for finding beauty in almost anything. His portrayal of a tortured, alcoholic yet effortlessly charming rock star is also pretty much flawless.
The changing of the guard… Photo: A Star Is Born, Warner Bros
Lady Gaga’s performance, though, is if anything even better. Almost luminous, at times – so much so that you almost completely forget from the get-go that she’s not known as an actor. In fact, scratch that: you forget right away that she’s not a real struggling bar singer stumbled upon by a jaded rock star looking for somebody to bring him back to life.
Hell, even the music is good. Authentic, emotive, but never too polished or perfect. In other words, it feels like it’s born from the characters rather than from a desire to churn out a massive-selling soundtrack. (Though the soundtrack has, of course, sold massively…)
Add all this directorial, acting and musical talent to a superb script and you’ve got a massively rewarding film that deserves to be doing far better at the big awards ceremonies than it has so far. Unless the Oscars changes all that, of course…
Release details
Studio: Warner Bros
What you get: Region A/B/C Blu-ray; All-region 4K Blu-ray; Region locked download code
Extra Features: Three extra, never seen before tracks; ‘making of’ documentary; four music videos
Best soundtrack option: Dolby Atmos
Video options: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Key kit used for this test: Oppo UDP-205 4K Blu-ray player, Samsung QN65Q9FN TV, LG OLED55B8, Panasonic UB900 4K Blu-ray player
Picture Quality
Might as well get right to the point here: A Star Is Born looks nothing short of sensational. A masterclass in unlocking the resolution, expanded light range and wider color potential that makes 4K Blu-ray such a big leap over HD Blu-ray.
One of A Star Is Born’s stunningly staged concerts. Photo: A Star Is Born, Warner Bros
The picture’s so good, in fact, that it’s almost distracting. Certainly for the first half hour or so, until I’d got used to the visual splendor, I found myself uttering involuntary ‘wows’ that had nothing to do with the power of the music or performances.
Detail levels, for starters, are immense. Astonishingly it appears that the film was only finished in a 2K Digital Intermediate for its cinema release (despite being largely filmed at between 2.8K and 3.4K). But you’d never guess that for a second from the stunning combination of sharpness and detail that packs pretty much every frame.
The use of HDR is also both exceptionally aggressive but also fantastically ‘baked in’.
