Hacker Cinema
A Star Is Born
2018 · Film · 136 min
Directed by Bradley Cooper
Seasoned musician Jackson Maine discovers — and falls in love with — struggling artist Ally. She has just about given up on her dream to make it big as a singer — until Jack coaxes her into the spotlight. But even as Ally's career takes off, the personal side of their relationship is breaking down, as Jack fights an ongoing battle with his own internal demons.
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6 comments on Hacker News
I just did a quick search on Walmart.com for DVDs <= $6 and found plenty of mediocrity but also:
- Shawshank Redemption - Despicable Me 1 & 2 (for $5 total) - Scream 1-3 (again $5 total) - Beverly Hills Cop 1-3 (same) - Tombstone - Unforgiven - ET - A Star is Born (2018) - Sleepless in Seattle - The Thing (1982) - Seabiscuit - Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Titanic
I would say any of these movies is better than 95% of the movies available for streaming on Netflix (conservatively).
Wikipedia has a huge list (split into two articles) of film remakes, and I really enjoyed reading through it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_film_remakes
One tidbit that I learned: “A Star Is Born” has been remade three times (not including the original), with releases in 1937, 1954, 1976, and 2018.
> is what kills an art form.
This is how art has always worked though? The humanism of the renaissance is a direct conversation with the christian art of decades prior. When paint became cheaper and non kings could get portraits, rich people got still lifes to show they had fresh fruit and stuff other's couldn't. Almost every art movement can be traced directly to the people, the time, the wealth or the previous art movement. This is not a modern art problem.
> Even without context, you can get something out of looking at Michaelangelo's Pieta
I have had a panic attack in front of a Rothko. Even without context about him selling those paintings to the Tate before committing suicide the emotion on them is insane and I say this as someone who spent years mocking Rothko as a dumb rich person experiment of how much BS sothebys and christies can sell.
> which so far have not taken that hermetic turn to the same extent.
I think this is incredibly easy to refute, considering the amount of movies related to making movies. Due to the specialisation from capitalism, now the experts in making movies, only know how to make movies and go further and further into making movies like The Fablemans about their own industry. (This is not a one off; once upon a time in hollywood, a star is born, the artist, hugo, hail Cesar, tropic thunder...) They are even making movies about focus groups like Air about how they managed to make people design by comittee the greatest basketball shoe ever.
Their viability as comercial products, focus testing, and appreciability with little to no movie experience is hurting the art, not enhancing it. Movies are dumbed down nowadays because the aim is having as many people as possible understand them. Movies where metaphor is heavily used are usually not blockbusters. See Anihillation, a great lovecraftian horror dealing with cancer, change, loss. And whose entire conversation online was about "aliens" despite the movie being super in your face about what it was really about.
> then everything becomes a game of relying on what experts say
You are allowed to like or dislike "high" art without expert opinions. A lot fo it isn't that high anyway. I love conceptual art, absolutely love it. But it also takes seconds to make. I think the piece Perfect Lovers which is just two wall clocks next to each other is brilliant, but I see why many don't like it. (The piece was made after the artist found out his bf had AIDS and the piece is just two clocks ticking away, knowing the battery of one will run out sooner than the other, and at some point you have one clock ticking and the other stopped before both run out and they replace the bateries).
Speaking from my own experiences with depression (and, I suppose, only from my own experiences), I can tell you some common things people do that do not help, and in fact may make things worse.
1. Don't call suicide "selfish", "cowardly", "the easy way out", etc. Firstly, death is literally the hardest and most dire option, so there's no way in hell it's cowardly or easy. In terms of "selfish", just... no. When someone is contemplating suicide, in the moment, they're often thinking about everyone but themselves. They're convinced -- whether accurately or not -- that they are a drag on everyone else. That everyone will be better off without them. Sure, they may realize their loved ones will hurt when they're gone, but that pain (they will convince themselves) is mostly temporary, while the pain they (believe they) are constantly causing their loved ones will finally end. As twisted as it might sound to someone who's never been in that position, suicide can feel like you're doing your loved ones a favor, the opposite of selfish.
If you've ever seen A Star Is Born, that perfectly shows this. (Spoiler alert if you haven't.) Bradley Cooper's character has convinced himself that he is destroying his wife's life and career, and that gets reinforced by another person's warnings. But he also knows she loves him dearly, so to him, the kindest thing he can do for her is die. If he leaves her, she'll always resent him and be devastated; if he stays, she'll always resent him and be devastated. But if he dies, then she'll be sad for awhile, then move on with a better life. I've heard people say the movie "glorifies suicide as an option", but they aren't listening to it; there's no glory in it, and it's not "an option" for him, it's the only option he feels he has left, for the sake of the woman he loves most in the world.
Alternatively, labeling a suicidal person with negative traits like "selfish" and "cowardly" might just reinforce their own self-hatred and make them feel like their life is even more worthless than they thought. In short, these are never helpful comments or views.
2. "I was depressed, but I just exercised more / ate healthier / snapped out of it / stopped whining / etc. and I was fine." No, Karen, you didn't, because you weren't. Sadness and depression are two different things, and someone who is clinically depressed won't just be "cured" by a healthier physical lifestyle or some fresh air. These kinds of comments fully misunderstand what depression is (which is expected, since people without mental illness often have no way to relate to the distortions/perceptions/emotions of it), and they ultimately blame the victims. They are saying "you know how empty and hollow and shitty you feel? That's your fault for not trying hard enough to be happier and more confident. You suck because you choose to suck. You are worthless by choice." Which again, helps no one and can reinforce their depressive thoughts instead.
3. "Don't take meds, they mess with your brain." Well, yeah, that's the point. People with depression/anxiety/etc. have brains that distort reality, warp their perceptions into something terrible, and motivate them to dangerous behaviors. It's good if you can mess with that and end up with healthier brain chemistry. No one ever says "don't take antibiotics, they mess with your infection". Meds aren't for everyone, and it can take time and experimentation to find the right combination and dose for a person even if it does work, but there is no blanket approach, and you shouldn't convince someone who might need medication not to take it.
In terms of ways to support someone going through things like this, everyone's different, so different things help. For me, I'm a very science-and-logic oriented person; I don't believe things unless I understand the evidence for them. When I'm having an anxiety attack or depressive episode, my brain hides evidence from me and warps others; I start seeing everything I do wrong in the worst light, and become unable to see anything I've done right. "I'm a terrible friend, I'm a terrible son, I'm a terrible employee, I'm a terrible person; everything I do falls apart and screws up other people's lives. Why even bother when all I do is fuck up?" So for me, some of the best support is when my friends point out clear, objective evidence that I am wrong. When they remind me of ways I've helped them which I'm currently unable to recall on my own, or prove that something I did for them actually mattered, or show me things I've made or accomplished and compare it to others' work so I can see I'm not the bottom of the barrel.
But that's just me. Not everyone responds to evidence like that (I'd wager most people don't); the point is to find out what kinds of distortions a depressed/anxious/etc. person is experiencing and then figure out how to convince them they're wrong about it.
As the spouse of someone who suffers from depression and suicidal thinking the outrage against “trigger warnings” really pisses me off.
Trigger warnings are just that. Warnings.
We watched A Star is Born, and having my spouse go back on almost a years worth of progress and treatment when a single “trigger warning” could have avoided that is beyond enraging.
And what’s most hypocritical is the people who are complaining about trigger warnings are people who are complaining that a little paragraph of text describing certain known triggers may be contained in the text or movie before. So people who suffer from a variety of potentially harmful diseases such as depression and PTSD are pussies because they need a trigger warning to help them avoid media that may be harmful to them, but you’re a strong reasonable and logical person to protest the inclusion of a minor warning that you are under no obligation to read and can easily skip.
Did you stumble on to the final scene of "A Star is Born"? I wonder how many films end with people wading in to the surf to take their own life...