The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw gave the film five stars, saying: “Cooper directs and co-stars in this outrageously watchable and colossally enjoyable new version, supercharged with dilithium crystals of pure melodrama. He appears opposite a sensationally good Lady Gaga, whose ability to be part ordinary person, part extraterrestrial celebrity empress functions at the highest level at all times.”
Time’s Stephanie Zacharek praised Cooper and Gaga’s sensitive onscreen relationship, saying: “The basic Star is Born story is geared so you pity the man almost more than you admire the woman. In every version, the man threatens to steal the show with his own degradation; the woman’s protective fortitude is far less interesting. But as an actor, Cooper fades into the corner at just the right moments, allowing Gaga to shine.”
Meanwhile Entertainment Weekly‘s Leah Greenblatt praised Gaga’s “serious-actress transformation”, saying “she certainly deserves praise for her restrained, human-scale performance as a singer whose real-girl vulnerability lands miles away from the glittery meat-dress delirium of her own stage persona.”
BBC’s Nicholas Barber, deemed Rafi Gavron’s portrayal of Ally’s manager Rez: “such a clichéd villain that he might as well have been named Soulless McMoneybags”, also criticising the screenplay’s lack of detail, saying: “A Star Is Born puts terrific care and attention into depicting the night when the lovers meet and mosey around town together, but after that it flicks cursorily through the rest of their professional and personal lives as if it were glancing at someone else’s holiday photos. It never looks closely at who they are or what they want.”
Expressen: En stjärna är född! Det finns något gammeldags storslaget över Gagas prestation i den här filmen där hon bevisar sig både som skådespelerska och berörande sångerska, lite som en supermix av nittiotalets stora sångdivor och aktriserna från Hollywoods guldålder. Det doftar helt klart Oscar.
Svenska Dagbladet: "A star is born" anno 2018 är både grandios och lågmäld, en sällsam och gripande hybrid av saga och vardaglighet. Se den, gråt en skvätt och förundras över att det fortfarande går att göra sådana här filmer.
