A Star Is Born - 2018

Long story short: I hated this movie.

The Long Story In Which There Will Be Spoilers And Triggers:

So my boyfriend bought this movie on his XBox two days ago, presumably because he's on a Lady Gaga kick. And by that I mean he's been listening to "Hold My Hand" almost nonstop since it came out. I'm tired of listening to it, but that's beside the point. Anyway, he bought this movie and attempted to start watching it with me without telling me what we were about to watch. I grabbed the controller, found out, said no, and went to find something else to watch. Even explained that I had zero interest in watching A Star Is Born and he could watch it the next day while I was at work.

Next morning, he starts it up while we're eating breakfast. I say nothing because I've got about 20 minutes before I have to leave and it's whatever. Something to watch while I eat. I assume he'll finish the movie while I'm gone. He does not. He does watch some of it, but I come home later that evening and he switches from whatever he was watching back to A Star Is Born. Pauses it while I'm in the shower even though I told him he doesn't have to and I wish he wouldn't. I play OviPets after my shower with A Star Is Born playing in the background. He now owes me a Harry Potter movie because he essentially forced me to watch this stupid movie.

I mentioned previously that I had zero interest in watching A Star If Born. This is because A) I had zero interest when it first came out and B) I'd watched a YouTube video on the four versions a few months ago. You can find that video HERE if you're interested. Please do, it's a good video. I knew the basic story line from watching the video and it pretty much solidified that I had zero interest in ever seeing any version of A Star Is Born. I think my reasoning is pretty solid, especially having now seen the movie.

The plot of A Star Is Born (if you haven't seen it) is this: Jack is a pretty famous, drunk singer who stumbles upon a woman (Ally) in a drag bar he ends up in because he wants to be more drunk. Ally, it turns out, can fucking sing. He pretty much falls in love with her and her voice and takes her on tour with him. She gets "discovered" by some super awesome agent and ends up getting a career of her own. I managed to skip part of the movie here, but Jack and Ally get married. He continues with the drinking and some prescribed drug usage, she wins a Grammy. He drunkenly follows her on stage and pisses himself before basically passing out and getting sent to rehab. This apparently almost tanks Ally's career off-screen. When Jack gets back from rehab, Mr. Agent-Manager tells him to get the hell away from Ally before he self-destructs and drags her down with him. Jack ends up killing himself or ODing, it's ambiguous. Ally grieves. Ally sings a love song Jack wrote for her to an audience. It's all very depressing.

Now, my particular form of anxiety makes me think about things while I am attempting to fall asleep and this movie decided to stick around in my brain last night. I originally wrote a rant-y piece on my phone about how much I hate this movie and how the Grammy scene could have been avoided and how there's only one female character in the movie... yeah. It's actually kind of victim-blame-y and I'm not real sure how to classify drag queens so, I'm not going to repeat any of that here. It will suffice to say that I found A Star Is Born to be just the worst. Jack clearly has mental health issues -- and some physical ones -- that he drowns with liquor. I just don't know that we as an audience really needed to be along for that ride. Yes, it was sad, from a certain viewpoint. I'm over it.

I am over these stories of artists, or anyone really, getting tangled up in drink and drugs and ending up ODing or killing themselves. This is not what I want in my media. "Well that's real life. That's what happens. It's happened before." Yes, I am aware. I am very aware. It's happened recently enough with celebrities that I've looked up to. I still don't want it in my media. I'm allowed to be selective in what I consume, damnit. NOT TO MENTION this stigma about mental health problems. I understand that not everyone can or will get help and even that the help they do get doesn't translate into real life. But man, aren't there enough stories floating around out there about that exact issue? A Star Is Born is not the first or the last. It's better for my personal mental health if I don't dwell on these things like our "serious art" seems to want to. I'm not even sure these kinds of stories push people toward seeking the help they need... and I honestly don't know where I'm going with this, so I'm going to stop.

Uh, yeah. A Star Is Born is definitely not my thing. I resent my boyfriend for making me watch it. I plan to be much more firm in my decisions not to watch things I don't want to, cuz A Star Is Born is just stuck in my brain-pan now and I hate it.

On a much more serious note: If you do have mental health problems, please, please, please seek help. If not for yourself, do it for your loved ones.