YMMV / A Star Is Born (2018)

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• Actor Shipping: Even though Bradley Cooper was romantically involved and the father of a child with Irina Shayk, that hasn't stopped fans from shipping him with Lady Gaga. Their chemistry in this film (and, for that matter, in promo interviews, they've made for the film, along with their performance at the 2019 Oscars) is simply that powerful. Gaga for her part has made it clear that anything that looks to be beyond the strong friendship the two genuinely have is only an act and has said she finds it quite flattering toward her acting ability that she could fool so many people. Shortly after the Oscars she also trolled the shippers by saying she was pregnant... with her next album.
• Adaptation Displacement: Younger audiences will not know that the film is actually the third remake of a 1937 movie that was remade two times before.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: There was initially a ton of skepticism about this film for several reasons: Bradley Cooper had never directed a film before; Lady Gaga had never had a starring role in a film before; it's the third remake of A Star Is Born, so there was suspicion that it would be superfluous. Doubts began drying up the moment the first trailer appeared, and its release has been greeted by rapturous reviews, smash box office success, and speculation that it could win Oscar noms for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and even Best Picture. Four months after its opening weekend, it earned $423 million worldwide on a $36 million budget despite competition from Venom (2018) and Halloween (2018).
• Award Snub:
  • The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, but Bradley Cooper was not nominated for Best Director despite him being a front runner.
  • The film failed to garner any wins at the major awards shows other than Best Song for "Shallow", especially the Best Picture award that ended up in the hands of Green Book.
  • Many fans of this film have gone on to say Bradley Cooper was robbed by Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody at the Oscars that year.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Charlie the dog won a lot of hearts for audiences due to his adorableness and for the emotional climax.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • A truly bizarre one with Venom (yes, really). Gaga fans have been posting negative reviews of Venom in order to create buzz for this film, since they open on the same weekend. Fans of Venom caught on and responded by posting negative reviews of A Star is Born. Amusingly enough, both films share a cinematographer in Matthew Libatique.
  • On the music side of things, the film's soundtrack was released on the same week as Twenty One Pilots' album Trench. When the band's Twitter account posted a parody tweet of the film's poster, Gaga fans took it as a call to buy Trench instead of the soundtrack and also had a negative reaction.
• He Really Can Act:
  • Director example: if the reviews are to go by, many are surprised at Bradley Cooper's job as a director here. Cooper originally aspired to be a director before turning to acting. On top of that, Cooper's acting work in the film has also done much to win over the few remaining holdouts still on the fence about his talents.
  • Lady Gaga's performance has been very well-received, with talks of her being the front runner for Best Actress at the Oscars. Though she didn't win, she managed to score one for Best Original Song with "Shallow."
  • Dave Chappelle is well known for his raunchy comedy but here, he plays a rather gentle role as the levelheaded, soft-spoken best friend to Jackson.
  • Sam Elliott had spent most of his career regarded as someone who could get by on sheer personality and his rich, deep voice, but gives a heartwrenching performance here which got him his very first Oscar nomination at age 74.
  • Andrew "Dice" Clay received surprising praise for his role as Lorenzo.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The trailer features a particular vocal run by Gaga (from "Shallow") that became an internet meme, with people interpolating it over existing footage from other works. (Example)
  • The "Just wanted to take another look at you" exchange between Cooper and Gaga that ends with her smiling was emphasized in the trailer and was subsequently parodied frequently on Twitter.
  • At every single stop on the press junket, Lady Gaga made sure to repeat a certain anecdote about Cooper being the one person out a hundred who took her seriously, leading to much good-natured mockery trying to play it off as being totally off the cuff every single time.
  • The Brazilian cover of "Shallow", who became infamous in its home country, particularly for their translation of a line in the refrain: they went from "we're far from the shallow now" to "Juntos e shallow now" ("together and shallow now"), which was seen as a big butchering of the original song.
  • In Latin America, El Bananero made some Trailer Spoofs based on 2019 Oscar Awards, one of them refering to this movie, where he threw the Actor Shipping very further.
• Misaimed Fandom: Many fans love "Why Did You Do That?" even though it was deliberately written as a shallow, generic pop song and is meant to show Ally was forsaking her individuality and creative talent.
• Moral Event Horizon: Rez is an abrasive Jerkass throughout the whole film, but his abusive speech to Jackson near the end of the film pretty clearly triggers Jackson's suicide.
• One-Scene Wonder: Dave Chappelle shows up briefly as Noodles, a guitar maker who is best friends with Jackson and brings a ton of warmth to the film within the short amount of time he's present.
• Signature Song: "Shallow"

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