Screen Education No. 94

Bradley Cooper’s 2018 adaption of A Star Is Born is frequently concerned with questions surrounding past and present, old fashions and new trends – fitting for a movie based on three previous ones.1 ‘Tell me somethin’, girl: are you happy in this modern world? Or do you need more?’ Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) sings to Ally (Lady Gaga) at the beginning of their romance. The lyric suggests that he considers her old-fashioned, romantically so – someone who will appreciate his chivalry and gravelly voiced charm. Yet, at the start of the film, and then repeatedly throughout, Jackson sings that ‘maybe it’s time to let the old ways die’. Is A Star Is Born nostalgic for the past, or discarding it in favour of the future? Is Ally an old soul,…

1 Four, arguably, if you include the 1932 Cukor film What Price Hollywood?, which, although not sharing the title, has the same basic plot outline, and, arguably, was a strong influence on Wellman’s A Star Is Born. 2 Terri White, ‘We’re Far from the Backlash Now’, Empire (Australasia), 3 December 2018, p. 24. 3 See, for example, Anea Bogue, ‘Why Beyoncé’s “Mrs. Carter Tour” Is Bad for Women’, HuffPost, 8 March 2013, <https:// www.huffingtonpost.ca/anea-bogue/why-beyonces-mrs-carter -tour_b_2839509.html>, accessed 24 January 2019. 4 In the 1937 film, his real name is Albert Henkel, while in the 1954 film it is Ernest Gubbins. 5 Ryan Gilbey, ‘Lady Gaga Shines in A Star Is Born, but the Script Doesn’t Care About Her Character’, New Statesman, 3 October 2018, <https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/ film/2018/10/lady-gaga-shines-star-born-script-doesn-t-care-about-her-character>, accessed 24 January 2019.…

'Do they know I’m black?’ That’s what Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) asks his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), early on in the first act of Jordan Peele’s hugely successful debut film, Get Out (2017). He’s black, she’s white, and they’re about to embark on that classic new-relationship milestone: meeting the parents. This narrative set-up isn’t new – think of the landmark 1967 film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Stanley Kramer) – but Peele takes a familiar story to unfamiliar places, his film a slow-burn horror movie interrogating race and racism in contemporary America. It’s a film, says Peele, where ‘society is the monster’.1 Though it was released – and, eventually, won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay – in Donald Trump’s America, Peele penned Get Out as a response to Barack Obama’s…

1 Jordan Peele, quoted in Max Weinstein, ‘“Society Is the Monster”: Jordan Peele on Racism as Horror, Writers’ Block and More at 2017 Film Independent Forum’, MovieMaker, 31 October 2017, <https://www.moviemaker.com/archives/ moviemaking/directing/society-is-the-monster-film-independent-forum-2017-jordan-peele/>, accessed 29 March 2019. 2 ibid. 3 Jordan Peele, quoted in ‘Jordan Peele on Exploring the “Deep Horror of Racism” in Get Out’, CBS News, 15 November 2017, <https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jordan-peele-get-out-movie/>,accessed 29 March 2019. 4 Jordan Peele, quoted in Mike Fleming Jr, ‘Get Out Director Jordan Peele: Scaring Up Racial Dialogue by Fusing Genre with Polemic’, Deadline Hollywood, 17 November 2017, <https:// deadline.com/2017/11/get-out-jordan-peele-oscars-interview-news-1202208902/>, accessed 29 March 2019. 5 Jordan Peele, quoted in Cara Buckley, ‘“I’d Never Seen My Fears as an African-American Man Onscreen”’, The New York Times, 6 December 2017, <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/ 06/movies/jordan-peele-get-out-african-american-biracial.html>, accessed 29 March 2019. 6 Jordan Peele,…

Hereditary (2018) – the debut feature from American screenwriter and director Ari Aster – isn’t just a horror film. It’s a psychological family drama, in which grief, anger, fear and deeply troubled personal relationships play out through supernatu-: , , , blurring of the real with the imaginary and, ultimately, demonic possession. As the name suggests, the film is a dark exploration of the ties that bind us, both natural and nurtured: to what extent do we have control over our own lives, as opposed to being inevitably influenced from beyond the grave? At the film’s heart are the Graham family, who live in a large, isolated house in Utah surrounded by forest. The protagonist, Annie (Toni Collette), is an artist, obsessed with creating figurative miniature sculptures that replicate her…

1 Steve Rose, ‘Re-possessed: Exploring Hereditary and Hollywood’s Love of the Haunted House’, The Guardian, 9 June 2018, <https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/ jun/09/re-possessed-exploring-hereditary-and-hollywoods-love-of-the-haunted-house>, accessed 24 April 2019. 2 David Edelstein, ‘Toni Collette Gets the Worst Inheritance Ever in Hereditary’, Vulture, 5 June 2018, <https://www.vulture.com/2018/06/toni-collette-in-hereditary-movie-review.html>,accessed 24 April 2019. 3 Rose, op. cit. 4 ibid. 5 Dan Jolin, ‘Hereditary Review’, Empire, 12 June 2018, <https:// www.empireonline.com/movies/hereditary/review/>, accessed 24 April 2019. 6 Ari Aster, quoted in Jenelle Riley, ‘Hereditary Filmmaker Ari Aster Answers Burning Questions’, Variety, 11 June 2018, <https://variety.com/2018/film/awards/hereditary-ari-aster -answers-burning-questions-1202841448/>, accessed 24 April 2019. 7 Peter Travers, ‘Hereditary Review: Family Horror Tale Is the Scariest Movie of 2018’, Rolling Stone, 5 June 2018, <https:// www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/hereditary -review-family-horror-tale-is-the-scariest-movie-of-2018 -630182/>, accessed 24 April 2019. 8 Gerhard Richter, quoted in ‘Gerhard Richter Says Art Is the Highest Form of…