“A Star is Born” (Drama/Music: 2 hours, 13 minutes)

Starring: Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper and Sam Elliott

Director: Bradley Cooper

Rated: R (Profanity, violence, sexuality/nudity and substance abuse)

Movie Review: Actor Bradley Cooper directs this adaptation of “A Star is Born” (Director George Cukor, 1954) that starred Judy Garland. That movie was trailed by the 1976 movie (Director Frank Pierson), which was an adaptation of the 1937 movie titled the same that William A. Wellman directed and co-wrote. The 1976 movie starred Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson and Gary Busey, a talented group. 

This version Cooper, Lady Gaga and Sam Elliot are the leading actors. They ably portray their characters in an engaging drama, even if the script doesn’t always allow them to be convincing.

A seasoned country musician and singer Jackson Maine (Cooper) coaxes young singer and songwriter Ally (Lady Gaga) into the spotlight. The two fall in love. As Ally finds fame, Maine’s life enters a downward spiral, as age and alcoholism while touring take their toll. 

Cooper’s directing is superior. The script that he wrote with Eric Roth (“The Insider,” 1999, “Munich,” 2005) and Will Fetters, is an engaging take on William A. Wellman’s original script. It is a modern story for the 21st century.

Cooper and Lady Gaga are enjoyable to watch, although they lack romantic chemistry occasionally. Their celebrity statuses interfere occasionally with one’s ability to see them as Maine and Ally. However, they put their talents with music and acting together for good entertainment.

Additionally, Sam Elliott is dependable as ever. He has a certain realness that makes his characters solidly substantial. 

The script’s biggest flaw is it tries to include every lifestyle in the United States. It has interracial, inter-sexual, gay, various ages and plenty of appearances by well-known actors and comedians such as Dave Chappelle and Andrew Dice Clay.

“A Star Is Born” is the directorial debut of Cooper. He takes the 1954 screenplay by writer Moss Hart and adapts it for a modern age. Cooper et al also use some cues from the 1976 movie. The result is a movie with good music and songs that should delight most audiences.

Grade: B (A decades-old screenplay is reborn anew.)

“Venom” (Action/Science-Fiction: 1 hour, 52 minutes)

Starring: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams and Riz Ahmed

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Rated: PG-13 (Violence and strong language)

Movie Review: “Venom” is an anti-hero superhero movie. It is a noir character in the same likeness as “Deadpool” (2016). 

The character is really two entities. Both have a dark nature with comical quips continually sounded in each scene. The character is fun to observe, even if the movie appears all too familiar.

The bioengineering corporation Life Foundation’s exploration of habitable worlds yields the discovery of symbiotic lifeforms on a comet. Astronauts bring back four entities to Earth, but one escapes from a crashed ship in Malaysia. 

Life Foundation CEO Carlton Drake (Ahmed) learns the symbiotic lifeforms need hosts to survive. Enter investigative journalist Eddie Brock (Hardy). He hopes to break the story that Drake is using humans as hosts for the extraterrestrial lifeforms, but one of the alien symbionts infect Brock, making him the being Venom.

As much as “Venom” is likable, it lacks the originality needed to set it apart from other alien invasion movies. Here, the symbiotic character is similar to countless movies such as the “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1978) and “The Thing” (1982).

Even more, Venom, a tall, black-as-oil thing with multiple razor-like teeth, appears to be an everyday occurrence to people. When he reveals himself to a number of people in the movie, they appear more devastated by Venom’s actions than his unearthly appearance. 

Perhaps, producers should have left the character of Venom as part of Spiderman franchise where he belongs rather than a standalone movie.

However, Venom is much like Deadpool. Comical quips exist throughout. This and plentiful action scenes make the movie enjoyable when other parts of the story fail.

Grade: C+ (Venomous entertainment that is enjoyable at least.)

“Shine” (Drama/Music: 1 hour, 37 minutes)

Starring: Jorge Burgos, Gilbert Saldivar and David Zayas

Director: Anthony Nardolillo

Rated: R (Strong language, violence and some sexual content)

Movie Review: The culture of Puerto Rico is the core of this drama. The dancing and music are fine, but the acting is second-rate. It is good the cast can dance to nice musical beats; such aspects distract from the performances of the cast that fail to persuade. 

Puerto Rican brothers Ralphi Matas (Burgos) and Junior (Saldivar) live in New York’s Spanish Harlem. They are the street’s best salsa dancers. They are separated after a tragedy, only to reunite years later on opposing sides of gentrification.

A thinly veiled script reveals one-dimensional characters. They dance and play music. They appear to have fun, and the cast plays them as if at a party. Too bad, audiences do not have an invite to the festivities.

Grade: C- (Lackluster.)

“Gabriel and the Mountain” (Drama/Biography: 2 hours, 11 minutes, multiple languages subtitles)

Starring: João Pedro Zappa, Caroline Abras and Luke Mpata

Director: Fellipe Barbosa

Rated: NR (Nudity and sexual content)

Movie Review: This Brazilian arthouse drama tests the notion of what it means to travels to multiple countries. It relies upon its audiences’ patience to follow the trivial tasks and the joys of travel. 

While the movie appears as unenergetic cinema, one should stay until the end. “Gabriel and the Mountain” is a nice tribute to an engaging, real-life explorer, Gabriel Buchmann. 

Gabriel Buchmann (Zappa), who has an interest in global poverty, decides to travel the world for one year before entering University of California, Los Angeles. He backpacks across the world full of dreams and his camera. 

After 10 months, he arrives in Africa, determined to explore and experience what the continent has to offer. He will not stop until he reaches Mount Mulanje, Malawi, sadly his last stop.

Director Fellipe Barbosa (“Casa Grande,” 2015) chronicles the travels and exploits of Gabriel Buchmann who died in July 2009. Barbosa sets a slow pace for this narrative detailing the life of his friend. 

The story progresses slowly capturing life at each moment no matter how minor the instant. In this manner and other, it is similarly to “Into the Wild” (Director Sean Penn, 2007).

Barbosa divides Buchmann’s life into four chapters one for each of the last places he visited: Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi. Through the chapters, the drama slowly tells the last days of Buchmann’s travels; they are at a slow pace that makes audiences feel we are traveling with him, a sense of realness that captures time and place. 

We see sleepless nights, trouble with passport information as Buchmann travels across Africa and the souls he encounters at each stop. Moviegoers get to know the man. We also see the company he keeps.

Buchmann is an interesting man, and Barbosa wants people to know who his friend was. A sense of honor comes with observing this movie about Buchmann — Barbosa allows Buchmann to befriend the audience, too. Everyone should have such a fitting tribute when the untimely happens.

Grade: B+ (An homage to a life well lived is subtly grand.)

*Playing in larger cities.