A Star Is Reborn.
118 Mins. Starring: Renée Zellweger, Darci Shaw, Jessie Buckley, Finn Wittrock, Rufus Sewell & Michael Gambon. Director: Rupert Goold.
Completing us in 'Jerry Maguire', Renée Zellweger has never been afraid to take a classic career left turn. No matter who showed her the money like the gender role reversal of the indecent proposal of Netflix's 'What/If'. Just look at the black hackney 'Edge Of Reason' she took to foggy and frumpy knickers, London town and check 'Bridget Jones Diary'. Still she's never transformed and transcended quite like the punch of this 'Judy', following the Garland yellow brick road all the way back to Hollywood La La Land. Your Academy Award winning 'Best Actress' of 2020 Judy. Oscar glory like Dench, Renée is flawless as Judy in all her grandiose garlands. But scratch 'Cats', this is her big Broadway number. And that's the 'Chicago' way for this gold statue untouchable showstopper. Not even a 'Cinderella Man' could take her down as she dances across a 'City Of Stars' like the before Gaga, before Streisand, original 'A Star Is Born' she really is. Bobbing and weaving through all the trouble and turmoil like a champion pugilist performer. All the way to the classic pencil microphone drop. The stand is hers. Give her a hand. Let's hear it. We're just sorry our round of applause is received so 6 months late...that's what happens to movie release schedules when you take a gap year in Japan. Zellweger was meant to be here too this week. But the Coronavirus kept her away. But still like in the spirit of Judy her presence is still felt. Somewhere over the rainbow.
You're not in Kansas anymore Dorothy! And we're a long way from the London sessions she finished her career on with a concert series in the Big Smoke six months before she passed through the mist, like smoke from the last cigarette, so delicately beautiful. Elvis had Vegas. Garland had the more refined West End. From a humiliating 'Crazy Rich Asians' hotel snub (none of these concierges ever seen 'What's Love Got To Do With It'?), to the friendliest fans and loveliest couple taking her in for some, "how do you like your eggs in the morning". As a matter of fact on one of those rainy Tokyo nights were the heavens open up all day like cats and dogs, as soon as we left the cinema after the storm and into the dark, the neon was reflecting in the puddles like something off Broadway. It felt like a breath of fresh atmospheric air. It felt like her. And in theatre director Rupert Goold's show based on the Olivier and Tony award winning Broadway and West End play 'End Of The Rainbow'. In this blue, battered and bruised, brutal, broken biopic. Renée repairs it all. No wonder she took home the gold whilst walking a yellow brick one like child star stacking bullion that turned into a path of broken glass, dreams and pills to numb the pain. A conivingly cruel, manipulative, lecherous, Weinstein like producer, looking like a John Lithgow 'Bomshell' fat suits with those club, cupping hands from an era that told now is so terrible yet timely in this Times Up one, fed a young Judy (played perfectly and like a star born for the future in 'The Bay's' Darci Shaw) pills like candy to perform, sleep and eat instead of hamburgers like any other kid could, would and should if they so pleased. Whilst older woman who should have known better, probably in her position before weren't just complicit, but explicit in their bullying, coercive behaviour. Imagine what this does to a child. Being told she looks like she's got a funny face. Being pitted against Shirley Temple like a designated driver. Being told she's not thin enough. Being told what to eat. Imagine what that does to a young mind. That's not the only dark tale from Oz we've heard of. And we all clap out hands against our faces when we talk about Macaulay Culkin. But imagine the weight you carry with all these burdens before adolescence. No wonder this icon didn't make it to middle age despite the legendary legacy left, but still ended up older than her years before the 21st birthday they promised she'd make a million by. But look what was made of her before then. Was it really worth the cost at the half?
Flashbulbs surround a moment in the mirror as such were this star shine becomes a glimmer. Zellweger's Garland has just taken to the redemption spotlight stage of a classic comeback performance in the capital, as she creates opportunities for custody of her youngest children whilst her oldest Liza Minnelli becomes her own star. The exhilaration in her eyes flying like saucers of someone switching between sobriety and the abuse of substance that all started because those with power showed no responsibility for someone who was just a kid and never really got to grow up and enjoy the rainbow she sang about for millions, before she found it somewhere in London for her most heartfelt and breaking, honest and human performance. Before the red phone box of emotion that is anything but phoned in, calling home with the same sobering sincerity of Jamie Foxx's 'Soloist' biopic. Moving you to shed more than tears, but the second social skin we use in life like a performance to protect ourselves. As mascara runs away from the emotions of her eyes, Renée tries to put her make-up back on and pull herself together as she sits head down and downcast in mental and physical exhaustion after the song of her life. Looking as depressed and downcast as the late, Laker great Kobe Bryant in the plughole drained visitor showers with the 2001 NBA championship trophy following his Philadelphia homecoming Finals win (yeah we almost made it through an article without another Mamba Mentality reference...but we're talking about Oscar winners here). That's just the celebratory conflicts of struggle and success only a true artist who gives their everything to their craft, body, mind and soul knows from the heart. This is why Renée Zellweger amongst all the 'Ray', Cash biopic powerhouse performances going Gaga (like the production company that fittingly and symbolically starts this movie), stirs so compellingly from the actual singing to the stage left performances that leave it all out there as she breaks and reshape herself under that same glaring spotlight and fickle fan, audience participation and dedication. From cheering to jeering, throwing bread rolls at her like the Romans did stones. The Best Actress out of one of the Oscar best Academy categories in years. Featuring the Netflix 'Marriage Story' of Scarlett Johansson who deserved to do the double like her dual 'Jojo Rabbit' supporting, history making nomination. The only woman that could redefine 'Little Women' like Greta Gerwig in 'Lady Bird' star Saoirse Ronan. The only woman that could play Harriet Tubman in Cynthia Erivo. And the atomic 'Bombshell' of monster talent Charlize Theron. But even amongst a class cast of 'Taboo' and West End 'I'd Do Anything' BBC talent show and genuine talent Jessie Buckley, Julliard and Broadway and 'La La Land' grad Finn Wittrock, 'Hamlet' and 'The Man In The High Castle' actor Rufus Sewell and the legend of legends 'Gosford Park', 'The King's Speech' and 'Harry Potter' icon Michael Gambon, Zellweger is a star unto herself. A supernova. A remarkable talent in a revelatory movie. She just clicks in red ruby like two heels together, taking you back where you belong. In this role she finds a home...and there's no place like it. Bravo! She had us at hello. She had us at hello. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'A Star Is Born', 'Rocketman', 'The Wizard Of Oz'.
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