***The following post has some “slight” spoilers assuming you’ve already seen the theatrical release of A Star is Born (2018). So if you have been living under a rock for the past 5 months and haven’t seen it yet, do NOT continue reading.
A Star is Born (2018) was easily my favorite movie of 2018 and also my choice for Best Picture. I know that sounds redundant but your favorite movie is not always the best overall film. Everybody has their guilty pleasure movies that they can watch at any time, but they’re not always the greatest movies.
With that being said, A Star is Born Encore was just released (for one week only), which was the same movie but with 12 additional minutes added to it. The extra footage was definitely noticeable. Some of it was just slight extensions on scenes. For example, in the very beginning, Ally’s first appearance on screen, when she’s arguing on the phone in the bathroom with her current boyfriend (and by the end of the phone call, her ex) Roger. The end of that scene showing her reaction after that phone call is extended an extra 1-2 seconds. The very first scene of the film, Jackson singing “Black Eyes” at his concert, has an extended cut of the song.
A very important question posed was also answered in the Encore release. How were Jack and Ally able to coordinate and sync the lyric “In the sha-ha-sha-ha-llow, in the sha-ha-sha-la-la-la-llow” together on stage for the first time when that part of the song was never shown when they were putting it together in the original cut? The scene in the parking lot of the Super A Foods, when Ally first sings “Shallow”, is extended to show this lyric, resulting in how they were able to perfect the duet on stage. It’s originally implied that there was a time gap to continue writing the whole song together. This is because the scene in the lot is in the darkness of the early morning and the next scene, Ally being driven home to where her father is, is in the sunlight of the later morning.
Other scenes are completely added. Ally sings “Is That Alright?” at her wedding reception, a song that was only in the credits in the theatrical release of the film. You also see when Jackson first got the song “I’ll Never Love Again” in his head and started piecing the music together. Not gonna lie, my eyes opened wide when that part transpired as I wasn’t expecting that to be shown, especially where it happens.
All in all, A Star is Born Encore was even better than A Star is Born to me. Ironically though, I don’t think I would have seen it in the theater as many times as I did if it was this cut. That’s solely because the extra 12 minutes adds to the run time, and when planning out a day, I would have had to put aside basically 3 hours for this when you include trailers and everything. That would have just hindered my ability to do a double feature with another movie. If you’re a fan of A Star is Born, I fully suggest you try to see the Encore cut of this masterpiece before it leaves theaters on Thursday.
Zackman at the Movies 