Metacritic reviews

A Star is Born captures wonderfully the hustle of Hollywood.

The original beauty. Not as glittery as Garland-Mason but in some ways even more golden.

Although not the first film which has attempted to capitalize the international reputation of Hollywood, it is unquestionably the most effective one yet made. The highly commendable results are achieved with a minimum of satiric hokum and a maximum of honest story telling.

William Wellman’s 1937 version of this oft-told tale, of the rising starlet and the plummeting alcoholic has-been she refuses to cast aside, is usually regarded as the second-best of the lot, a few steps behind George Cukor’s 1954 remake, which has the unfair advantage of being one of the unimpeachable masterpieces of American film.

The film is peculiarly masochistic and self-congratulatory.