Item Seed: A Star is Born (2010).

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A Star Is Born (2010) – Google Docs

A Star Is Born (2010)

Director: David Fincher

Writer: Guillermo del Toro

Production Company: Hyades Productions Ltd.

Starring:  Selena Gomez (Abigail  Howard), Colin Firth (Jack Marsh), Sam Claflin (Bob Pickman), Nicole Kidman (Lavinia)

The plot of the 2010 A Star Is Born is, superficially, more or less like every other version of the movie: man meets woman, woman turns out to be on the upward arc of her creative career while man is spiraling downward from his once highly successful one, woman tries to rescue man from himself, man gets killed off, woman soldiers on.  In this particular version, however, Abigail (the woman) and Jack (the man) have an onscreen chemistry that simultaneously entices and repels. There’s always a tension that seems one step away from brutality, although there’s no actual violence in the movie. Likewise, the substance abuse that usually serves as a metaphor for Jack’s doomed state in other versions of the film is absent from the character entirely in this one; instead, Jack encourages his current agent and confidante Sam in his alcohol and drug use, with the heavy suggestion that doing so somehow benefits Jack.  

As Sam slips further and further into degradation, Jack enlists the help of celebrity publicist Lavinia to groom Abigail into replacing Sam.  However, as the movie reaches its crescendo it becomes clear that Abigail cannot be so easily cowed; in fact, Jack eventually decides that her future is much more important than his, as ‘the nights are right for her.’  They marry (Sam, drunk, dies in a car crash after the reception); the news seemingly drives Jack mad, who laughingly swims out to sea and never returns. The movie ends with ‘Abigail Marsh’ singing at a concert; the song begins as a dirge and then intensifies into a wild extravaganza as she announces “Jack will come back!”.  As the crowd begins to literally riot, Lavinia (now Abigail’s confidante) locks eyes with a young man in the audience. Her slow smile is the last thing on the screen before the final credits.

Before one asks: no, this is not on IMDB.  Indeed, it only exists in DVD form, and there aren’t that many copies of it.  The actors, actresses, director, and screenwriter all adamantly insist that they have never worked on this project, that they can prove that they were all gainfully employed doing something else when this project was supposedly being done, and that they absolutely did not make a series of cast and crew interviews for the DVD that are arguably even more disturbing than the movie itself (and the movie is very disturbing).  del Toro, privately, admitted that it was “a hell of a Mythos movie” and that he almost wished that he had been involved — but then del Toro emphasized the ‘almost’ part, and refused to speak of it further.

The weirdest part is — well, one of the weirder parts is — that none of the production crew apparently exists.  A few of them have names that don’t quite sound right. Also: there’s a musical score, but it was apparently written anonymously.  That’s what it says in the credits: ‘Anonymous.’ And there’s nothing to suggest that the 2010 A Star Is Born was commercially distributed, ever. Certainly the only way to get this DVD now is via third-party retail, and it’s not cheap.

Complicating all of this is that the 2010 A Star Is Born doesn’t actually seem to do anything, esoterically speaking.  Those involved in keeping track of the odder cultural flotsam out there are used to something this bizarre and disquieting having a statistically-significant negative metaphysical effect on the societal landscape, but in this case: nada. Zip. Zero.  Not even a lingering Reek of Wrongness, to quote one of the training manuals.  So there’s no excuse for gathering up the DVDs — or, at least, no excuse that will survive an audit.  It’s amazing how much this bugs certain parts of the Shadow Government. They’d almost prefer that it did blow up, esoterically speaking; at least that way one would know what was going on.

Still, it’s actually a good flick.  Creepy as all get-out, but a good flick if you like horror movies.  And mind you; it’s not actually scored or shot as one.