PREMISE
This love story chronicles the lifelong relationship of conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein and actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.
THE GOOD STUFF
BRADLEY F****** COOPER- I find it absolutely shocking that I can say the following with 100% certainty and not have to think twice about it: this is undoubtedly the greatest performance of Bradley Cooper’s career. Not only that…. I don’t think it’s particularly close.
I’m not some big Leanord Bernstein aficionado or anything like that, but I have seen that documentary on him called Leanord Bernstein: larger than Life that was made back in 2016 more than once. To have that fresh in my mind and watch what Cooper is doing here is astonishing. He is as inundated with Bernstein’s essence as Jamie Foxx was with Ray Charles or Philip Seymour Hoffman was with Truman Capote. It is absolutely f****** stunning work. I have not seen a lead performance in a film in 2023 that even comes close to matching this, and it may be one of the biggest robberies in the history of the Oscars if he does not win. Trust me, he is that spectacular.
And on top of all that, he’s a hell of a director as well. Cooper’s heart is on his sleeve throughout this thing, and the film is all the better. Cooper’s got all the technical gifts down for storytelling behind the camera. This is his second feature, and I almost want to say he’s got his own style that’s easy to see when it comes to these grandiose musical romantic dramas.
CAREY MULLIGAN- As much praise as I can heat for Cooper’s work, it is Mulligan’s performance that carries the film’s last act. Can I call this a career best? Honestly, I don’t believe it is for Mulligan, but matching the intensity of Cooper’s performance if not completely owning the entirety of the final 45 minutes of the film or so is a hell of an achievement that should garnish a couple of awards from now until early March or so. I don’t know what I can say about actors like Mulligan that I haven’t said before. She is such a model of consistency.
THE BAD STUFF
The wrong type of biopic?– I truly believe there are three types of biopics:
1. The “Birth to Death” These are the biopics I dislike the most. Usually, it involves three different actors playing the stages of the film’s subject as a kid, during their prime years, and before they die. There’s not enough running time ever to tell a “birth to death” biopic in the right way, and a lot of important stuff usually gets combed over.
2. The “Vital Moment. These are the films that usually cover the subject during a pivotal moment in their careers but nothing really before or since in detail. These are my favorite kinds of biopics because the filmmakers usually do their best to get all the nuances of the particular time period Correctly.
3. the “Fireworks Show” A biopic that shows the subject of the film doing one spectacular thing after another during the prime years, showing the impact that the subject has on culture as a whole, and usually the fireworks show biopics feature the collateral damage of the subjects fame/fortune of everyone around them due to many different plot contrivances that have been used repeatedly.
“Fireworks show” biopics like Maestro seem to have a singular focus on celebrating the performance of the actor playing the character in their performance as much as celebrating the subject of the film. Fireworks show biopics are usually what WINS people Oscars. The other two types of biopics normally get people NOMINATED, and there’s a difference. MAESTRO spends a lot of time showing Leonard Bernstein to be the man of the hour almost all the time. And although that’s fun, things don’t necessarily get complex and interesting until maybe the second half of the film. And because of that, there is a sizable section of this film that drags on a little bit.
Lack of Conducting- In this aspect of MAESTRO, I want to directly compare to the movie Tar, which was released last year and had Cate Blanchett playing a fictitious conductor. In my review of the film, I referred to it as a top-five Blanchett performance, mainly because of the multiple scenes that show how much physicality and intensity goes into conducting an orchestra. There’s so much of an absence of conducting scenes involving Bernstein here that it takes away from the film’s overall effect as well.
We do get one big scene of Bernstein conducting Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony at the Ely Cathedral in 1976. It comes super late in the film, and I have to be honest: it’s the very best scene that this film has to offer. I couldn’t help coming away from this film wishing there were more scenes like that.
THE UGLY STUFF
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Cooper put in all of the elbow grease for this one, directing, co-writing, and doing this performance on top of everything. His efforts are not in vain. Only a gifted filmmaker can make a film like this about this guy this damn good. It feels kind of icky to say this, but the one thing I can appreciate about Netflix is that they (and APPLE TV+) are Oscar-hungry enough to throw money at star vehicles like this to get them made. Thank goodness for that.
MAESTRO is in VERY select theaters now and will be on NETFLIX on December 20th
