Maestro (2023)

[SeanC]

Bradley Cooper directs and stars in the this biopic of the composer/conductor/musician-of-all-talents Leonard Bernstein, alongside Carey Mulligan (first-billed) as his wife Felicia Montealegre.

I have to say, Cooper directs the hell out of this. I imagine there'll be some people who find the film's aesthetics gimmicky, but the synthesis of 40s to 80s filmmaking styles worked extremely well for me. Like the introduction shot for Mulligan, done like a postwar romantic melodrama entrance. And the use of fantasy/allegorical space to represent relationships and the passage of time early in their relationship is really cool (before, by the later part of the film, it becomes a lot sparer, almost like a Bergman film of the era).

[AngieBee1]

Cooper knocked it out of the park with this one. Didn't love the note it ended on, but everything else was utter perfection.  Carey Mulligan was fantastic. 

The prosthetics by Kazu Hiro to transform Cooper into Lenny were amazing.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 12/9/2023 at 4:28 PM, SeanC said:

I have to say, Cooper directs the hell out of this.

He certainly did, to the point that I found it a little bit obtrusive.  It was like he was given the opportunity to throw everything up on the screen he'd ever dreamed of, and ran with it.  Once I acknowledged that that's how it was going to be, I enjoyed the ride.  Except the R.E.M. song--that was a little much.

But I loved the part where they meet; I'm not sure it was chemistry I was seeing, but something registered.  And the scene were Felicia had those two visitors when she was sick was brutal.  Carey Mulligan acted the hell out of that, just with her eyes, and I felt so sorry for her, and for everyone else who's had to endure something like that--well meaning but actually terrible.

[Hedgehog2022]

I  stopped watching after 30 minutes... Sorry, I think Bradley Cooper is overrated. I am old enough to remember Leonard Bernstein when he was in his prime...this is just a hot mess.

[EtheltoTillie]

21 hours ago, Hedgehog2022 said:

I  stopped watching after 30 minutes... Sorry, I think Bradley Cooper is overrated. I am old enough to remember Leonard Bernstein when he was in his prime...this is just a hot mess.

I did watch the whole thing, but not in one sitting.  Carey Mulligan is so stilted.  We just couldn't handle her Locust Valley Lockjaw delivery.  I don't understand all the raves she is getting.  The whole thing seemed so fake.  Why did this movie need to be made?  Seems to be a real vanity project for Cooper. 

Edited December 26, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[Hedgehog2022]

2 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I did watch the whole thing, but not in one sitting.  Carey Mulligan is so stilted.  We just couldn't handle her Locust Valley Lockjaw delivery.  I don't understand all the raves she is getting.  The whole thing seemed so fake.  Why did this movie need to be made?  Seems to be a real vanity project for Cooper. 

Agree 100%...Back in the day, Bernstein was a breath of fresh air in the large post WW2 orchestra landscape. Brash, innovative, trail blazer. And Jewish. He brought new life into the world of classical music. He was liberal, left leaning and even radical in his political beliefs. Very controversial and almost manic at times. This could have been a great bio movie but Cooper didn't nail it...I was utterly confused and frustrated with the 30 minutes I saw of it. 

[Milburn Stone]

I really liked it. As moviemaking, it found a new way to do the "biopic." So much so, that it hardly even belongs in the genre. 

It only took me about five minutes to believe Bradley Cooper was Bernstein.

Even though the movie was more focused on Bernstein's personal life inside and outside of marriage than on his career, I felt it did a more than adequate job of linking his personal life to his music.

I'm not in general one of those who say "look at what the movie chose to do rather than what it didn't," because so often that can be an excuse for a movie that botches even what it chose to do. In this case, what Maestro chose to do--examine the music through the lens of the personal life--I felt to be persuasive.

[SlovakPrincess]

This movie was certainly a whole vibe lol.  They really nailed it with the change in genres / making it look and feel like the movies from each era.  The dance sequence in black and white was lovely, and the color palette they used for the 60s and 70s was gorgeous.  Beautifully shot.  And of course great use of Bernstein’s music.

The acting was fantastic, from both Cooper and Mulligan.  The moment when his daughter is “so relieved” to think the “rumors” about him are untrue… and you can see him just dying inside.  
 

Bittersweet, brooding, and not a movie I’d be in the mood for all of the time… but I thought it was just fantastic.  (And I went into it expecting to say it was overrated!)

[shrewd.buddha]

On 12/30/2023 at 11:07 AM, SlovakPrincess said:

This movie was certainly a whole vibe lol.  

I would say I appreciated it but I'm not sure if I actually liked it.
The prosthetics were striking, almost distracting.
Also notable to the point of distraction was Bernstein's constant cigarette smoking. 

[Tom Holmberg]

On 2/19/2024 at 11:18 AM, shrewd.buddha said:

The prosthetics were striking, almost distracting.

I remember his TV shows and seeing him on late night talk shows , and I never thought he had an unusually large proboscis. I think they could have done without it.