The Leonard Bernstein BioPic MAESTRO is an artistic film about an artistic person by an artist who is appealing to other artists.
Did I mention it is artistic?
Written, Directed and Starring Bradley Cooper, MAESTRO is nominated for 7 Oscars and is destined to be "that movie" that was nominated for a bunch of Oscars and winner of none.
Telling the tale of "Maestro" Leonard Bernstein, this film was a passion project for Cooper and both Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg passed at Directing this film and encouraged Cooper to helm himself in this film and that is too bad for Maestro needs someone to reign in Cooper's central performance as Bernstein - or at least take some of the shine off of it, so you can't see the strings of the puppet so well.
Cooper focuses the camera for about 3/4 of this film on himself and his portrayal of Bernstein and misses the emotional depth of the character and the situations that this bi-sexual talent encountered in the 1950's and 1960's. Director Cooper was enamored of the performance of Actor Cooper to detriment of the film. The centerpiece of the movie is Cooper's recreation of Bernstein's conducting of the London Symphony Orchestra at Ely Cathedral. It is a bravora performance that Cooper rehearsed 6 years to perfect. It is this 6 minutes that earned Cooper a Best Actor Oscar Nomination, perhaps Director Cooper should have spent more time on the script and the rest of the film to harvest some emotional heft from it.
The only part of this film that really works on an emotional level is the 1/4 of the film that focuses on Bernstein's wife, Felicia Montealegre (played in a deserved Oscar Nominated performance by Carey Mulligan). This is the best part of the film, probably because Director Cooper could focus on someone else's performance and could mind the emotional depth needed for this part of the film.
Alas, Mulligan - and just about anybody else in this film - take short shrift in the rest of the film as Cooper focuses on...Cooper.
It could have (should have) been a much better film.
Letter Grade: B
7 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
Did I mention it is artistic?
Written, Directed and Starring Bradley Cooper, MAESTRO is nominated for 7 Oscars and is destined to be "that movie" that was nominated for a bunch of Oscars and winner of none.
Telling the tale of "Maestro" Leonard Bernstein, this film was a passion project for Cooper and both Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg passed at Directing this film and encouraged Cooper to helm himself in this film and that is too bad for Maestro needs someone to reign in Cooper's central performance as Bernstein - or at least take some of the shine off of it, so you can't see the strings of the puppet so well.
Cooper focuses the camera for about 3/4 of this film on himself and his portrayal of Bernstein and misses the emotional depth of the character and the situations that this bi-sexual talent encountered in the 1950's and 1960's. Director Cooper was enamored of the performance of Actor Cooper to detriment of the film. The centerpiece of the movie is Cooper's recreation of Bernstein's conducting of the London Symphony Orchestra at Ely Cathedral. It is a bravora performance that Cooper rehearsed 6 years to perfect. It is this 6 minutes that earned Cooper a Best Actor Oscar Nomination, perhaps Director Cooper should have spent more time on the script and the rest of the film to harvest some emotional heft from it.
The only part of this film that really works on an emotional level is the 1/4 of the film that focuses on Bernstein's wife, Felicia Montealegre (played in a deserved Oscar Nominated performance by Carey Mulligan). This is the best part of the film, probably because Director Cooper could focus on someone else's performance and could mind the emotional depth needed for this part of the film.
Alas, Mulligan - and just about anybody else in this film - take short shrift in the rest of the film as Cooper focuses on...Cooper.
It could have (should have) been a much better film.
Letter Grade: B
7 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)