Bradley Cooper's passion project (he directed and stars as Leonard Bernstein), this movie could have been another "Tar" (the 2022 Cate Blanchett film that I found completely annoying). Playing an eccentric orchestra conductor is Oscar bait, and Cooper seizes the opportunity with his sweating and facial expressions. The movie goes back and forth in time, and the use of black and white and color instead of title cards announcing the years, is a nice change.
A bio-pic about a real conductor/composer (versus a fictional one like Tar) is bound to be more satisfying, due to the quirks that the lead actor can call on. But Cooper is outmatched by his co-star, Carey Mulligan, as his wife whose patience for Bernstein and his life choices wanes as the movie progresses. The ordeal his wife goes through is arguable more interesting than anything else in Bernstein's life, and she could be the subject of another movie (or streaming series).
In the end, it's another example of Cooper's range, the second movie he's directed set in the world of music. I would not quite call him an auteur (yet), but his film choices are certainly more journeyman like compared to his peers, which puts him in a class with the likes of Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall.
A bio-pic about a real conductor/composer (versus a fictional one like Tar) is bound to be more satisfying, due to the quirks that the lead actor can call on. But Cooper is outmatched by his co-star, Carey Mulligan, as his wife whose patience for Bernstein and his life choices wanes as the movie progresses. The ordeal his wife goes through is arguable more interesting than anything else in Bernstein's life, and she could be the subject of another movie (or streaming series).
In the end, it's another example of Cooper's range, the second movie he's directed set in the world of music. I would not quite call him an auteur (yet), but his film choices are certainly more journeyman like compared to his peers, which puts him in a class with the likes of Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall.