{"id":42089,"date":"2023-12-22T09:39:38","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T14:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=42089"},"modified":"2023-12-22T19:23:12","modified_gmt":"2023-12-23T00:23:12","slug":"maestro-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/maestro-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Maestro (2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Bradley Cooper\u2019s film about the life of Leonard Bernstein is why I\u2019m firm in my opinion that pretty much most music biopics are just terrible. Bernstein is an interesting figure that we learn almost nothing about by the time the movie ends. We explore his torrid private life, sure, but Cooper opts to kind of step back from the artist that was Bernstein in favor of the person. That\u2019s understandable considering \u201cMaestro\u201d is a pitch for an Oscar from the starting gate.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s very well polished, Cooper even opts to highlight a conductor who was famed for working for Hollywood, which is not entirely coincidental. At the very least, there is some obvious effort presented as Cooper isn\u2019t a bad director despite placing himself front and center for a majority of the film. \u201cMaestro\u201d is very well directed and Cooper offers some fascinating nuggets and moments of pure humanity and vulnerability. One scene I quite loved was a disastrous lunch in where an acquaintance recommends Leonard change his name to sound less semitic and \u201cmore American.\u201d I also loved the confrontation between Felicia and Leonard when, during a family getaway, Leonard invites who is quite obviously a lover of his.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, \u201cMaestro\u201d is centered more on scandal than artistry. That\u2019s sad considering the marketing pushes a lot of the inherent artist that was Leonard Bernstein. There\u2019s no insight in to his creative process, no look at how he rose to fame, there\u2019s no commentary about music, or discussion about how Bernstein relates to music. Worse, there isn\u2019t a ton of insight in to why and how Leonard and Felicia reached this point in their relationship. Why does she endure his obvious homosexual affairs? Is she lying to herself? Is she hoping to change him? Has she submitted to being a beard? And why did Leonard\u2019s sister almost seem to encourage his trysts with other men?<\/p>\n

\u201cMaestro\u201d is wise enough to present Leonard and Felicia courting each other more as a production covered with large layers of denial, and performance but with no actual insight as to why. Netflix\u2019s film is a loaded gun bound to pack Oscar nods for Bradley Cooper who covers himself in make up to inhabit the guise of Leonard Bernstein, while Carey Mulligan offers the best and most genuine performance of the entire film. \u201cMaestro\u201d puts on a big show but it\u2019s ultimately a hollow vehicle that doesn\u2019t really have anything to say about music, its subjects, love, or sexuality.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now Streaming Exclusively on Netflix.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bradley Cooper\u2019s film about the life of Leonard Bernstein is why I\u2019m firm in my opinion that pretty much most music biopics are just terrible. Bernstein is an interesting figure that we learn almost nothing about by the time the movie ends. We explore his torrid private life, sure, but Cooper opts to kind of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,302,1401,2123,698,700,766,874],"class_list":["post-42089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-biography","tag-drama","tag-lgbt","tag-lgbtq","tag-music","tag-musical","tag-performance","tag-romance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42089"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42100,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42089\/revisions\/42100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}