Maestro (2023)

Cooper is certainly ambitious in his first few films as director. This is only his sophomore film, an attempt to tell us the story of one of America's greatest composers of the 20th century, and he infuses it with a fantastic sense of whimsy while also balancing this with a heavy respect for the pathos of the human life that he is portraying. He starts out with an impressionistic style featuring dreamlike elements and utilizes switching from colour to B&W. Maestro ends up being visually (and auditorily) striking, scored with Bernstein's actual compositions laid over Cooper's film. 

But as the film went on some of this was lost. Maestro became more linear and literal, losing so much of the fantasy it so boldly started with. The film switched back to colour and became more traditionally biopic, switching between moments of Cooper conducting as Bernstein and scenes of his relationship with his wife played by Mulligan. Both pour so much into their roles, both doing impressions of their New York accents and mannerisms as well as doing deep dives into their characters' emotional states. Both prove themselves to be at the top of their game and amongst the best of their generation. 

But, yes I recognize this is my second "but" in this review, the film starts to make it clear that the way Maestro is getting into its portrait of Bernstein is through his relationship with his wife, Felicia Montealegre. In fact, I'm going to posit that it becomes quite clear that this is not Bernstein's story. It is hers. Sold as the story of one of the 20th century's most important queer artists, instead it is the story of the heterosexual woman who married him. The film spends its time focusing us on her point of view, and gives little time to the inner workings of Bernstein himself. The film, as interesting as it is, is about the experience of a heterosexual person interacting with queer person and how that heterosexual is affected. The queerness is clearly sidelined. Mulligan is remarkable as this character telling this story and I'm not suggesting that the film is homophobic in this approach. It is one way into this story. It is the heterosexual way into this story. It is perhaps why queer stories are most often best told by queer artists because, like in this case, they risk being about the heterosexuals. Maestro is very much about the heterosexual in the relationship. 

Having said that this story is still valid and it is told well. Perhaps I was just hoping for a story about a queer man and his interactions with the heteronormative world around him, how his way surviving in this unfriendly world affects him, and how he finds strength to do what he does in that world and environment. But that's not what this film is. It's in someway akin to Green Book attempting to tell a story about racial discrimination in twentieth century America by telling it from the point of view of the white guy. It's a viewpoint and it has its interesting aspects. But it centres things in a way that is experienced differently than many of those in the story. 

For me Maestro is a good film that tells an interesting story. But it misses out on what could have been an even more powerful story. Also the nose is a mistake. There is nothing necessary in Cooper's performance of Bernstein that requires this prosthetic. 

Maestro 

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan, Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke, Sarah Silverman, Michael Urie

Director: Bradley Cooper

Writers: Josh Singer, Bradley Cooper