Maestro (2023)

For our Christmas day viewing pleasure, Jack, Amy, and I enjoyed this interpretation of composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein. Bradley Cooper, who stars, co-wrote, and directs, portrays the musician as driven, narcissistic, and flamboyantly romantic, from his central relationship with his wife Felicia Montealegre to his male side pieces (closeted, as one had to be in the 1940s and beyond). Carey Mulligan gives us a multi-layered Montealegre heading up the enormous cast, which also includes Sarah Silverman as Bernstein's sister Shirley. As pointed out by several reviewers, some supporting characters' names are said so quickly that you might not know to whom they're referring, for example, composer Aaron Copland, choreographer Jerome Robbins, and comedic musical duo Betty Comden and Adolph Green. 

Josh Singer co-wrote the screenplay with Cooper, the latter of whom has been working on this project for years, including developing a love of conducting at a young age.

I'm streaming the soundtrack, released on the venerable classical record label Deutsche Grammophon, on Apple Music. All of the music is written by Bernstein. The scene in the church with the chorus is one of many breathtaking interludes. One seven minute track of Bernstein's Mass takes me back to college when I sang in a performance of it. I would have liked to have heard more of West Side Story, though.

Matthew Libatique's beautiful cinematography suggests the eras: black and white 4:3 (like an old school television) slowly turning to color and the screen becoming wider as time and technology march on.

With Bernstein's long and accomplished life, it's impossible (and preferable not) to put in every detail, and I must compliment film editor Michelle Tesoro for the blending of eras. She has quite a few nominations for this work already.

Some haters have criticized Cooper's large nose prosthesis. Bernstein's real-life children have no problem with it, and one analyst suggests that it is the same size as Bernstein's nose, but on Cooper's face it looks much bigger. Speaking of the Bernstein progeny, each is played as an adult by a relative of another star: Maya Hawke (daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke) as daughter Jamie Bernstein, Sam Nivola (son of Alessandro) as Alexander Bernstein, and Alexa Swinton (distant cousin of Tilda) as Nina Bernstein.

Cooper was last blogged for his directing and co-writing debut A Star Is Born and for acting in Licorice Pizza, Mulligan for Saltburn, Silverman for Battle of the Sexes, Singer for First Man, Libatique for Don't Worry Darling, and Hawke for Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood. I don't remember Nivola in White Noise but I did watch Swinton's 17 episodes of And Just Like That as Rose/Rock Goldenblatt. Tesoro's credits include On The Basis of Sex and seven episodes of The Queen's Gambit, all of which included some flashbacks and -forwards.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are in tune with a 79% average but its audiences are about to walk out at 62. We watched it on Netflix as our annual Christmas day movie.