Maestro

What is Cooper trying to do here? Say something about Bernstein’s sexuality and the sacrifices required of his spouse? Those are undoubtedly the most obvious themes, yet the filmmakers are fundamentally evasive about just these questions. The cancer scenes that fill the last part confirm what the viewer has by that point long suspected: that the real point is to give the two main actors an opportunity to “Act”, and that this is why the film has been concocted essentially as medium-grade soap.

two hours about his bloody wife and nothing about his greatest student lydia tár????

Why does Cooper sound like his nose is completely clogged? Does he have sinusitis, or is it because of the completely unnecessary nose prosthetics? Either way, it does nothing but break your suspension of disbelief, and the whole thing feels like Cooper is desperate for an Oscar. I really hope he gets it, so that he won't try harder again.

Bradley Cooper's direction here is 'toward the Oscar', leading to a biopic about Leonard Bernstein that has a lot to do with capital A Acting and little to do with composing or conducting. Show me his human side, sure, but if this was your only frame of reference you might think the guy was primarily known for chain-smoking.

As a classical musician old enough to remember the last two decades of his career (and to have met him a couple of times), Bernstein--genius though he was--always seemed faintly ridiculous. So this has a certain authenticity. And Felicia, with her daddy complex, peevish because she didn't get quite what she thought she was getting with Bernstein... Cooper's Bernstein impersonation is uncanny.

Wife suffers in silence spending a lifetime watching a parade of her husband's gay lovers. He also occasionally made music.

There’s some beautiful camera work, but I agree with a lot of what I’ve read on this movie where it wants you to think it has anything to say about how women disappear in these relationships with famous me, but it mostly feels hollow. Also, Bradley Cooper isn’t not doing the bad Jewish stereotype voice from Cumtown.

Mehstro.

Pretty undeveloped. I don’f feel like I learned much about Bernstein other than he was confused sexually and it put a bit of a wedge in his marriage. You’d learn more about him on Wikipedia. The screenplay is just kind of decent here. Admittedly, Cooper and Mulligan carry a lot of it. They’re both excellent! I do love the directing and cinematography! The production is super tight, especially the sound and make-up. Well paced and entertaining, I just hoped for something more informative.

The story ingeniously plays with the expectations associated with Bernstein's megalomaniac stature. The question that the viewer shares with Felecia is whether his behavior is a pathological need for recognition (narcissism) or genuine, almost manical passion: it's not really answered and the film therefore remains true to the motto with which it opens. Expertly done and a big thumbs up for Cooper's writing&direction - it's so empathetic, perhaps he's struggling with the same question?

Fails to be interesting at any point, despite being technically well made.

Very well made, but I just don't love this trend of biopics focusing almost entirely on a love story to the exclusion of the things that made the titular character famous in the first place. The best scene here was just the one long scene showing Bernstein conducting an orchestra toward the end, and I wish there was more showing his actual work. He had an interesting personal life, sure, but I think those things should provide color and context rather than be nearly the entire focus.

I'm kind of surprised by the reaction to Maestro. I totally get that the movie can be rather slow at times, and the screenplay has a lot of Oscar bait, but it seems like most people are massively underselling the visuals. I was simply not expecting such stunning production design and cinematography. Bradley Cooper gives a career best performance, and Mulligan is also terrific. Ultimately, Maestro is such a beautiful movie that I almost don't care about the issues with the pacing and screenplay.

A pretentious, clichéd, overly dramatic, and flimsy biopic that’s a textbook case of a filmmaker who is more in love with himself than his subject. Cooper thinks he’s making his masterpiece, but nobody appears willing to tell him that indeed he is not.

Boring, artificial and pretentious. Pretty sure the actual people behind the story were actually complex and interesting.

This film is impressive to look at, with good camerawork/cinematography and the scenes depicting Bernstein's conducting are dramatic and impressive, even though there's few of them featured throughout a biopic of the man. Its a nice film to watch but I really don't feel I learnt much about the man himself, his background/childhood etc. which is a shame. There isn't much detail given and while Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan undoubtedly give decent performances, its all a little superficial.

The script chronicles much and illuminates little but the acting and the pacing more or less compensate for that shortcoming.

Pretty Oscar bait-y, although both Cooper and Mulligan certainly delivered. For a biopic about a legendary composer, it doesn’t really care much about showcasing that. The vast majority of the movie is a drama about a troubled marriage that doesn’t really offer anything new. I can’t help but compare it to that Beatles movie “Yesterday”. Both movies have a unique story to tell, but instead focus heavily on something we’ve all seen before. There’s a lot of talent on display, but I expected more.

Well-acted and shot, maybe, but to what end. I was mostly bored.

Terrible, boring, narcissistic film that feels like a parody of Oscar bait. No likable characters or chemistry. Irritating experience that adds nothing of value despite thinking highly of itself. Doesn't deserve its nominations. 2/10

Is a conductor's job mainly to inspire and bring energy? If so, Cooper brought it in his performance. Is a director's job mainly to set the pace, set the tone, and engage the audience? If so, Cooper missed the mark. Maestro is stylish and contains strong, but try hard, performances. I just don't know what it's trying to convey to its audience. A movie about Bernstein should be focused on his unique musical genius, with his personal life playing accompaniment. Not the other way around.

no próximo não esqueça a alma, bradley

A nice showcase of Cooper’s technical filmmaking chops, but there is a suffocating aloofness—call it Rich People Problems—that dampens its musical reveries. Speaking of dampness, Lenny sweats more than Usher at the Super Bowl.

Cooper and Mulligan are both excellent in Maestro, but the biographical elements are honestly just underwhelming and boring. Surely there was more to Bernstein's life than what was shown here.

Hard to discern a point, which works for the material—Bernstein leeches, his family grits their teeth, and he ultimately triumphs, but what's the cost? Cooper and Mulligan are both phenomenal, and like A Star Is Born, the text elevates the central female by virtue of Cooper's galactically committed performance.

If this film can be dismissed as mere oscarbait, I'm happy to live in a world where the oscars are of such quality. Maestro is unsubtle and melodramatic at times certainly but the film nonetheless paints a beautiful portrait of two great people. It's a film that asks more questions than it answers in regards to its two leading figures, but - as the opening quote smartly alludes - I wouldn't trust a biopic that does any less.

If I didn't know anything about Leonard Bernstein, all I'd have learned is he loved some nice white lady, which is actually not all that uncommon. What is uncommon is that he wrote some classic musicals, so I'd rather the focus had been there.

Just because the man was so talented and a culture icon, doesn't make it worthwhile to make a movie about him, if there's no actual story being told here.

One of the most daring and creative biopics I've seen. Even if Cooper's hard work to make the scenes feel alive and off-beat shows, it's still nothing less than commanding - an auteur's piece. There has been criticism that he ignores much of Bernstein's music, but on top of moments like the magnificent concert in the church, there is musicality in the blocking and shot selection. The film, ellipses and all, suggests a full life. It also suggests the neglect of the love of his life.

Should have been about his work or his approach to educating the public, not his private life. Cooper is very talented and I feel the bagging of him as thirsty for an Oscar is somewhat unfair, regardless I'm not particularly interested in his directorial outings.

Yes, better than most biopics, but that doesn't mean this is actually good. It's the classic case of a boringly competent work -- good acting from everyone involved, specially the leads, some scenes for Academy Awards clips and not much more than that. Interesting how the film gets better as Lenny and Felicia get older -- second hour is highly superior than the muddled first.

Bernstein's story is really not that interesting or unique to make a full movie out of it, or at least that's what it seems after watching Maestro. However, this is a well-made film with really good performances by Cooper and Mulligan. Kudos to the make up department.

This doesn't break the mold of what we've already seen in the biopic genre, but the film is also being unfairly maligned as shallow awards bait. While the subtext isn't groundbreaking, most scenes are staged so well and so interestingly, Cooper deserves a bit of praise. You could do a lot worse in dedicating a couple hours to a stuffy biopic. Cooper takes the work seriously. The striking production values and stellar lead performances made me feel content with an otherwise shallow presentation.

A decent biopic portraying a man I had no interest in prior to watching the film, and the film didn’t change that opinion. I find that the modern biopics often forget to portray the greatness of the characters and purely goes for the tragedies. I also found the prosthetics very distracting.

Maestro wants to be about the emotional journey of Felicia and Leonard, alone and together. Perhaps this is a personal fault, but I was unable, at times, to understand their emotional reactions, especially Felicia during the second act and a pivotal quarrel. I think things were lost in the breakneck pace the movie adopts. Cooper gives his embodied performance no favors with prosthetics and the acquired voice. Mulligan is always good. MVP is Libatique with his warm and striking cinematography.

I only watched it for the makeup…

Provokesquestions/meaningistensionbetweencontradictoryanswers+careyhassomuchofIt+grandinnerlife+ifsummerdoesntsinginyouthennothing/cantmakemusic+ifsacthendisappear+divineemptiness/wayout+anger/soweknowhowlessthanweare:P

Can't stand movies with long scenes of people screaming at each other.

Self-conscious in its performances and directing, so much so, we the audience only get really incidental glimpses of any of the depths that Cooper wanted to explore. While Lenny's performative existence is part of the point (to get where he gets he has to hide a lot of himself), I don't think the filmmaking fully interacts with that central conceit. Big caveat: Carey Mulligan can still act very well despite having to look at Cooper's giant prosthetic nose for the whole thing.

too clippy, seems more like a trailer than a movie... i really liked the scene where a guy shuts the bathroom door by opening another door though

Cooper’s clear passion project is a frustrating series of highs and lows: his deeply committed lead performance (albeit with some overdone prosthetic work), matched by Mulligan is a definite high, and his evocation of the aesthetics of yesteryear Hollywood are to be commended (especially in the glorious B&W sequences), but it all rings hollow due to a lumpy and scattershot screenplay - we get no insight into what makes this Maestro tick (or even any real passion for the music/conducting itself).

dreary and artificial. so much missed potential

Gay 1 koca olsa nasıl olurdu? Film, cevap verse de, çelişkileri de yaşatıyor. Leonard Bernstein'in ilginç ve sıradışı hayatını anlatan film, eşi oyuncu Felicia ile ilişkisini izliyoruz. Genç yaşta harika 1 maestro olan Bernstein, 1 parti de Felicia ile tanışır. Fakat, Leonard'ın duyguları karmaşıktır. Kıskançlıklar, egolar, kibirler. İyi replikleri var. Fakat, filmi kopartan o hızlı kurgu. O kadar kötü ki. Sinematografi de acayip. Filmin sonunda, Felicia'yı kaybetmek. Şampiyon belli. İkinci kim?

A definite shoe-in for the Oscars and while Cooper is impressive and unrecognizable as Bernstein, i found it hard to overlook that it's an impression rather than an embodiment. It's laid on thick, just like the era antics. The focus being on his wife, who is actually boring and just angry a lot, will please woke juries but narratively it's the least interesting aspect of Bernstein's life. The film excels when he's conducting: The Mahler #2 part was dazzling and gave me goosebumps. MAJESTIC, +5

It's a biopic. Carey Mulligan Acts. Cooper acts like Bernstein. It's competently made. It's not very interesting. Next!

A very good biopic. Cooper's portrayal of Bernstein is getting a lot of buzz, and this is fair enough, though I think he perhaps leans too hard on imitation in an attempt to win an Oscar. I think Mulligan is the true star here. She's one of the best actresses working today. It's perhaps a bit episodic and uneven for my taste, as I loved the first third but rest was kind of hit or miss. I found the lack of any sort of temporal orientation distracting as well. Good film, though.

The fact that Cooper never gets at anything particularly revelatory in regards to Bernstein or his marriage and instead seems to treat this as a commentary on himself as an artist is close to interesting, but I feel like he splits the difference between personal soul-baring and rote (albeit flashy) biopic drama beats.

Really good. Great performances. Extremely well-made and well-handled. Of course incredible music. Impressed with Cooper's direction, will aim to watch Star is Born now