IMG via Jason McDonald/Netflix, via Associated Press
Bradley Cooper is a bona fide auteur, and when it comes to “Maestro,” the proof is in the pudding.
After making his directorial debut with the staggeringly accomplished “A Star is Born” in 2018, Cooper returns with a sophomore feature that feels like a progression on practically every front. Honing and refining many of the themes, visual ideas, and driving motivations present in his debut, “Maestro” is an astonishing and often awe-inspiring film.
TOP FIVE THINGS ABOUT “MAESTRO”
5. Bradley Cooper’s Performance
There is perhaps no performer today better suited to the multi-hyphenate role of Leonard Bernstein than Cooper himself. Just as Bernstein’s dual role as a composer and conductor spoke to a duality and contradiction which “Maestro” is quick to sick its teeth into, Cooper’s dual role as writer/director and actor puts him in a similar place, operating both within and without of the work itself.
“Maestro” steers into the skid here in a thoughtful and articulate fashion, further showcasing what “A Star is Born” demonstrated so clearly when it comes to Cooper’s unflattering immersion in his work. Playing Bernstein across several decades, the transformative nature of Cooper’s performance goes well beyond the prosthetics. In the complex, nuanced, and absolutely critical role, Cooper shines, with understated grace and versatility to spare.
4. The Script
Written by Cooper and co-writer Josh Singer (of “First Man” and “The Post”), the screenplay for “Maestro” is often articulate and profound in its own right.
The choice to eschew a more traditional narrative structure (typically and woefully all-too-common among biopics specifically) in favor of a much more subjective approach to Bernstein’s life and legacy is a brilliant one. By zeroing in on key emotive and crucial moments from across his life and work, “Maestro” becomes something of a mosaic, taking audiences through the subjective experience of being Leonard Bernstein. Everything about the film stems from this choice, from the black-and-white first act’s open tenderness and vulnerability to the much more closed off and often viewed through ajar doorways or windows tension of the second act.
The result is a cinematic experience that is much more sensory and emotional than one might anticipate such a work to be, and “Maestro” is all the better for it.
3. Carey Mulligan’s Performance
As Felicia Montealegre Bernstein, Carey Mulligan delivers a wondrously tactile and aching performance.
From her gorgeously photographed visual introduction to the film all the way through to the final frame of “Maestro,” Mulligan is so often the beating heart of the work. She and Cooper have great chemistry together, and her performance in the first act absolutely sells the swooning, head-over-heels love that catapults the rest of the story.
As their relationship grows more troubled and strained in the ensuing acts, one can feel Mulligan burrowing within herself in her performance, shrinking away into resentment and loathing in truly pervasive fashion. There’s a Thanksgiving-set one-shot setpiece at the center of the film between Cooper and her, and her performance here, enflaming from simmering to incendiary right before our eyes, is incredible.
The final act presents entirely new challenges for her, and she sublimely rises to them in incredibly touching fashion. It is an altogether wonderful performance and a massive accomplishment.
2. The Editing
Cut by Michelle Tesoro, the editing of “Maestro” is magnificent.
As a visual storyteller, Cooper has a real gift for knowing precisely how to cut to the core of an audience through the utilization of stark and incisive editing. I personally cannot think of a single cut in a recent film that provoked a more emotional response among theater patrons I was with than the cut to Cooper’s character posthumously performing from Lady Gaga’s present onstage performance during the final number of “A Star is Born.” Similarly, this acute and intuitive sense of cinematic storytelling is on full display in his and Tesoro’s work on “Maestro.”
Several of the biggest beats of the story actually occur offscreen and are never outright told to the audience. Rather, Cooper and Tesoro will build to a moment, cut away, and then return to the emotional fallout of it. The results are deeply resonant and overwhelmingly powerful, with Mulligan’s final scene with Cooper being a perfect encapsulation of this exact approach and just how effective and affecting it is.
1. Bradley Cooper’s Direction
Reteaming with “A Star is Born” cinematographer Matthew Libatique, the visual work on display in “Maestro” is nothing short of masterful. From its virtuoso camerawork to its utterly daring lighting experimentations to the ways in which the very bones of its cinematic language are so deeply rooted in and motivated by theme and story, Cooper’s direction here is phenomenal.
There’s an immaculate and complexity staged early on which is indicative of the sheer level of precision and artistry on display here, where Cooper utilizes the black-and-white film stock to staggeringly effective results. Later, once the film has moved to its deeply saturated and beautiful full-color palette, Cooper’s camera grows more distant and stationary, with the camera itself just as removed from the first act’s love story as the characters are themselves.
Cooper populates the work with striking visual motifs and continuously works hard to carve out space and resonance for performers such as himself, Mulligan, Maya Hawke, and more in really beautiful ways. Even amongst all the complex staging and deeply thought-provoking directorial work, Cooper still finds space within his films for spontaneity and Fellini-esque full-bodied improvisation, ala the bathtub sequence in “A Star is Born” or the Thanksgiving sequence here.
It’s really remarkable work from a man who clearly has devoted the whole of his self to this film and the results speak for themselves.
RGM GRADE
(A)
“Maestro” is astonishing on every level. It’s a film that opens with a real-life quotation from its titular subject about contradictions provoking questions, which are the meaning of life, and then ultimately ends on a profound contradiction itself.
With his second film as a director, Cooper proves himself one of the most fascinating voices in the field, and someone whose oeuvre I cannot wait to see more of.
