Hey movie fans, it’s Slick Dungeon. I’m here to conduct (see what I did there?) another review for one of the Oscar nominated films this year. This time we are talking about the biopic film about Leonard Bernstein, Maestro. There will be spoilers in this review so if you don’t like that sort of thing, head on over to the theater, see the movie and come on back here for the review.

What’s it About?

Maestro tells the story of notable conductor and composer, Leonard Bernstein. If you don’t know much about his professional career, you probably at least know he was the conductor of the New York Philharmonic, and that he composed music for movies like On the Waterfront and musicals like West Side Story. And after watching the film, you’ll know… almost the same amount about his professional career.

You’ll get a lot of the picture of his personal life as we see him have affairs with men and women, fall in love, continue to have affairs, have fights with his wife, continue to have affairs, and then have more affairs. He also chain smokes an incredible amount in this movie, which I am sure was true in his life.

The film is certainly interesting to watch as we see Bernstein go from a young hopeful, just waiting to be called up to conduct an orchestra, to a household name. The film starts with Bernstein being interviewed in 1987 where we can see the fantastic work of the makeup artists who transformed Bradley Cooper into an old man for the character. We then flash back to black and white early days. Bernstein is an energetic composer and, apparently so afraid of being alone, he can’t stop having affairs. He meets his wife Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan) at a party and they connect almost instantly. Felicia marries Bernstein knowing about and accepting his lifestyle, she just asks for him to be discreet about it.

Bernstein’s success grows and he becomes more famous while also teaching music. Soon the film changes to color but the color remains muted, giving it the feel of a film from the seventies or eighties. Again, the makeup on Bradley Cooper is really good because there was never a moment where I thought he wasn’t the age he was playing. Tensions between Bernstein and Felicia increase as his affairs continue and he becomes more and more reckless even with his children old enough to be subjected to all the rumors and gossip that comes with it. Meanwhile, Bernstein continues to be driven to create and conduct music. Felicia who has always been a notable actress is becoming somewhat frustrated not just from the affairs but also with the fact her career takes a bit of a back seat to Leonard’s.

Disaster strikes when Felicia is diagnosed with cancer. The couple are devastated and so are their children. Eventually Felicia dies but Bernstein goes on, continuing to create and conduct. We land back at the interview we started on and Bernstein talks about his attitude towards music, life and creativity.

If you are of a certain generation, I am sure there is plenty here assumed to be known about Leonard Bernstein. But, if you are younger than that, this movie will not really tell you a lot more about the man. I suppose I learned more about his marital affairs than I wanted or needed to know but the film feels a bit scattered, never quite delving as far as it can on the personal, and barely scratching the surface of the professional. I wanted to know more about how people surrounding Bernstein saw him, and not just those who were in his most immediate circle. It seems like his affairs were an open secret but we never get any sense of if this was difficult for him professionally or not.

While Bradley Cooper does an adequate job of directing, this may have been a case where the director is a bit too in love with his subject matter so leaves some vital information out that he assumes the audience knows.

There is some personal tension and conflict in several scenes but Bernstein’s personality in the film is so overpowering, it’s hard to get a clear perspective of anyone else’s feelings towards him with the exception of Felicia. And even in that case, she seems to eventually accept the inevitable of being at least somewhat in his shadow.

All in all I found this film to be too disjointed to truly come together. There has been a deluge of musical biopics lately, the latest one being One Love about Bob Marley and while I didn’t entirely love that one, I did find myself at least having more of an understanding of what Bob Marley did. Here it is overly implied for those of us who did not grow up with Bernstein as a figure in our lives.

But that doesn’t mean that the film is not an enjoyable experience. There is certainly a reason it is up for so many awards, so let’s go through them.

the Awards

Maestro was nominated for seven Academy Awards this year and it certainly didn’t hurt that huge names like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese were producers on it.

Best Actor

Bradley Cooper does a fine job with the character. I believe him as Bernstein and he certainly took on the mannerisms and speech patterns of the time. This was a good performance and it’s easy to see how much effort Cooper put into it. But in all honesty I think I have seen better performances by him in other films. Add to that the competition here and I don’t see Cooper taking away the award. In this category I think it will be Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer. Colman Domingo had a great turn as Bayard Rustin in Rustin, Paul Giamati who is no stranger to the Oscars is up for The Holdovers, and Jeffrey Wright has a strong case to make with American Fiction. I think Bradley Cooper proved he can make a film about a subject he is interested in and can still give a good performance while pulling double duty but I don’t see him winning.

Best Actress

Carey Mulligan is up for her role as Felicia Montealegre for this film. Mulligan pulls off the part well and is just as fast talking as Cooper, making the film feel like a more authentic period piece. And the role certainly must have been challenging to portray so she deserves some accolades here. But, her competition is extremely strong in this category. She is up against Annette Benning for Nyad, Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon, Sandra Huller for Anatomy of a Fall, and Emma Stone for Poor Things. I would say Carey Mulligan is in the top three here but the competition in this category really comes down to Emma Stone and Lily Gladstone.

Cinematography

I can see why this film was nominated for cinematography. The color choice is bold and sets the tone well. The shots are usually fairly interesting and what we see in the frame can be unexpected while still conveying the information we need. But I never found it to be truly revolutionary or groundbreaking. It is good but it doesn’t reach to the level of greatness in my mind. I don’t see this having a hope of beating out Killers of the Flower Moon, let alone Oppenheimer. It’s also up against El Conde and Poor Things.

Makeup and Hairstyling

If there is any category this film has a strong claim to it would be this one. Bradley Cooper must have had to sit for hours in the makeup chair to get the look right and it doesn’t look fake at all. If you saw him walking down the street in full makeup you would not recognize him as Bradley Cooper but as an elderly man. However, there are a couple of films giving strong competition here. Golda pulled off some incredible makeup transforming Helen Mirren into Golda Meir to the point where I didn’t even recognize her. But also nominated are Oppenheimer which tends to take home nearly every trophy, Poor Things which I have heard has fantastic makeup, and Society of the Snow which is able to make strong young men look like they are truly on the brink of absolute starvation. This is a tough category to call and while Maestro very well may take home the Oscar, I would not be surprised if a different movie went home with it.

Best Picture

This category is a little easier to call. Sorry but Maestro is not going to win here. I can see why it was nominated but it’s simply not as engaging as several of the other entries in the category. And I am pretty sure Oppenheimer has a lock on this one.

Sound

Obviously when you have a film about a composer and conductor, you need to have great sound. The film captures all the music and sound just as it should. But again, like the cinematography category, this film doesn’t do anything to innovate or break the mold. It has good sound but it’s not so notable that it’s going to win here. The Creator, Maestro, Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and The Zone of Interest are also nominated. The Creator has great sound, as does Mission Impossible but Oppenheimer has a particular sequence where the sound conveys so much of the storytelling that it’s clear how vital the sound actually is. While typically sci-fi and fantasy films tend to take home the award in this category, I think Oppenheimer is actually going to win here because of that sequence.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

Here’s a category where I could see Maestro winning. It’s not competing against Oppenheimer, or even Killers of the Flower Moon here. But it does still have some strong competition. It’s up against Anatomy of a Fall which is a really well written courtroom drama, The Holdovers which is moving, dramatic, and funny all at once, May December which is a bit of a melodrama but no doubt well written, and Past Lives which tells a very personal story. In this category I think the top three are Maestro, Anatomy of a Fall, and The Holdovers. As good as the writing is for Maestro, it is still more disjointed of a film than the other two. And at this point, I strongly suspect The Holdovers has the best case to make here. I won’t be shocked if Maestro wins but I would be mildly surprised.

In Conclusion

If you love biopics about musicians and you have a good idea of who Leonard Bernstein was, then this is a great film for you. If you don’t know that much about the guy, I suspect that like me, you’ll come away wondering what they really left out here. It is worth watching Bradley Cooper’s performance and it’s neat to see him directing, but it’s a bit more scattered than I would like in a biopic. It will probably take home some awards this year at the Oscars but it will probably lose out on a lot.

Awardingly yours,

Slick Dungeon