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Bradley Cooper’s Maestro is not a biopic but a passionate exploration of all consuming love. Cooper as an actor has never been better but Cooper as a director solidifies, he’s a new auteur. Carey Mulligan delivers a heart wrenching, career defining performance. 

Maestro is not a biopic about one of the most prolific conductors, Leonard Bernstein, but is a sweeping, achingly moving portrait of Felicia Montealegre Bernstein and her life with Leonard. From the opening scene to the final shot, Maestro is a tribute to Felicia and the mark she left not just on Leonard, but her impact on the way he lived his life and created his work. Bradley Cooper’s second directorial feature isn’t interested in a paint by the number storytelling of an iconic American music legend. The film operates on with a dreamlike momentum matching the mindset of Bernstein himself. Maestro is a love poem that’s filled with passion, sadness, and admiration for the two leads at its center.

The film opens with two different Bernsteins, who we follow over the course of Maestro merge into the one man we know. An older Bernstein (Cooper), in his sixties, speaks to a camera crew about the loss of his wife. His voice is weathered and full of sorrow as he discusses sometimes seeing her around the house. The film cuts to a curtain with a phone call letting Bernstein know by a chance of fate he’s been called up to make his debut at Carnegie Hall (without rehearsal). Bernstein playfully jumps out of the bed he shares with his lover, David Oppenheim (Matt Bomer) and runs to get ready. The young Bernstein is energetic, full of life, and his voice is tinged with joy. Maestro from the first five minutes shows there is a version of Bernstein before and after the love of his life has come and gone. 

When Bernstein meets Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), the two are utterly captivated with one another. Cooper and cinematographer Matthew Libatique frame their first conversation as they’re the only two in the room at a crowded party and we’re watching something so intimate. Toggling between close ups and long shots we’re either right in the middle of their love or observing from far away. Early on, Montealegre tells Bernstein she worries he could break her in two. This could be an agonizing foreshadowing, but Cooper sticks true to who Montealegre was and never lets her become a victim in this story. The film follows the couple through dreamlike montages as Bernstein and Montealegre fall in love. 

While Cooper is clearly fascinated with the work of Bernstein, he chooses to focus on the way his work impacted all of those around him and the director always tells, and through beautiful imagery shows, how the conductor’s work always loomed over them. As a director, he explores how the loyalty Bernstein has for Montealegre is not the same as fidelity. In one of the most heart wrenching scenes of Maestro, Bernstein introduces Montealegre to Oppenheim, his lover until Montealegre was in the picture. Bernstein isn’t even hiding the man he is from the woman he’s courting. Bomer plays the scene with just a flicker of sadness in his eyes as he welcomes Montealegre into the chorus of people who love the man that is Bernstein. Oppenheim knows what he just lost as the beautiful woman entered the picture, but Bernstein doesn’t even notice the change in demeanor as he is blinded by his own bliss. 

Montealegre makes it clear she knows about the ‘other’ side of Bernstein, the pair get married and have three children. While Montealegre is successful in her career, Bernstein’s star shines brighter and she’s asked (as a mother…) how she supports him and keeps up with his busy career. Part of what makes Maestro such a success is that Cooper isn’t pausing to show professional highlights or even the birth of the couple’s children, he only stops to showcase on significant moments in the relationship dynamic. Maestrovery rarely shows us the conductor at the podium, the film is never a rise and fall story or a film about his creations. Cooper is only attuned to exploring the woman beside the man that was Bernstein. When his work as a musician (as he calls himself) does appear in the film, it’s breathtaking and thrilling. There is not enough praise in the world for the Ely Cathedral performance of Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony. Not only is the sound work electrifying but Cooper’s performance is all consuming and filled with the charisma and gusto Bernstein was known for. While the Cathedral scene truly could be described as a career highlight from the film, it all comes rushing back to Montealegre and her partnership with Bernstein. The scene perfectly pairs the two halves of his life as the conductor has found new fire within his career and he immediately turns to his wife to rekindle their marriage. While Cooper as a director only has two films under his belt, the scene solidifies him as one of the best working directors. 

Maestro is shot in Academy ratio keeping the audience tight within the constriction Montealegre may have felt within her marriage. While she was able to find her own success in her career, she was always to be by Bernstein’s side. Their relationship could be seen as progressive for the times to an outsider, but the concessions Montealegre may have made seemed to have weighed on her. When Libatique’s cinematography switches from magical black-and-white to rich color, we’re brought into a focus as an audience. Montealegre scolds Bernstein for getting sloppy after she sees him passionately kissing a younger man outside their home when they’re having a party. She’s not hurt, she’s exhausted. As the years go by, she begins to give up on making it work as she lashes out at him. One of the most poignant scenes in the film is a brutal argument between the married couple on Thanksgiving Day with Snoopy in the background. While the argument scene may be compared to another Netflix film Marriage Story, the passion and despair between the two feels much more akin to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf with a love still there yet so far gone. Her rage is palpable as her words full of anger and her distance towards Bernstein truly fills the room. Libatique and Cooper capture the intense argument in a wide shot allowing the anger in the room to fill the space and the audience to watch the argument between the couple from afar. We’re spectators in their marriage just as Montealegre feels. Libatique truly captures how marriage can feel both close and claustrophobic at the same time. 

The film showcases the high of being in Bernstein’s inner circle yet masterfully shows how the moment the sun isn’t shining on you, it’s a dark place to be. Maestro expertly walks a line of showing the genius who Bernstein was and how he could be warm and loving in private but also alienating and selfish. But the film never steers away from being a love story. Cooper and Mulligan are tender, ferocious, and passionate as they explore these characters together on film while honoring the real Bernstein and Montealegre. Maestro never hides who Bernstein was and was attracted to, men. Yet the film is about true partnership and comapionship, loving someone for who they truly are. His love and life he built with Montealegre was the center of his life when he was able to see past his craft. The film explores a truth that his sexual freedom created a heartbreak for her, and it never shies away from that. 

Cooper as a director solidifies himself as a new auteur; his storytelling choices are confident and bold. He places the camera based on feeling of not only his Bernstein but also Montealegre and their children creating a film oozing in emotion. Audiences cannot escape the overwhelming passion jumping off the screen. Maestro is a major showcase for Cooper as a visionary director and we are so lucky as audiences to see his visions unfolding on screen in real time. Cooper’s performance is an all timer. The much-discussed prosthetics help transform him into the man Bernstein was, but never hinder his performance like some previous Oscar winning performances have. Cooper is transcendent as Bernstein. While Cooper directs, co-stars, co-wrote, and produced the film, Maestro belongs to Mulligan. She’s one of the best actresses working today, yet this is her best performance to date. Her portrayal of Montealegre is fierce, emotional, heartbreaking, and all-consuming. Her rage fills the screen whether verbalized or silent behind her eyes. Her overwhelming love for Bernstein is the heartbeat of the film and it doesn’t succeed without Mulligan at the center. 

Maestro is not a biopic but a passionate examination of all consuming love. Early on in the film, Montealegre tells Bernstein, “If nothing sings in you, you can’t make music.” Near the end of Maestro, we see Bernstein old and dancing with a man in a club years after his wife passed away. The film is a testament to his love for her and him always living by her words. Maestro explores what it means to love and create in this world under Cooper’s perfect direction. 

Grade: A

Oscars Prospects:
Likely: Best Picture, Best Lead Actor (Bradley Cooper), Best Lead Actress (Carey Mulligan), Best Makeup & Hairstyling, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design
Should be Considered: Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Production Design

Release Date: November 22, 2023 (Theatrical); December 20, 2023 (Netflix)
Where to Watch: In Theaters

Kenzie Vanunu
she/her @kenzvanunu
Lives in LA with her husband, daughter and dog. Misses Arclight, loves iced vanilla coffees.
Favorite Director: David Cronenberg
Sign: Capricorn