339: Maestro

[00:00:00] 47. Let's get to another 2024 best picture nominee, the sixth one that we've covered so far on the show. I will be doing all 10 coming soon, so don't worry.

[00:00:12] Or finishing out the ones I have not done yet. But this is the sixth one that we've covered.

[00:00:16] Let's get to Maestro, which is a Netflix original. It's written and directed by Bradley Cooper, stars Bradley Cooper, Carrie Mulligan, Matt Boomer, Vecenzo Amato, Michael Uri, a few others.

[00:00:32] And the synopsis is this love story chronicles the lifelong relationship of conductor, composer Leonard Bernstein and actress Felicia Bernstein.

[00:00:42] So this one, we did do A Star is Born on the show back when it came out. I love A Star is Born, so does my wife and co-host Elle.

[00:00:52] She loves that movie just as much as I do. I think it is awesome. And I think it was a amazing breakout directorial debut for Bradley Cooper.

[00:01:01] And so I was very, very excited about this one because I love, as anyone who listens to the show regularly, I love this time period mid 20th century pieces, biopics.

[00:01:11] I'm totally there. The aesthetics, the simply just the history of that time, music, art, everything. I'm just fascinated with that era.

[00:01:21] So this movie appealed to me. I didn't know much about Leonard Bernstein. I knew the name, knew some of his, you know, big moments in his life.

[00:01:29] But for the most part, very blind going into this big thing though actually first off produced by Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.

[00:01:41] Pretty crazy. I did not know that going in and those are some pretty nice names to have in your credits. So kudos to him.

[00:01:49] But besides that, the movie itself when it came out and before I got around to watching it, which was just recently, I had heard fairly negative things, not horrible things.

[00:02:02] But I think a lot of people seem to be fairly lukewarm on it, not big fans like overrated Oscar bait, blah, blah, blah, that sort of thing.

[00:02:12] And so wasn't really sure what to expect going in. And maybe it's a hot take. I don't know. I enjoyed it a fair bit.

[00:02:20] I don't think it's a masterpiece. I don't think it's as good as some of the other biopics that have come out recently.

[00:02:27] But say what you will about the movie like the Oscar baiting this, whatever, I guess I can get that not totally.

[00:02:34] But for a second directed movie, it's pretty phenomenal. Like the use of different aspect ratios, the use of color and black and white.

[00:02:45] It really was directed and edited so well. And I think that if he can do this on his second movie, I'm excited to see what he can do on his 10th.

[00:02:59] You know, like he directed this movie better than a lot of directors who've been doing it for 1020 years, in my opinion.

[00:03:05] Like it looks amazing. The fluid cinematography and then the very static cinematography and how each sort of each act is broken up into a separate period of his life and also a different visual style.

[00:03:20] Very interesting and creative. And while the I guess his need maybe to get noticed by the Oscars, which it did.

[00:03:28] It didn't win anything, but got a lot of attention. I can get that and maybe you can call that cheap or commercial. I don't know.

[00:03:35] But I think he did all the fairly simple things really well like it doesn't break the mold for a biopic.

[00:03:43] But he tells a fairly straightforward biopic really, really well and very differently and very refreshingly like I was interested the entire time in this movie.

[00:03:56] It wasn't too long. Bradley Cooper, his performance amazing like I was never thinking oh I'm watching Bradley Cooper with makeup.

[00:04:04] It was one of those for me like I was very much engaged and thinking alright this is Leonard Bernstein to a certain extent on screen like as much as I could be.

[00:04:14] So I thought his performance was incredibly charismatic and compelling. It was funny. It was dramatic.

[00:04:20] I thought it was excellent. Carrie Mulligan amazing really the movies more so even about her in a lot of ways.

[00:04:27] She's fantastic and everybody in the whole movie Matt Boomer awesome love him very, very good music.

[00:04:33] And as I talked about on my letterboxed review which follow me there if you haven't yet. If you have one I suggest you get one.

[00:04:41] The Cathedral conducting sequence where it's pretty much an uncut long take where he's conducting seemingly an actual orchestra.

[00:04:53] It is unbelievable like it's hard to really put into words like his dedication there because you know back in the old day when it came to things like playing a conductor or whoever.

[00:05:06] They just went through the motions and you know going back now it's like alright you look ridiculous trying to do that but you can tell I'm not a conductor I'm not a musical student so to speak but for my knowledge.

[00:05:18] Of that world it was so spot on so passionate so dedicated committed like that sequence was incredible and it was worth watching just for that and that shows you that work that he put into it maybe it's not perfect movie like I said.

[00:05:35] But still that is undeniably amazing to me so overall I think the movie got a little too much hate to me I think there's a lot of great stuff there.

[00:05:46] I wish I had seen it in theaters like I wish I had been released in theaters rather than just being a Netflix movie because I think this sort of story this scope this world I want to see it on a big screen big sound and so I think in some ways it was a mistake to do that way.

[00:06:02] It feels a little bit smaller being a piece of streaming content but really worth watching give it a chance worth seeing for Bradley Cooper alone and Kerry Mulligan.

[00:06:13] And it makes me curious to learn more about Leonard Bernstein and the conducting world as a whole and is a just a very solid biopic like I'm a biopic sort of not whether it's a brand new genre defining one or a fairly conventional one I'm there for it.

[00:06:31] I just find stories about people interesting and again especially in this time period so that is a heavy four out of five.