MAESTRO (2023)

Fifty minutes into Bradley Cooper's MAESTRO, his directorial and starring-role biopic of composer Leonard Bernstein, he's discussing a possible book written about all his accomplishments, from teaching children on television to his best remembered work, West Side Story...

And yet we never got to witness any of it, instead  listening to he and classy wife Felicia Montealegre (a put-upon Carey Mulligan) within an intellectually-rambling romance from picnics to parties (in-between sporadic bisexual trysts) and not much else about the man that Cooper seems to have more fun portraying as a flamboyant and sophisticated, British-mannered, chain-smoking proto-beatnik than celebrating the legendary musical genius built right into the title... And aesthetically Cooper's cinematic influences... from LENNY to RAGING BULL to CAPOTE... are on full avant-garde display but with nothing behind it, really, except mere window dressing... with tinted glass. Grade: D

at
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Featured Post

THE LOCUST EATERS (BRITISH TELEVISION)

One of those shows that doesn't work the way it's supposed to, but is still pretty good in a laidback, kind of neo noirish, hangout...

  • COCAINE: ONE MAN'S SEDUCTION (1983)
    David Ackroyd tells Dennis Weaver the same thing that John Kapoles would say to James Woods in THE BOOST... that they need a boost... which...
  • ONE, TWO, MANY (2008)
    Stuttering John Melendez went from being a once-great celebrity-crashing interviewer on The Howard Stern Show to a kind of dare-hire-announc...
  • EYE SEE YOU
    title: EYE SEE YOU year: 2002 cast: Sylvester Stallone, Tom Berenger, Charles Dutton, Kris Kristofferson, Robert Prosky, Robert Patrick, R...
  • TITAN: THE OCEANGATE SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER (2025)
    By the time we reach the end of TITAN, to see what the audience is waiting for... the death of the five passengers including infamous Stoc...
  • THE HUNTING WIVES (2025)
    The Stepford Wives meets Twin Peaks meets The L Word  meets Desperate Housewives meets A Simple Plan (and some Gypsy, another Netflix series...
  • DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE (2025)
    Thomas was one of the best characters not only on Downton Abbey but maybe in the history of British TV series. He was an antagonist, from ...
  • NIGHT TIDE
    title: NIGHT TIDE year: 1961 cast: Dennis Hopper, Linda Lawson, Luana Anders, Gavin Muir director: Curtis Harrington rating: ***1/2 Man...
  • FRANKENSTEIN (2025)
    When Mia Goth's Elizabeth visits muscular Jacob Elordi as The Creature, it's apparent that director Guillermo del Toro didn't re...
  • THE NAKED GUN (2025)
    It all began in what was basically a shot-for-shot remake of a 1950's Airline Disaster film named ZERO HOUR starring Dana Andrews as Ted...
  • SEAN COMBS: THE RECKONING (2025)
    Here's yet another Netflix documentary with four parts that should have been two, as there's simply too much time spent on intervie...