Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

Maestro 

This is a gut wrenching film that is masterfully crafted from Bradley Cooper! It’s been over 6 years since we saw his directional debut with a Star Is Born and his follow up picture Maestro is a astonishing film that will split your heart in half he captures the strenuous relationship between Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia and the utter chaos that happened between the two of them in their marriage. It’s brought to the screen through electrifying performances both from Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan this is a look at the Bernstein  that is devastating, a gut punch but yet brilliantly brought to the screen by Bradley Cooper. 

Firstly, Maestro is a film I’ve been so excited to see ever since seeing how damn talented Bradley Cooper is behind the camera with his work on 2018’s a Star is Born. I was hungry to see what he would tackle next as he could go anywhere creatively in terms of story and style for his second directed film. So when the news was released he was going to tackle Leonard Bernstein the composer who was sexually confused in knowing who he was that was no easy story to tackle. As since it is about a world famous composer who was very popular their is an expectation to deliver a respectful take on his story and be truthful to the events of his life. Not only did I find it respectful in its approach of the man’s life but it was able to show a great deal of style and showmanship editing without it becoming showy or over the top. The heart of the story is the marriage between Bernstein and his wife and that’s where the film soars is in its exploration of the very complicated relationship between the two. As the story sets up straight away all the way back to when Bernstein and Felicia met and where they were both at in their own individual lives before meeting one another. Then we see how they bond over the arts and their passions their driven to peruse and show the world their talents they really bond over helping lift one another up when their doubting themselves creatively. But then when it comes to being romantic and loving towards one another they are you can see their is genuine love in their eyes and hearts for one another but theirs this emotional distance between them both that restricts them from being closer and that emotional disconnect is presented in such a heartbreaking way. As the story deep dives inside Leonard Bernstein’s heart in how sad he is with the way he’s handling his marriage due to him being confused sexually and then you have the weight of that constantly eating at his Brain so he buries himself in his work and the raw emotion of his feelings at that time in his life come through in his music. As theirs a time where he feels even restricted creatively because if he’s not being honest with himself how can he be honest with his music he gives to the public. All of that is shown in such great depth. It’s also not always focused on how it’s affecting Leonard Bernstein it’s able to also show how difficult it was for his wife Felicia to carry that burden of what was going on in their marriage and try to keep it together and it never takes on side showing that it affected one or the other no it affected them both and I loved that aspect of the way the story is told. So the way that Bradley Cooper took in his execution of the narrative was astonishing as it’s a up close look on a marriage of the famous Leonard Bernstein no one knew about or very little people did. And the way he brings this romantically complex story to the screen was amazing as it’s able to educate people on who this composer was but also show every aspect of his life and not just the career aspect of it but his ability at how  he was a father a friend and husband. Same applies for Felicia we see them as fully fleshed out people and not one dimensional characters which is very easy to do in a  music driven biopic but no it’s presented in a very deep rooted way that will make you be in a puddle of tears. The writing is so well done as well as its style. 

Secondly, The Performances are so freaking powerful and emotionally charged from both its leads! Cooper gives a performance that is truly one of the greatest onscreen performances I’ve ever seen in my life he just disappears into the skin of Leonard Bernstein. You forget your watching Cooper onscreen he commands the screen with such a charming and emotionally raw presence that is felt in each scene he’s in. He fully embodies Bernstein and shows each aspect of his heart in a heartbreaking but yet respectful portrayal of the famous composer. Then you have Carey Mulligan who is the glue keeping the marriage intact and she gives a tour de force performance that makes you feel for her as the story progresses as she just wants her husband to love her the way she has envisioned in her heart but he cannot give her everything she wants and it hurts her knowing that. She  lays her heart bare onscreen in a moving performance that is the best work she’s ever put onscreen. The whole cast is solid but it is Both of them Cooper and Mulligan who deliver their greatest onscreen performances of their careers with their work on this film that will have the hair on your arm stand up incredible performances. 

Lastly, Maestro is a emotionally heartbreaking story of a marriage that goes through hell due to Bernstein not knowing who he is sexually and Felicia wanting him to show up as a husband and just be loved those two things constantly clash against one another and results in such explosively raw moments. This film is a great follow up to A Star Is Born and Cooper brings things to this film he didn’t with his first film as he’s learning and finding new ways to express himself creatively as a filmmaker and he dose not repeat himself he finds new ground to explore and goes places creatively we haven’t seen him go before it’s amazingly well directed, masterfully acted and incredibly well told Maestro is a tale o two people’s marriage that goes through hell but still loves each other in their own ways. Maestro is outstanding and I recommended everyone go see this film. 

This film chronicles the life and marriage of Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia and the tough times their marriage went through

Rated R : Some Language and Drug Use

Bradley Cooper : Copper delivers the finest performance of his entire career with his phenomenal portrayal of Leonard Bernstein! Every time I see Bradley Cooper in a film I find myself it’s the greatest work of his career as he constantly finds new ways of challenging himself as an actor and is constantly topping himself. His work as the famous composer is his best work as an actor as the emotional places he explores of his heart and soul is tragic but yet so captivating to watch unfold onscreen. A lot of films I’ve seen of him as good as he is I can still tell it’s Bradley Cooper this is the first time when watching him I forgot I was watching Cooper he totally disappears into the skin of Bernstein. their is so much to be said about what he brings to this role that i loved firstly the way he changed his speaking pattern. What I mean by his way of talking is the film takes place over many years of his life and so when we are first introduced to his character he has a old 1920’s sly way of speaking that is sharp and very quick and as the film progresses and we see him age in front of us his speech slows down and becomes more dragged out in the way he talks he even has a deeper sound to his voice. That amount of attention to detail is what makes his performance stand out unlike if he was just to use his regular voice. The way he just goes head first into this role is so impressive because he dose not try to cover each big accomplishment of his life in a three hour biopic but instead focuses on the heartbeat of who he was which was a great way to showcase who he was to people. Since the relationship of his marriage and just his complex love life takes centre stage we see the struggle within himself early on of him trying to find himself. The self identity crisis is rooted from early on in his life and remains there the older stages of his life. What Bradley chooses to also focus on is his inability to be alone as in one of the first scenes of the film we see him even write music in the washroom with the door open as he hates the feeling of being alone. Digging that far into his soul speaks volumes as it also gives us a better scope of who this man was When he is around others you can see the joy wash over his face and he can feel more happy where as when the moments its more quiet he is in his head too much and he can’t stand the quiet it kills him and so he thirsts for company and having someone with him constantly. He can’t be honest with his own sexuality so what he does to let his frustration and raw emotion out is in his music but for a good length of time he feels creatively stuck because if he does not know who he is how can he be honest with his work. You can see how angry he is within himself but won’t confront his feelings because to him its easier to numb his pain instead of confront it and it takes until it comes to a crashing hault on Thanksgiving where he and his wife go at each others throats verbally in a fight where she wipes the floor with him about who he is as a person and how absent he has been not just as a person but as a husband. He may not want to hear it but he needed to as he has been hiding in the shadow of who he isn’t for so long and it was about time he become truthful with himself and then he can finally be happy with who he is as for so long he has been suffering and hurting and he would just bury himself in his work as a distraction. Their is a very emotional two scenes of spectacular emotional honesty where we see him spill every ounce of his heart onscreen the first being where he conducts an orchestra in a 6 minute scene where you see him throw his entire body and soul into halfway through composing it the camera stays on Bradley’s face and shows him smiling as a way that he is finally aware of who he is and can tell the world he knows his truth and seeing that realization hit him when composing the orchestra is so emotionally satisfying to watch as his heart is singing in joy. As his wife is waiting in the wings telling him that all that anger and sadness is no longer in his heart anymore it’s such an uplifting and moving moment that had me almost in tears. The second scene is when his wife falls ill he abandons his work for his wife which early on he didn’t do he put his work as a way of not dealing with the strained relationship he had with his wife. So since he could deal with his own sexuality  he knew that his relationships should come before his work it may have taken a while for him to realize that but he does that later on when his wife needs him as she was their through the darkness of his life. He takes on full caretaker mode and ignores anything creativity with his work and is their for his wife in the struggles of her health and even when things become more harder for her he is the beacon of light she needs in those hard times. The scene where he explodes in heartache in that act of the film is when he places a pillow around his voice and just screams into tears in the pillow as he has to remain strong for his wife and his kids but the sadness is eating at his heart and he isn’t ignoring it he knows he can’t do it in front of others so in a moment of him being alone he lets out a crying scream that you can see in Bradley’s eyes is so real and gut wrenching. Bradley Cooper shows Bernstein go through such hell mentally and emotionally and the only way to approach this respectfully to represent the man and honour his family would be to commit fully to the role in a way he never has for anything he’s previously done. His performance is spectacular and truly the best work of his career as he goes into the saddest elements of who this guy was while also showing how amazingly complex he was both as a husband, father and the sheer genius he had as a conductor. He shows not just the light but also the dark and really delivers a performance that will have you in tears Bradley Cooper is phenomenal! 

Carey Mulligan : Mulligan gives a performance that is devastating and captivating all at once! Now it’s no surprise Mulligan is one of the best actors working today with great performances in films like Promising Young Woman, An education,  and even the great Gatsby. So it came to no surprise she gave once again another masterful performance in this film as she gives what I think is easily the best work of her career. She plays the wife that is tasked with the responsibility of living in the shadow of this great composer while trying to make a name for herself without just being resorted to the wife of a genius musician. She makes it her mission to also carve out her place in the world with what drives her passion of being an actress. Now we also see how tiring it was at times to hide the truth of what was going on in her marriage to Leonard. She didn’t want to accept the fact that he was seeing also men and her at the same time but early on she starts catching on and you can see her entire heart through her eyes. She brings such a vulnerability through what is not said but just how you can read her face the truth is all their as in the beginning you can see her so full of life and joy to be starting this romantic journey with this bigger then life personality. As the film goes on we see how exhausted she is to be hiding this secret from the world as you can clearly see that she is in love with him but he is not loving her the way she wants him too which is heartbreaking. As she would do anything to support his creative spark and just who he is but with him struggling with his personality she can only do so much as she’s giving so much of her soul to him but he isn’t returning that energy she is giving back and she’s so frustrated with that. She speaks her truth in that argument I mentioned she has with him on thanksgiving and just lays him out and it was needed to wake him up but once again she puts her feelings aside to help him. Even though their marriage is in shambles she still tries her best to salvage this relationship with him while trying to keep happy and as her health starts to decline she notices that after all the hardship after all there countless emotionally exhausting turmoil that’s gone on he still loves her. In his own way he does as he showed up for her when she needed him to step up and you can see the relief in her eyes that he didn’t just leave but stood by her as she stood by him for so many years. She also blames herself for picking men that don’t put her first and she grapples with the fact she’s never been lucky with her taste in men but she can’t and won’t leave Leonard despite their faults she loves him with her whole heart. Carey Mulligan is so strong in this film showing the mental tiredness this woman goes through in the course of their marriage that would test anyones mentality. She shows that innocent loving look in her eye when she looks at her husband but also those eyes evolve over time to show the amount of sadness and hardship they go through and she evolves so much and we see so much of who she was as a wife to Leonard but also just as a person. Mulligan wraps you up in each frame she is in with such committed emotional strength that grabs a hold of the audience she chews up each scene she’s in and delivers a career best performance that is such a exceptional performance that will have you in a puddle of tears. 

Bradley Cooper : Cooper directed the hell out of this film and wow has he matured as a filmmaker! Now last time we saw Bradley directed a film was five years ago and since then you can tell from what you see with the work on maestro how he has evolved creatively. He showed the world back in 2018 how he can direct a film not only did he impress audiences but he showed the world he is as talented behind the camera as he is in front of it. So now he is tasked with making a follow up to his first directed film and make it as good if not better then his first to show it wasn’t just a one time thing that he can do a good Job at a directing but be taken seriously as a director. Not only do I think he succeeded at that but he explores visual styles here he never did with his first film. He brings such a flare and captivating visual form of expressing the feelings and emotional complexity of their relationship through the editing and camerawork which I thought was such an interesting creative move to make. There are some really Smooth transitions and editing tricks this film pulls of that I thought worked for the narrative and not to just show off. As he has the first bit of the film in black and white to match the time period and then it evolves into colour later on and even when it goes into the 60’s you can see he even matched the exact style of how a film would look for that time so the grain and splash of colour was even period too. Like I said he really made all the stops curatively to show how much he as grown as a storyteller and then with the makeup and hairstyling both him and Mulligan were unrecognizable in their respected roles as it wasn’t like overdone but in a way where you can see them age in front of you while keeping faithful to how they really looked. The amount of passion and care you can feel in each frame of this film as this has been such a passion project for Bradley since he was young he’s always been in love with conducting and with the music of Leonard Bernstein so to see him just dedicate his entire creative being to the project the results speak for itself. As he didn’t do just another paint by numbers biopic he wanted to have a way into this story of this musician that would be worth telling that isn’t like your run of the mill biopic. He had the film centre around relationships and the sheer struggle both Leonard and his wife went through while educating people on who he also was as a musician. It may not go into extreme detail of the music side of his career but instead explores the psychological landscape of how he got the inspiration for his music which was such a interesting choice that I found to be quite refreshing. Now the film can be exhausting emotionally due to the subject matter but that’s the point in many ways he wants the audience to see how this man was so emotionally put through hell in his private life and give such respect to the man at the same time and I think he juggles that beautifully. It is a music film yes but its also about the man and the conductor second which I thought was a awesome way of going about his story and life Bradley Cooper once again shows the world that he is amazing at the helm of a director and I cannot wait to see what he does next behind the camera as Maestro is once greatly directed by Cooper!