‘Maestro’ // a movie discussion

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02/05/24 • 26 min

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J. McVay and Charles Hinshaw discuss Bradley Cooper’s second film as a director and co-writer. Maestro stars Cooper as conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, Carey Mulligan as his wife Felicia, and is available on Netflix.

Before 2012’s Silver Linings Playbook, Bradley Cooper may have seemed like he was destined to be in nothing but pulpy movies like Limitless or bro-flicks like The Hangover – at the time, both fairly recent hits for him that had already changed his career and made him a more bankable leading man. But Silver Linings Playbook put him into that different category of quote-unquote “serious actor” seemingly destined to one day win an Academy Award. And 2018’s A Star Is Born proved him also a serious prospect as a writer and director. So anticipation for his second film as a triple hyphenate actor-writer-director, Maestro, was obviously highly anticipated.

Unfortunately, there’s also been a certain narrative building up around Cooper – at least with the very-online portion of the film commentariat – that his supposed thirst to prove himself by winning an Oscar and being taken seriously as not only an actor, but an all around filmmaker is cringey and unseemly. But if you can deliver the goods, maybe you deserve a bit of allowance in that regard.

And ultimately, Cooper has the goods. Between Maestro and A Star Is Born, he’s clearly proven himself to be a great director. As far as acting goes, I don’t think the jury was still out on that one.

Really, the only real problem with Maestro, which portrays the relationship between famed conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia, is its screenplay... which, counter-intuitively, is not to say the writing is bad, necessarily. Each scene is internally impressive on its own, but the film as a whole lacks a solid throughline and feels disjointed and unfocused. Perhaps this can at least be partly attributed to the decision to position the film as if it’s actually more about Felicia (wonderfully played by Carey Mulligan, by the way) than it is about Bernstein himself. It’s a perplexing decision because it leaves Bernstein feeling inadequately explored, while the centering of Felicia seems forced and, itself, inadequately justified.

All that said, it’s not everyday we get a movie as otherwise beautifully shot, crafted, and performed as Maestro, so here’s hoping the next screenplay Cooper co-writes is up to his skills as a director and performer, as well as the skills of the excellent crew and cast he surrounds himself with.

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Mentioned in the episode:

Stereoactive Presents: Oscars Nomination Reactions for 2023 Films

https://www.stereoactivemedia.com/stereoactive-presents-oscars-nomination-reactions-for-2023-films/

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host: J. McVay

Guests: Charles Hinshaw

Music: Hansdale Hsu

Produced by Stereoactive Media

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Mentioned in the episode:

Stereoactive Presents: Oscars Nomination Reactions for 2023 Films

https://www.stereoactivemedia.com/stereoactive-presents-oscars-nomination-reactions-for-2023-films/

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host: J. McVay

Guests: Charles Hinshaw

Music: Hansdale Hsu

Produced by Stereoactive Media

Previous Episode

‘Past Lives’ // a movie discussion

J. McVay and Charles Hinshaw discuss the debut film written and directed by Celine Song. Past Lives stars Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro as the three sides of a romantic triangle that spans decades and continents.

There are thin and thick lines running through every life. These may run through personal situations or society as a whole. Celine Song’s Past Lives explores the intersection of at least a few such lines. There’s the sometimes thin line between the platonic and the romantic, then there are the often thicker lines between times and places that separate moments by decades and people by continents and oceans.

Greta Lee stars as Nora, an immigrant from South Korea to New York City by way of Toronto, who reconnects with an old friend from her youth named Hae Sung – played by Teo Yoo – who was coincidentally already trying to reconnect with her. Their early 2010s Skype calls seem to be drifting toward the romantic side of the aforementioned thin line before they’re paused for a reassessment that never comes and they both continue their lives outside of the bubble they’d constructed for themselves. Eventually, they meet up in person again, but Nora is now married to Arthur, played by John Magaro.

A tension amongst all three ensues that raises questions about the nature of the trio’s internal interpersonal relationships, as well as their identities and how they’ve become the people they are.

The strength of Past Lives comes from the way it deftly flirts with ideas such as fate, culture, ethnicity, and especially through its brief but essential opening scene, projection of self. Each idea or subject is teased in such a way that it naturally unravels in front of your eyes without ever seeming contrived – or, really, to even announce itself. Consequently, you’re already thinking about each idea before you realize you are, just as happens so often in life. The final result is a sublimely crafted story that only improves with subsequent viewings.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host: J. McVay

Guests: Charles Hinshaw

Music: Hansdale Hsu

Produced by Stereoactive Media

Next Episode

‘Saltburn’ // a movie discussion

J. McVay and Charles Hinshaw discuss the second film written and directed by Emerald Fennell. Saltburn stars Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, and Archie Madekwe and is distributed by Amazon MGM Studios and available on Prime Video.

Since we’re recording this a couple of months after the film’s release and even longer since it first began playing at festivals and reviews of it started coming out, it may be worth mentioning that there seem to be a lot of critics who do not like Saltburn. In fact, I pretty much avoided watching the film until now because so many critics I follow had so little good to say about it.

So, perhaps my low expectations played a part in this, but I found it mostly pretty compelling to watch. I mean, it’s pure pop melodrama trash playing at being deep and sophisticated, and I think another couple of passes on the screenplay may have leveled it up from that to either the true satire or social commentary it strives to be – something more along the lines of The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Rules of the Game, Gosford Park, A Place in the Sun, or something more recent like Parasite. But the talent and craft brought to the film from other quarters certainly elevate it into something more than it would be otherwise.

Barry Keoghan not only swings for the fences as the class interloper at the heart of the film, but he also more than proves his ability to lead a high profile movie with a top notch cast. And whether some of his choices pull you in or make you cringe, it’s impossible to deny his commitment to his character and the themes of the film.

For his part, between this and Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Jacob Elordi is fast becoming an actor whose presence in a project is going to make me more interested in checking it out. That said, I do wish he had more to do at times in Saltburn – especially after his character, Felix, first shows Keoghan’s Oliver around the estate and introduces him to the other residents, then seems to melt into the background or wholly disappear for quite some time.

Richard E. Grant and Rosamund Pike, as Felix’s staggeringly British parents, are both bright spots when the film allows them space to shine and Archie Madekwe, as Felix’s cousin Farleigh, certainly does all he can to make his character as unlikable as the script requires.

Add to all that, the striking visuals delivered by the cinematography and production design, and I’m honestly more excited now to see director Emerald Fennell’s next film, than I was after I had mixed feelings about her last one, Promising Young Woman.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host - J. McVay

Guests - Charles Hinshaw

Music - Hansdale Hsu

Produced by Stereoactive Media