Today, I finally watched "Maestro".
I have read so many respectful, but unenthusiastic, comments about all the things that this film is not. Many bemoaned the lack of attention to Bernstein's music for his musical plays.
And yet, it was mostly all there in the background...On the Town, Candide, West Side Story, Mass...so I don't really know what was being expected.
I do know that the film is not easily accessible, emotionally. And yet I find it extraordinary. I had to keep reminding myself I was watching actor Bradley Cooper, who so fully immersed himself into Bernstein that he might as well have been channeling him. Carey Mulligan was wonderful as his wife, Felicia.
It is not biographical as much as it is, or seems to be, a slice of his life that most people never knew about...his family, his duality, his children.
I am a major Bradley Cooper fan. While I haven't seen "Oppenheimer" yet, I can easily say I think Cooper's performance in this film is more of an accomplishment than Paul Giamatti's in "The Holdovers". The latter film is a wonderful, emotionally charged look at the true nature of a curmudgeonly school teacher who finds a way to be his best self even if it means losing his job. I think Giamatti is wonderful at being mostly himself in this role.
All of that said, it means not one whit to voting Academy members.
I will not predict Oscars, but I will participate in watching them...and possibly in partaying here during them.
