Maestro
Year: 2023
Rating: R
Length: 129 minutes / 2.15 hours
There is nothing worse to me than a movie that tries too hard to be a good movie. Maestro (2023) was a film I looked forward to, but its execution left me sorely disappointed. Maybe it’s my current distaste for biopics featuring famous men who cheat on their supporting wives—either with other women or, in this case, men. But this wasn’t the whole problem. Like a reverse “Springtime for Hitler” from The Producers (1967), Maestro was trying so hard to be a good movie that just ended up being mediocre.
I get the sense that Bradley Cooper is desperate to win an Oscar. He has directed a few films now that felt so needy for critical affirmation that they fail to miss the key tenet of actually being good. The question is whether he more desires the Best Director statue or the Best Actor one, and I think it’s the latter. Ironically enough, if he gave some other actor the limelight, I think his strengths as a director might have room to flourish. We see hints of this with Lady Gaga in A Star is Born (2018) and Carey Mulligan here in Maestro.
However, despite having Leonard Bernstein as the focus of this film, there was barely any music in it. It almost felt like there were scenes shot for this movie not because they made sense for this narrative but because they were used to better effect in more successful films. Sure, there were a few good bits that might have stood out by themselves, but it ended up being a jumbled mess that didn’t understand what made these scenes stand out in the first place. Holistically, Maestro just didn’t work.
A frustrating movie that didn’t understand how to make itself great, I give Maestro 2.5 stars out of 5.
 1/2
