‘Maestro’ Reviews: Bradley Cooper ‘Disappears Inside His Performance,’ Carey Mulligan ‘Has Never Been Better’

Reviews are coming in for Bradley Cooper’s new film Maestro.

After Maestro had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival over the weekend, critics have shared mostly positive reviews of the new film, which marks Cooper, 48,’s next directorial effort after 2018. A star is born.

Writing for The Hollywood Reportersaid critic David Rooney Maestro — a biopic about composer Leonard Bernstein’s marriage to his wife Felicia Montealegre — “is a layered examination of a relationship that today might be oversimplified as that of a closeted gay man and his ‘beard.'”

Rooney praised Cooper’s performance as Bernstein, writing that the star “walks a tricky line, never allowing him to become unsympathetic even at his most callous”. Meanwhile, actress Carey Mulligan has “never been better”, citing a scene featuring the pair’s fight as one of the film’s highlights.

Pete Hammond wrote this in a review for Deadline Maestro “is the work of a very confident director who brings a strong vision to the screen.”

Watch Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan in Moving Trailer for Leonard Bernstein Biopic ‘Maestro’

Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein (director/writer) in The Maestro.

Jason McDonald/Netflix

“The music and how it’s used is the star itself, which is definitely a reason to see this movie in a theater with state-of-the-art sound systems, even if it ends up streaming on Netflix,” Hammond wrote, adding that Cooper’s “transformation something to see in this musical giant”.

Diversity film critic Owen Gleiberman said that some of the controversy surrounding Cooper’s use of a prosthetic nose to portray Bernstein “was completely out of place”, praising the film for not necessarily dealing only with Bernstein’s most famous career achievements.

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“We expect the film to ‘explain’ their relationship,” wrote a critic about how Maestro brings Cooper’s and Mulligan’s characters closer. “Cooper does something more daring: he presents it, from every angle, in all its mystery, as a romantic partnership as unique as any other.”

Total movie critic Jane Crowther compared the film to last year’s TARin which Cate Blanchett played a fictional composer who studied under Bernstein.

“This year, she can—literally and figuratively—pass the baton to Bradley Cooper, who disappears in his performance as Leonard Bernstein,” wrote Crowther, adding that Cooper and Mulligan “are organically compelling as a partnership, dancing around each other linguistically in a way that is exciting to watch.”

Leonard Bernstein’s children defend Bradley Cooper amid prosthetic nose controversy: He has ‘deep respect’

Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre and Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein (director/writer) in The Maestro.

Jason McDonald/Netflix

Writing for RogerEbert.com, critic Glenn Kenny praised Mulligan’s performance and said Maestro “simply ignored so much of Bernstein’s relationship to the music” and his most prominent collaborations with fellow 20th-century artists Stephen Sondheim and Elia Kazan, among other examples.”Here, Carey Mulligan, playing against director Cooper’s Bernstein, pretty much plays his screen rival, as a fellow said,” Kenny wrote. “Cooper works best on his level, God knows, but he never gets into the role.”Maestro is in select theaters in November, then on Netflix on December 20.

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Source: HIS Education