Maestro

One day, Bradley Cooper will make a truly great film. But for now, we’ll make do with the extreme highs and lows of his first two musically-rooted directorial efforts.

Far more ambitious than A Star is Born, his Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro presents a scatterbrained take on the iconic conductor/composer/educator. Camera swooshes in the early B&W section recall the energy of Baz Luhrmann, while enchanting sequences that impossibly blend into each other as Lenny (Cooper) romances Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan) feel more distinctly the filmmakers’ own.

Altman-esque overlapping dialogue and a handful of enthralling scenes suggest a director invested in creating something notable, and though Bernstein himself of course was successful in that department, Cooper’s script with Josh Singer focuses so much on the man that it barely interrogates his artistic side, creative process, or even his need to make music.

In turn, something on a soulful level is missing from Maestro — a gap instead filled by some of the year’s most cringe-worthy moments that should prompt R.E.M. and Tears for Fears to hand back their sync checks.

Grade: B. Rated R. Now playing at Grail Moviehouse and available to stream via Netflix.

(Photo: Jason McDonald/Netflix)