Bradley Cooper follows up his Oscar-winning directorial debut A Star is Born with this biographical love story about the acclaimed composer. Maestro is a towering and fearless love story chronicling the lifelong relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein. A love letter to life and art, Maestro at its core is an emotionally epic portrayal of family and love.
Variety – “Cooper, in the second film he has directed (after “A Star Is Born”), places himself on a high wire and carries it off. In “Maestro,” he works with a pointillistic intimacy that invests every moment with fascination and surprise.” (full review here)
The Hollywood Reporter – “Amplifying its force with thrilling use of the subject’s music, this is a layered examination of a relationship that might be grossly over-simplified today as that of a closeted gay man and his “beard.” But Cooper and co-screenwriter Josh Singer dig deeper to depict a unique union, fraught with conflicts yet unbreakable — even when it’s broken.” (full review here)
The A.V Club – “Bradley Cooper’s Maestro is an inspired ode to the late, great Leonard Bernstein. It’s also a thorny deconstruction of the man-as-tortured-genius trope, replete with a compassionate focus on his put-upon wife and the bond the two shared for close to three decades. Ambitious in scope and featuring two powerhouse performances at its center” (full review here)
