"Maestro"

Now this is an Oscar film.  Every scene, every moment, is crafted and beautiful and powerful.  I literally couldn't tear my eyes away from it.  But to backtrack -- I love Bradley Cooper.  For years I have recognized in Cooper's work something that the film community seems to be just coming to realize.  Bradley Cooper is a hyphenate genius who brings a lot, a LOT, to every project he works on.  "A Star is Born" was brilliant.  This film is even more so.  Forget the Leonard Bernstein that many of us knew from the Young People's Concerts.  This is the other Bernstein.  The one that almost none of us knew about at the time.  It is a love story but a complicated, layered one.  It is emotional and sad.  The tale is presented with gentle grace and in top-tier cast.  And, of course, there is music.  Cooper realized that Leonard Bernstein was, in many ways, an embodiment of music.  His soul was fused to it.  And so the film doesn't have a "background score" -- it has music as another character in the film.  It is loud.  It enhances but it also interrupts.  It makes a point.  And this is also an actors' film.  Cameras linger tightly on faces.  Actors take pauses -- really long pauses.  They look into the lens and think.  The camera stays on a figure from a distance, while they walk away.  Every shot is framed, every shot is a work of art.  It's brilliant.  Haven't watched the other big nominees yet, but I'm confident in saying that this one is a serious contender.  It's simply one of the best films I've seen in a long time.