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It's been quite a career trajectory for Bradley Cooper.
From blagging his way onto a screen debut opposite Sarah Jessica Parker on an episode of 'Sex and the City' to landing Oscar nominations for acting, screenwriting and as a producer, he has emerged as a powerful player in Hollywood.
Watching his latest Netflix flick 'Maestro' only confirms how far he has travelled from his breakthrough role in 'The Hangover' films.
The Pennsylvanian continues to push himself as an actor and director, wholeheartedly throwing himself into his latest venture - a Leonard Bernstein biopic.
© Netflix & Amblin Entertainment Cooper's direction of 'Maestro' is at times dazzling, ambitious and joyous, mostly delivering the goods even if the picture isn't completely flawless.
Cooper's lead performance is not surprisingly charismatic and stirring.
As a result, the film is being touted as a major awards contender - as evidenced by the four Golden Globe nominations it has just reveived in some major categories.
'Maestro' is essentially the story of Leonard Bernstein, the celebrated conductor and composer who famously wrote the music for 'West Side Story'.
© Netflix & Amblin Entertainment Bernstein's musical recently got the Steven Spielberg treatment and interestingly the two time Oscar winner gets a production credit on Cooper's film, as does Martin Scorsese.
Both directors' influence on Cooper and the movie is plain to see.
The film begins with a flashback.
70 year old Bernstein is shown playing the piano for a documentary crew while reflecting on his life, before the film suddenly launches into a Scorsese style sweep in black and white from an apartment bedroom into the main auditorium of New York's Carnegie Hall when the conductor was just 25.
© Netflix & Amblin Entertainment Mixing black and white with colour, cinematographer Matthew Libatique's use of the former recalls 'Schindler's List'.
It is reminiscent too of Pawel Pawlikowsi's stunning tale of lovestruck Polish musicians, 'Cold War' and Scorsese's 'Raging Bull'.
At the heart of 'Maestro,' though, is a screenplay penned by Cooper and Josh Singer about the rise of an American musical icon and the tensions in his personal life.
The movie begins with Bernstein, played by Cooper, being catapulted into conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra after the principal conductor, Bruno Walter falls ill.
© Netflix & Amblin Entertainment Leaping out of the bed he is sharing with Matt Bomber's clarinettist David Oppenheim, he hastily makes his way to the stage - nervous about the lack of preparation for a concert being broadcast on radio.
When the performance concludes, Bernstein and his orchestra receive rapturous applause and a classical star is born.
A friend of Brian Klugman's composer Aaron Copland, he goes on to write the score for Elia Kazan's 'On The Waterfront' and the musicals 'On The Town' and 'Candide'.
A huge personality, the film shows Leonard attending a party thrown by his sister, Sarah Silverman's Shirley Bernstein and playing piano for Broadway actors.
© Netflix & Amblin Entertainment There he meets Carey Mulligan's Costa Rican Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn who is in the infancy of her own Broadway career.
They immediately hit it off and soon start to date.
Their respective careers take off but it isn't long before the couple marry and start a family, with Felicia sacrificing her career to allow Leonard's to blossom further.
Career aspirations aren't the only thing that Felicia sacrifices.
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Fidelity is another.
Leonard conducts affairs with men during the course of their marriage, even when he is well into middle age.
While Felicia is alive to what is going on, when rumours start to surface about his bisexuality the marriage is put under strain.
Far from being a prurient examination, though, of the private life of a public figure, 'Maestro' is a celebration of his enormous talent.
© Netflix & Amblin Entertainment The film is a fascinating study of the tensions at play in the life of a celebrated artist - the sacrifices and the compromises made by families, the tensions, the disappointments, the joy.
For it to work, it needs two strong anchor performances and there's nothing to worry about on that score.
Cooper and Mulligan are magnificent - bouncing off each others' energy and often sharing the screen rather sweetly.
Cooper's Bernstein is a tempest of creativity and emotion.
© Netflix & Amblin Entertainment Never dull, gregarious and often selfish, for all his flaws you still don't doubt he loves his family even if he puts them through torment.
Mulligan's Felicia is a pragmatic woman but she's no pushover either.
While she makes big sacrifices for the sake of her family, she doesn't completely kowtow to her husband's whims.
And when they face a big test of adversity, you never doubt the strength of the bond between them - even if their relationship is far from conventional.
© Netflix & Amblin Entertainment Sam Nivola, Alexa Swinton and Maya Hawke play the Bernsteins' children - Alexander, Nina and Jamie.
However it is Hawke who grabs the attention as a daughter who worries a lot about her parents, trusts them and adores them.
Bomer impresses too as David Oppenheim - a scene where he and his family meet Leonard near Central Park crackles with sadness and longing.
Silverman, Klugman, Michael Urie as Jerome Robbins and Gideon Glick and Jordan Dobson as the conductor's other lovers are effective in their supporting roles.
While the strength of the performances make a compelling argument to go see the film, 'Maestro' is also a triumph of style.
Cooper and his editor Michelle Tesoro breathtakingly marry Libatique's gorgeous imagery with a rich catalogue of music.
The summit of the film is undoubtedly reached during a sequence where Cooper's Bernstein conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Ely Cathedral with an epic performance of Gustav Mahler's 'Resurrection Symphony'.
This isn't the only memorable sequence that the film serves up.
© Netflix & Amblin Entertainment A row between Felicia and Leonard in a bedroom during the New York Thanksgiving parade hilariously concludes with the head of a giant inflatable Snoopy bobbing past their window.
A long walk by Felicia along thr balcony of a concert hall while Leonard is mobbed by fans jaw droppingly captures the gulf opening up between their characters.
The breaking of devastating family news is made all the more poignant by observing events from behind a window.
The film hasn't been without controversy, though.
© Netflix & Amblin Entertainment Cooper was hit with accusations of trying to create a "Jew face" around his donning of a prosthetic nose for the part.
(Sigh..)
Far from Jewish stereotyping, it's clear the actor-writer-director is attempting to look like Bernstein and it's a particularly effective attempt when you see him as the conductor-composer in his later years.
Bernstein didn't look like Cooper.
Cooper doesn't look like Bernstein, so how else is he going to come close to resembling him?
© Netflix & Amblin Entertainment All of this is a distraction, though, from what is a hell of an achievement by Cooper.
On their own, writing, directing or starring in a movie isn't easy.
Doing all three for a movie of this ambition and scale is remarkable.
Don't be surprised if the film finally lands Cooper an Oscar next year (nine attempts so far but no cigar).
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© Netflix & Amblin Entertainment Despite fierce competition, it could well come in the Best Actor category.
You wouldn't begrudge him it either - although Carey Mulligan arguably steals the film from under his prosthetic nose with a deft lead actress performance.
If there's a slight criticism of the film, it is that 'Maestro,' like a lot of movies this year, is probably just a bit too long.
The pacing isn't a massive problem and it could be trimmed by ten minutes.
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© Netflix & Amblin EntertainmentWhile this is a slight negative, there's no doubt 'Maestro' is still one of the best movies to hit the big screen this year.
A word of advice, though, if you intend to see it.
No matter how good your home entertainment system is, 'Maestro' really ought to be seen in a cinema before it lands on Netflix next week - if only to truly appreciate the majestic sound and scale that Cooper is working with.
It deserves to be seen in cinemas first - even if it is just for the bragging rights.
('Maestro' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on November 22, 2023 before being made available for streaming on Netflix on December 20, 2023)
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