I loved this. I’ve really soured on biopics in the last few years so I had pretty low expectations going in. I love how stylized it was and the shift from black and white to color. Carey Mulligan was incredible, especially in the later years. At this point, I don’t think there’s much that Bradley Cooper couldn’t figure out how to physically embody. He looked like he’d spent his entire life conducting, I was impressed. I’m really appalled and confused by accusations that this downplays his sexuality. It’s the central conflict of the marriage, which is the entire movie. I think a lot of people are erasing the possibility of Bernstein being bisexual/queer/etc and being attracted to men while also genuinely loving his wife. I haven’t read much about Bernstein’s life to know if there’s tangible evidence for any of that, but to me the movie paints a clear picture of a queer polyamorous man who couldn’t exist freely because of professional expectations as well as the time he was born.
People are saying this downplayed his sexuality?? It showed us way more of that than the actual music, imo
Agreed. I think it’s a lot of biphobia and unwillingness to accept that he might not have exclusively liked men
Yeah, I came out of it with the idea that he was pansexual, especially because several times he says he loves “people.” I will say I laughed out loud when he told the baby that he’d slept with both its parents.
it's the central "conflict" of the movie and it also shows that he has a clear preference towards men if not for the one single person that was the "love of his life"/his muse
My dad just saw this as a rabid fan of Leonard Bernstein back in the day and was blown away by Bradley Cooper's likeness in speech and physicality. I was too. It's the epitome of dumb that people are dunking on an incredible performance for being too Oscar baity or try hard. What else is he supposed to do as an actor? If this was his first performance and no one knew his name I guarantee you Bradley Cooper would be getting universal praise.