Maestro

The opening of Bradley Cooper's film, Maestro, is a title card with a quote from Leonard Bernstein:  

“A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them; and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers.”

As I begin to write a review for each of the movies that I've seen over the past few weeks, I keep coming back to this quote, and it seems like a fitting criterion for determining whether a movie is worth watching.  

Maestro is definitely a film that elicits contradictory answers, as it is both an homage to a genius, and an unflinching depiction of an extremely self-centered man.  Bradley Cooper both directs, and stars in this film about the American composer and conductor, Leonard Bernstein.  On the surface, it would seem that Bernstein was an extremely passionate, and prolific artist; it is understandable that someone so obsessed with music would be disconnected from the people around him.  From this perspective, one might argue that Bernstein should be excused for his selfish behavior because of his great contributions to culture.  Cooper doesn't let Bernstein get off that easy, as it is clear that Bernstein understands that he is hurting the people that he claims to love, and consciously takes advantage of his position for his own gratification, at the expense of others.  While Cooper lets us see both the good and the bad side of Bernstein, he avoids the temptation to either excuse the behavior, or condemn Bernstein, rather he gives us the whole picture, then cuts to black...  Of course, that is an oversimplification of the film, as I believe that Cooper clearly has opinions regarding Bernstein, and Cooper most assuredly has strong feelings about finding the balance between being an artist and being a decent human being.  One of the questions that Bradley examines is, would it have been better for Bernstein to narrow his focus, and commit to being just a conductor, so that he could be great at one thing without loosing touch with his wife and family?  That Bradley is able to provoke this kind of question, while providing evidence to support different answers, meets Bernstein's definition of a 'work of art' from the opening quote.