As we approach the end of the year, that means one thing for movies: awards season! It’s that magical time when studios make big pushes for their films vying for Oscar glory and countless pundits try and predict what will be nominated and what will eventually take home the gold. But what exactly makes for an award-winning movie? What separates the Titanics of the world from the Giglis?
Enter “Oscar bait”—you know, those kinds of films that seem to dominate the Oscars year in and year out. The films about big issues, actors transforming via weight loss/gain or prosthetics, true stories, and of course, the almighty biopic. On the surface, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro is the very definition of Oscar bait: Cooper (who also co-wrote the film) stars as Leonard Bernstein, the legendary Jewish composer beloved in Hollywood. The story not only follows his illustrious career, but it also charts his marriage to Felicia Montealegre Cohn (Carey Mulligan). That’s a classic biopic storytelling combo.
But looks can be deceiving. Instead, Maestro (now in theaters; streaming Dec. 25 on Netflix) skirts typical genre conventions to get to the heart of who Bernstein was. Where the average, stuffy biopic renders its subjects practically celibate, Maestro fully leans into Bernstein’s hedonistic desires. There’s a lot to Cooper’s take on the famed artist, but what’s especially striking is that this Bernstein is incredibly horny.
