Maestro (2023) review

America's "first great conductor" Leonard Bernstein (Cooper) gets his "big break" and is asked to lead the New York Philharmonic, he meets and courts Costa Rican actress Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), they wed and have three children, he becomes super famous and his drug use and open relationships with men cause problems with their marriage, but when Felicia is diagnosed with lung cancer he takes care of her.  Although it's clearly a labor of love for writer-director-star Cooper, who allegedly spent years practicing to "convincingly" imitate Bernstein's technique, it unfortunately comes across as slightly smug Oscar Bait that dabbles lightly in a Freudian examination of its subject: his constant chain-smoking represents his oral fixation and he and his spouse have opposing views of their fathers (she reminisces about her dad's "intoxicating smell" while he admits to harboring fantasies of patricide).  Like this year's American Symphony (which is on Netflix), it doesn't quite probe the Master's artistic methods all that thoroughly, but he was invaluable as an instructor - you can look up clips on YouTube - and anyone with that much talent who was eager to guide the youth in a productive manner needs to be applauded.  As for Bernstein's sexuality, it reminds me of what Ingrid Caven said about Rainer Werner Fassbinder: he "was a homosexual who also needed a woman. It's that simple and that complex."  And to those whining about the prosthetic nose: if his kids are cool with it, you should be quiet.