Bradley Cooper directs, co-writes, co-produces, and stars in “Maestro”, Netflix’s new biopic based on the life of American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein. While the musical artistry of the incredibly talented Bernstein is on display, the movie’s central focus is on his complex and layered marriage to Costa Rican-Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre Bernstein, played with scene-stealing vitality by Carey Mulligan.

Along with Cooper, “Maestro” features a list of producers that includes Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, both of who at different times were considered to direct. But after screening Cooper’s 2018 highly acclaimed box office hit “A Star is Born”, Spielberg handed the actor the reins. As a result, Cooper has made an arresting biography-esque movie that avoids many biopic traps. But in doing so it skimps on some helpful details.

First off “Maestro” works under the assumption that its audience already knows the professional/artistic merit of Leonard Bernstein. In one sense it’s a plus as we’re spared from getting yet another ‘cradle to the grave’ story. But for those lacking at least a working knowledge of Bernstein’s acclaim, it may be difficult latching onto “Maestro”. It’s a creative choice that’s both a strength and a liability depending on how much you know going in.

But I don’t want to shortchange what Cooper has accomplished. He captivates, both through his acting and in the director’s chair, showing off an extraordinary command of the camera (along with DP Matthew Libatique) and delivering a performance that should garner all kinds of awards season attention. Cooper’s intense commitment propels the movie in a number of ways. But it’s Mulligan who is the film’s true heart and soul.

The movie’s full-color opening takes us to the Bernstein’s Connecticut home where Leonard (more affectionately called Lenny) is giving a television interview. He plays a few aching chords on his piano while lamenting how desperately he misses his late wife Felicia. After a quick shift to striking black-and-white, Cooper transports us back in time to November 14, 1943. On that faithful day a 25-year-old Leonard Bernstein, the assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, gets the call to fill in for the orchestra’s ailing lead conductor. The rest is music history.

“Maestro” glazes over Leonard Bernstein the artist, alluding to his renown more than exploring it. People from his professional life routinely pop up with practically no explanation of who they are or what they do. They become nothing more than poorly sketched familiar faces. But Cooper doesn’t completely shelf Bernstein’s gifted artistry. He gives us a handful of revealing scenes, none better than his show-stopping recreation of Bernstein’s conduction of Mahler’s “Resurrection” inside Ely Cathedral. It’s an electric scene with currents of creative energy emanating from Cooper’s every pore.

But those scenes are few. Instead Cooper sets out to show us the Leonard Bernstein beyond the spotlight. The Lenny we see is a man of endless contradictions. His concern for his legacy is only outdone by his intense fear of being alone. And his obvious genius is only matched by his equally evident hedonism. His behind the scenes life was marked by social posturing, affairs with both men and women, and a number of poorly veiled insecurities. Yet Lenny maintained an indomitable spirit and a domineering passion that often clashed with the times he lived in while feeding a nearly insatiable love of self.

But a stabilizing force comes in the person of actress Felicia Montealegre played with such empathy and resolve by Mulligan. Felicia and Lenny meet in 1946 and there was an instant connection. Driven by their deep yet contradictory love, the two marry and eventually have three children. But over time the long-suffering Felicia finds herself lost in the shadow of her famous husband. Yet she remained devoted despite his overwhelming creative impulses and frequent dalliances with other men. And his dependence on her is such that she becomes the proverbial “woman behind the man”.

Cooper and Singer’s script moves “Maestro” from a love story to a domestic drama and eventually to a full-blown tearjerker. Along the way we’re treated to an assortment of directorial flourishes. Early on Cooper uses black and white and an academy ratio, shooting his scenes in a sumptuous Old Hollywood hue. Later scenes burst with a vibrant Technicolor glow. And it’s all surrounded by an appealing collection of Bernstein’s original music.

There’s so much to appreciate about Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” yet there remains that one nagging issue. Cooper’s striking portrayal gives us a compelling sketch of Leonard Bernstein. But his artistic achievements are an afterthought. So much so that it feels like a huge chunk of the man is missing. And if you don’t understand his significance going into it, “Maestro” may leave you a little cold. Yet there is still plenty to love in Cooper’s direction, the performances, and the top-notch makeup and costumes. It may not be the most complete portrayal. But it’s a solid enough introduction to a man as layered as his musical compositions.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

I really didn’t know what to expect heading into “May December”, the new film from Todd Haynes that’s ever so loosely based on the headline-making Mary Kay Letourneau scandal. For those unfamiliar, in 1997 the 34-year-old Letourneau was arrested and convicted on two counts of felony second-degree child rape for having sexual relations with her 12-year-old student, Vili Fualaau. While serving her seven and a half year sentence, Letourneau gave birth to two daughters with Fualaau. Once released she and Fualaau married.

So what would a filmmaker like Haynes do with such a lurid and queasy story of sexual abuse? Did he need to choose this very specific material, which will undoubtedly hit painfully close to home for many, just so he can examine ideas such as identity, perception, and mass media culture? It’s a question I feel unfit to answer. But let me say there’s more to his movie than any surface-level reading might reveal. And it’s the genius inclusion of one crucial character (played by a sublime Natalie Portman) that allows Haynes the opportunity to examine and critique his film’s troubling central relationship among a handful other things.

In screenwriter Samy Burch’s story the offense is the same but a few details have changed. Gracie (Julianne Moore) had a sexual affair with a 7th grade boy named Joe (played as an adult by Charles Melton). She was 36 and he was 13. Their shockingly salacious story dominated the news outlets and tabloids. Now some twenty-plus years later, it has mostly faded from the public consciousness. Since then the couple and their three children, one already in college and two on the way, have lived deceptively normal lives in the comfort of their cozy Savannah estate.

But their story is about to be revived thanks to an upcoming independent film based on the scandal. Elizabeth Berry (Portman), a well known television actress with Juilliard credentials, is set to play Gracie and has been invited to the couple’s home to help prepare for her role. Gracie and Joe hope their input can help shape how they’re portrayed in the movie. Elizabeth’s motives are somewhat murkier despite her thoughtful and empathetic veneer.

Elizabeth arrives as Gracie and Joe are hosting a neighborhood garden party. It’s all smiles and laughter with the lone exception being a package of feces left at their front door (Joe is quick to point out that such demonstrations of disgust don’t happen as often as they once did). Almost immediately, with pencil and notepad firmly in hand, Elizabeth begins observing and absorbing every detail of Gracie’s life.

At first Gracie and Elizabeth have a mutually respectful rapport. But the more Elizabeth digs the more cracks she finds in Gracie’s domestic facade. She begins interviewing those close to Gracie (or once close) including her ex-husband (D.W. Moffett) and her estranged son from her first marriage (Cory Michael Smith). It’s all meant to help Elizabeth slither deeper into Gracie’s skin. After all, it’s all about enhancing her performance, right?

As for Gracie, the sanctioned intrusion into their lives proves to be more trying than she anticipated. She puts on a good show, inviting Elizabeth to dinner, sharing old memories (of her choosing), even showing how she fixes her hair and applies her makeup. But alongside Elizabeth, we pick up on subtle clues that tell a different story. Clues like Gracie’s poorly concealed insecurities; her bursting into tears over the smallest things; her passive-aggressiveness mothering of her husband whose demeanor and body language hints at a wounded child buried inside a 36-year-old man’s body.

In reality both women are performing. The reasons behind Gracie’s act are obvious. But it’s Elizabeth who is the most beguiling, especially once Haynes slyly turns his critical eye towards her. Elizabeth is building her own character, partly from the information she has gathered but also from her own obsessive compulsion. She turns into a destabilizing force but also a sexual deviant. We see the latter in the way she relishes the lustful gaze of a teenage boy, in the suggestive way she describes shooting sex scenes to a high school drama class, and most of all in her subtle self-satisfying come-ons to a confused and vulnerable Joe.

I could go on and on about this fascinating feature that’s destined to be divisive yet certain to be analyzed for years. It’s a film that plays in moral gray areas while a pitch-black cloud perpetually looms above it. It’s discomforting but with unexpected dashes of wry humor that are often accompanied by the delightfully intrusion piano chords of Michel Legrand’s theme from “The Go-Between”. There are a few on-the-nose metaphors and some puzzling omissions. For example, is there even a mention of Gracie’s years in prison? Still, there’s so much to mine out of this crafty and complex Todd Haynes concoction. “May December” releases November 17th in theaters and on Netflix.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

I think by now even the most hardcore fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe would have to admit that the once dominating phenomenon has lost some steam. For many people MCU movies once felt like events and audiences couldn’t wait for the next chapter to hit the big screen. But over-saturation, bad choices, and even worse ambitions has led to an uninteresting, unfocused, and overstuffed mess that hasn’t felt on track since “Avengers: Endgame”.

But that hasn’t stopped Disney’s Marvel machine. Yet another shining example of the MCU’s current state is “The Marvels”, a $275 million cosmic girl-power adventure directed by relative newcomer Nia DaCosta. This is only DaCosta’s third feature with her most prominent prior work being 2021’s underwhelming “Candyman” sequel. Obviously there’s risk in investing that much money in inexperience and we should know this weekend if their gamble paid off. But money talk aside, it’s the movie that we should be looking at and sadly it’s not very good.

The trailers for “The Marvels” weren’t that encouraging and watching a slew of lackluster Disney+ streaming shows just to keep up has long lost its appeal. Yet that’s what the movie demands and even then I’m not sure that what we get makes much sense. And that’s just one of several nagging frustrations that make “The Marvels” as bland, clunky and uneven as most of the other post-Endgame material that has came and went before it.

Written by DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, and Elissa Karasik, “The Marvels” is a scattershot mess of a movie. It’s hampered by a jumbled narrative, uninspired CGI, and yet another wafer-thin villain. The movie is tonally schizophrenic and is constantly straining for laughs or applause. But worst of all, it does nothing to build excitement for the current state of the MCU nor does it build much anticipation for things to come (despite a pretty cool mid-credits scene that’s meant to do just that).

“The Marvels” leans heaviest on the so-so chemistry of its three central characters, Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani). Together the three have a handful of good moments and the actresses certainly give it their all. But because of the numbingly bad writing, they aren’t the most compelling trio. Carol has been established as a powerful MCU superhero. But here she spends much of the time bemused and even aimless. There’s not much to say about Monica as most of her MCU development has happened offscreen. And call me a bad guy, but a little of the starry-eyed Kamala Kahn goes a long way.

As for the story, there’s not much to latch onto. Basically Carol, Monica, and Kamala are brought together after their exposure to a potent energy causes them to switch places whenever they use their powers (or at least sometimes when they use their powers). Meanwhile the film’s horribly underwritten villain, Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) Is running around ripping holes in space and stealing resources from planets that Carol holds dear. We learn there’s some bad blood between them and Dar-Benn (of course) wants revenge.

About the closest we get to a human heartbeat involves some sad history between Carol and Monica. But it’s barely an emotional blip in a movie that is essentially a handful of action scenes stitched together by bad characterizations, poor attempts at comedy (most from Samuel L. Jackson’s returning but wasted Nick Fury), and dull exposition full of cosmic mumbo-jumbo about quantum bands, a “Universal Weapon”, ruptures in space-time, etc. etc. etc. Oh, and there’s a weird planet where people only speak in song – a true low point in the movie and for what passes as creativity within the current MCU.

Not to pile on, but there also several baffling oversights such as head-scratching time lapses, Kamala’s vanishing outfit (I’ll let you discover that one), and perhaps craziest of all, the unintentionally hilarious ending that basically renders everything before it unnecessary. It leaves you wondering how such a big-budget project was allowed to release in such a state.

The movie wastes no time trying to divert our attention away from “The Marvels” and point us forward with an eye-rolling final scene that may excite die-hards and a mid-credits scene that teases some potentially cool things IF you still have faith that Kevin Feige and the MCU can deliver. Admittedly my faith had already waned and “The Marvels” only reassured my disillusion. But for others, if you can set your expectations low enough you might find some disposable entertainment in “The Marvels”. But that in itself is sad. Especially for those of us who once anxiously counted the days to every new MCU release. Those days seem so long ago. “The Marvels” open in theaters today.

VERDICT – 1.5 STARS

Daisy Ridley gets a meaty non-Star Wars role in “The Marsh King’s Daughter”, the new film from director Neil Burger. His latest is based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Karen Dionne that tells the story of a young woman haunted by unthinkable events from her childhood. It’s a good character for Ridley who gets some solid material to work with. At least until the last act which is where the story slips off track and squanders some otherwise exciting potential.

The movie begins with a beguiling prologue set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There, deep in the wilderness near a long winding marsh, a 10-year-old girl named Helena (played by Brooklynn Prince) lives off the grid with her quietly reserved mother Beth (Caren Pistorius) and her backwoodsman father Jacob (Ben Mendelsohn). Helena is a daddy’s girl and is constantly by his side as he teaches her how to live off the land. But her understanding of a normal life is shattered by the discovery that her dad is a psychopath (something you might have guessed by just by seeing Mendelsohn’s named attached).

We learn that Jacob abducted Beth twelve years earlier and has held her captive since. The two had Helena who Beth has tried to protect. I won’t spoil how it plays out, but Beth manages to escape with a confused Helena and a pursuing Jacob is arrested. Altogether it’s a well-shot, well-written, and well-executed opening that sets the movie on an intriguing trajectory.

From there the story (penned by Elle and Mark L. Smith) jumps ahead twenty years. Helena (now played by Ridley) is married to the well-meaning but in-the-dark Stephen (Garrett Hedlund) and she has a daughter of her own named Marigold (Joey Carson). She’s kept her true identity hidden from everyone except her step-father Sheriff Clark (Gil Birmingham). But when Jacob (since dubbed “The Marsh King”) manages to escape during a prisoner transfer, her deep dark secret is forced into the light.

From there the movie had the opportunity to go in several different directions. It could have dug into the relationship with her now estranged mother. It could have went deeper into the effects of attempting to bury such intense trauma especially on her marriage. It could have added depth to her thinly sketched relationship with her father-in-law. It could have defied expectations and done something more psychological and suspenseful.

But rather than keeping us guessing or catching us by surprise, the movie goes the more conventional route, leading to an ending that’s as far-fetched as it is predictable. It ends up being a letdown considering the many more interesting avenues it could have traveled. Meanwhile a really good Daisy Ridley performance gets lost in a movie that may have a hard time finding an audience. Why? Because “The Marsh King’s Daughter” doesn’t stand out. It could have, but the unfortunate decision to play it safe holds it back. “The Marsh King’s Daughter” is in theaters now.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS

I tend to like it when a movie knows exactly what it is. That certainly seemed to be the case for “Meg 2: The Trench”, a delightfully goofy looking sequel to 2018’s delightfully goofy “The Meg”. While based on author Steve Alten’s series of deep sea horror novels, the first film embraced the classic creature-feature formula while maintaining a self-awareness that made the unashamedly silly adventure a lot of fun. The sequel…not so much.

“Meg 2” is directed by Ben Wheatley whose last film (2021’s terrific “In the Earth”) was a creepy and unsettling low-budget indie. In a rather sharp contrast, “Meg 2” comes with a considerably larger budget and a big studio backing. But here’s the thing – “Meg 2” is a movie that didn’t have to do much to win me over. All I wanted was the proudly preposterous romp from the gonzo trailers and the equally amusing posters. In a nutshell, I just wanted what they advertised.

Unfortunately “Meg 2” turns out to be a baffling misfire. It’s a movie that seems to have the biggest and easiest target to hit, yet it misses it on every side and from every angle. The vast majority of its issues comes from the screenplay – quite easily one of the worst of the year so far. Not only is the story itself littered with inexplicably bad choices, but characters are handcuffed to some of the most excruciating dialogue you’ll hear.

I truly wish that I was just spouting hyperbole. But the screenwriting trio of Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris never seem to have a firm grasp of what kind of movie they’re making. For example, it gets off to an incredibly slow start with some lengthy table-setting that wouldn’t be so bad if it were building up to something good. Instead it launches the movie into a direction completely unfitting for something called “Meg 2”. Basically the megs (and yes that’s plural) get back-burnered for over an hour, replaced by some potentially interesting ideas that I’m sure looked better on paper than they do on screen.

One of the big draws for me was Jason Statham returning as Jonas Taylor, a deep sea search and rescue diver who in the first film joined up with a team of oceanographers, engineers, and researchers to kill a prehistoric man-eating shark known as a megalodon (a meg for short). When we meet him here he’s described as an “eco-warrior” and a “green James Bond”. He leads an organization that does ocean research and exposes those who harm the ecosystem. Noble work for sure, despite the corny titles.

The ramshackled story begins in earnest after Jonas and his team set out in two submersibles for a research mission some 25,000 feet below the ocean’s surface in the Pacific’s Mariana Trench. While exploring an unmarked sector where megs are believed to live, the team discovers a mysterious underwater station ran by a rogue mining operation. Intent on keeping their nefarious environmentally unfriendly activities secret, the ridiculously shallow corporate money-grubbers order their paper-thin henchman (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) to take out Jonas and his expedition.

What follows is a lengthy sequence where Jonas and his crew attempt to breach the station and find their way back to the surface, all while megs swim around in the background, only occasionally getting the chance to pose a threat. There’s actually a cool idea for an underwater thriller somewhere in this overly long stretch. But it’s hard to find among the countless clichés and (again) that glaringly bad dialogue which saturates the entire film.

The movie plods along before finally reaching Fun Island, a sun-soaked tropical getaway for the rich and privileged that provides ample human fodder for our much neglected computer-generated behemoths to (finally) feed on. And by that time I was rooting for the megs. With the exception of Statham’s Jonas and maybe his painfully bland yet reasonably charming 14-year-old daughter Meiying (Shuya Sophia Cai), the human characters aren’t easy to get behind.

I hate it for the cast – the woefully misused Cliff Curtis, an astonishingly bad Page Kennedy, a cringe-inducing Wu Jing, just to name a few. These are real talents and it’s hard to put the blame on them. In reality Daniel Day-Lewis, Denzel Washington, and Meryl Streep couldn’t do anything with this material. And no cast member is able to escape without uttering at least a few mind-numbing lines.

Like I said, I like it when a movie knows exactly what it is. I wish “Meg 2” was that kind of movie. Instead it ends up being a surprisingly bizarre botch that doesn’t work as a thriller, a comedy, horror, an action flick, a creature feature, or even late-night B-movie schlock. It just exists in this almost undefinable state of confusion. I’m still not sure it knows what it wants to be. But it certainly missed out on what it could have been. “Meg 2: The Trench” is in theaters now.

VERDICT – 1.5 STARS

For me the Mission: Impossible movies have become the epitome of Hollywood blockbusters done right. Tom Cruise has taken the series from its early days of experimenting with different directors and their different styles to its more cohesive current state as a consistently jaw-dropping action franchise that has thrived under the winning watchful eye of writer-director Christopher McQuarrie.

As most know, the Mission: Impossible films are famous for steadily upping the ante in terms of mind-blowing action set pieces that repeatedly push the boundaries of practical effects and stunt work. And of course leading that charge is Tom Cruise himself whose passion for giving audiences truly memorable big screen experiences has led to him constantly one-upping himself in terms of wild death-defying stunts.

The seventh installment in the franchise is finally here and it once again delivers exactly the kind of big-budget cinematic thrills that I’ve come to expect. “Dead Reckoning Part One” is the first of an epic two-parter with its direct sequel set to release June 28, 2024. McQuarrie returns to helm the massive project and the cast is overflowing with fan favorite characters and some really intriguing new ones. But once again it’s Cruise who is the linchpin both on screen and off.

Cruise reprises his role as IMF agent Ethan Hunt who this time finds himself on an unsanctioned mission to hunt down a sentient A.I. called the Entity (how timely) that has gone rogue. Different governments around the world want to harness and weaponize the Entity, but Ethan believes it to be too dangerous to control and sets out to destroy it. That puts him odds with the world’s intelligence agencies including his own.

The hunt begins with the search for a key that’s said to unlock the ability to control the Entity. The key is broken into two pieces, one believed to be in the possession of Ilsa Faust (the superb Rebecca Ferguson), an ex-MI6 agent and close ally to Ethan. IMF director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny making his first appearance since the 1996 original film) has put a bounty on Ilsa’s head yet tips off Ethan to her whereabouts.

The other part of the key is tracked to Abu Dhabi International Airport where Ethan is joined by his loyal friends and team members Benji (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rhames). But they aren’t the only ones trying to retrieve it. A mysterious face from Ethan’s past named Gabriel (Esai Morales) is working for the Entity and is determined to get to the key first. Meanwhile an intelligence collective called The Community has sent a force led by Jasper Briggs (Shea Whigham) to secure Ethan dead or alive.

The wild card in the story is also the film’s best new addition. Hayley Atwell plays Grace, a smart and resourceful professional thief with (as Atwell herself described them) rather ambiguous loyalties. She snatches the key in the airport but soon finds herself in way over her head. Atwell has an infectious charm and her chemistry with Cruise fuels some of the movie’s best scenes.

As the story unfolds McQuarrie and company take us all around the world, making stops in Amsterdam, the Bering Sea, the Arabian Desert, Washington DC, Abu Dahbi, Rome, Venice, and the Austrian Alps. They’re all beautifully shot by DP Fraser Taggart. McQuarrie utilizes the numerous locations incredibly well resulting in a number of strikingly unique yet equally thrilling action scenes that pop off the screen.

The story itself is compelling yet clearly building towards a proper conclusion which we should get in Part Two. Still it’s energized by the committed and often nuanced performances from a truly spot-on cast. Cruise, Ferguson, Rhames, and Pegg have a well-established chemistry which once again forms the centerpiece of the story. I’ve mentioned how great Atwell is. The same can be said for Morales who makes for a formidable antagonist who remains somewhat of a mystery even after the credits roll. Vanessa Kirby returns as the always fascinating White Widow while Pom Klementieff adds a cool maniacal twist.

It doesn’t have many, but there are a few shortcomings. For example, Ethan and Gabriel’s past certainly has a role to play in the film. Yet it doesn’t get the attention it needs to feel meaningful. Also as an unapologetic fan of Ferguson’s Ilsa, I really wish she had been given more to do. There’s a lengthy stretch in the first half where she’s nowhere to be found and then just pops up with no explanation. Same with Rhames in the third act.

But let’s be real, those are minor quibbles especially for a movie that delivers the kind of exhilarating entertainment we get from “Dead Reckoning Part One”. Cruise and McQuarrie have once again collaborated to make a poster boy summer blockbuster that lovingly embraces what makes the big screen experience so uniquely special. It’s kinetically paced and action driven, yet anchored by great characters and with more than a few laughs to break up the tension. Altogether it makes for a wonderful first part to what could be a truly unforgettable mission. “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” is in theaters now.

VERDICT – 4.5 STARS