Maestro's First Trailer Sings With Promise For Bradley Cooper's Directing Career

Recently, musician biopics have been all the rage, with everyone from NWA to Mötley Crüe to Elvis receiving the movie treatment. In Bradley Cooper's "Maestro," the film explores the theme a little further by looking into the lives of legendary composer Leonard Bernstein (Cooper) and his wife, Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan). Apart from its subject matter, the movie is notable because it's the first film Cooper has directed and co-written since his 2018 smash hit with Lady Gaga, "A Star Is Born." 

Cooper is unrecognizable as Bernstein, courtesy of intricate makeup and facial prosthetics created by Kazu Hiro — an esteemed makeup artist whose résumé includes two Academy Award wins for 2017's Gary Oldman-starring Winston Churchill war drama "Darkest Hour" and 2019's "Bombshell." The makeup includes a prosthetic nose, which drew criticism when the movie's teaser trailer arrived, though Bernstein's family has expressed support for Cooper (via Associated Press). Now, a new trailer for "Maestro" has offered more insight into the movie's moving core.

If there's one thing the official trailer for "Maestro" makes clear to the uninitiated, it's that Bernstein and Montealegre were both impossibly cool people. The pair's connection is intense throughout the footage — making it clear that Cooper and Mulligan brought incredible chemistry onto the screen. Watching it, it's hard not to envy the couple's "orbit," even if it teases tension and pressures head for the musical pair.

From the black-and-white scenes that depict the pair's early days to the sepia-tinted glimpses of them after Bernstein's rise to fame as a conductor, the scenes feel like a home movie mixed with a documentary of sorts. As this is a biopic, they of course are meant to feel this way and credit goes to Cooper for, so far, pulling off this ambitious endeavour. Based on what we've seen so far, it seems like this film will follow in the emotional terrain, loving attention to detail, and melancholy of "A Star Is Born."

Maestro premieres in select theaters on November 22 and arrives on Netflix on December 20.