In an age where every actor thinks they can be a director, Bradley Cooper is a rare one who has some talent for it. He has got things to say about being an artist and being alive. He has visual and formal ambition. He is – in fact – an artist. He’s not a great director, but he does not need to be. He instead is a director who makes films that are worth watching.
3. Maestro [2023] 
When you are about to take a five hour bus ride with no wifi and you have a mild case of Montezuma’s revenge, simply the only thing to do is to finally watch Bradley Cooper’s second feature – Maestro. It is easy to see that after now writing and directing two films that Cooper is drawn to Great Artists and what do their lives say about making art and being alive.
Cooped create a fictitious rock star for his first film but then for his second he used the actual life story of Leonard Bernstein. In both films, Cooper is examining elements of his own life and career through the lives of others. It seems only fitting then that in the grand tradition of Hollywood, Cooper was able to be far more successful indirectly doing this with a made up character than an actual real human being.
It’s not hard to see what has drawn Cooper to Bernstein, and it was nice to see that Cooper did not settle for a traditional biopic. This is an ambitious film. It may not be abstract or complicated, but neither does the film hold the audience’s hand. Cooper’s visual choices may not challenge viewers, but he does attempt to keep the frame interesting and varied and never settle into something comfortable. From the set design to the costumes and makeup, it is always clear that the work was done to make this film all that it could be.
Perhaps then that’s why that for all the film’s shortcomings, Maestro never feels boring exactly. It is an exercise in Oscar bait that desperately wants to seem anything but. If Cooper managed to find interesting things to say with A Star is Born, he failed to do so here. But in the big picture arc of Cooper’s career, Maestro will undoubtedly seem notable. Was it just a misfire? Or a sign of trouble ahead?
2. Is This Thing On? [2025]
So, what is the deal with generation x? What is their deal? How did a generation where a critical mass (of white people at least) grew up in financially stable conditions but turned out so broken and weird? Why are they so sad and unhappy? Why are they making their parents’ same mistakes but in brand new ways? These are the questions I found myself asking while watching Cooper’s third film; his most “aim small; miss small” film to date. This film does not have any real answers to those questions, and I am not even sure if these questions were on the minds of the artists making it. But the film undeniably captures something about middle-aged gen-xers. Financially stable. And fucking miserable. Don’t you know how lucky you are? Don’t you know how much worse it was for everyone who came before and after you?
1. A Star is Born [2018]
So much could be said about this film. It’s not nearly as fun to write about as MAESTRO for a simple reason: it’s good and less revealing about Bradley Cooper the artist. That being said. Bradley Cooper managing to make a giant hit out of this film was truly remarkable. I also appreciate the main tension of the film. The film is not about Bradley Cooper’s character being jealous of Lady Gaga’s success but the knowledge that comes from experience that if you’re not careful as an artist, the machine will try to take any inkling of financial success as a reason to corrupt the art you are trying to make. This film becomes even more interesting when Cooper the director succumbs to another version of this corruption with Maestro. I will watch any film that Bradley Cooper directs.
The Reel World 