Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Want proof that we did indeed go through a post-2020vibe shift?
(Last weeksBarbiekerfuffleshould disabuse us of that notion.)
Thats right Im talking aboutMaestro.
Though Ive made it my job to follow these things, I confess I did not see theMaestrobacklash coming.
Its about how going into a relationship with your eyes fully open is still no defense against getting hurt.
To me, thats as valid a subject for a movie as any.
Sounds swell, my friends say, but absolutely none of that has been communicated to the general public.
And thanks to Netflixs characteristic largesse, the film has also become impossible to ignore.
Drive past a billboard, take the subway, browse the internet, and theres Cooper, baton blazing.
Few of those who have seen the film have rallied to its defense.
InThe New Yorker, Richard Brody said that the film leaves out the good stuff.
And Coopers allusive direction has bugged even those less invested in the tale.
Above all, the thing that seems to be bugging people aboutMaestrois Cooper himself.
Not since Anne Hathaway has an Oscar contender lost so much goodwill simply by campaigning so hard.
Now, Cooper has not been alone on the awards trail.
Cillian Murphy is not sitting at home in monkish penury.
Paul Giamatti has not taken a vow of silence in honor of Thespis.
Thus even standard celebrity behavior has been filtered through an unflattering lens.
Through strange awards-season alchemy, the combination ofMaestroand Coopers star persona has made the public recoil from both.
(Both of my siblings attended the same private high school as Cooper.)
His first regular gig was playing a beta onAlias.
His first big movie role was as a douchebag inWedding Crashers.
The film that made him a star wasThe Hangover.
By the timeThe Hangover: Part IIhit theaters, that trio had racked up six Oscar nominations between them.
By all rights,Oppenheimershould have become the seasons biggest villain.
First and foremost isBarbenheimer.
It helped makeOppenheimera hit, giving it the feel of a winner from day one.
This all could change ifOppenheimerkeeps winning absolutely everything.
Of course, theres no reason eitherOppenheimerorMaestrohad to wind up this years Oscar villain.
