“Maestro” — 5 Things I Loved/Learned

Adrian Todd Zuniga
4 min readDec 19, 2023

Bradley Cooper wowed me with A Star Is Born, but MAESTRO shows he’s a big-time director. This film ticked every single box for me from stand-up-and-cheer to jittering discomfort to tears streaming down my face. It’s a beautiful film and I learned things that’ll influence my writing for the foreseeable, and I loved even more.

LEARNED: The Flirting!

It’s a joy to watch people hardcore flirt, and Maestro brings the same sort of exuberant, A-grade courtship as A Star is Born. Remember Cooper and Lady Gaga outside the grocery store? With the peas!?

Here we get Cooper and Carey Mulligan in an empty theatre play-acting. Swoon. The writing lesson: when people are excited by someone, it spurs a daring and limitlessness because anything feels possible. Because flirting isn’t just a high-speed dance, it’s a test to see if the other person can keep up.

Co-writer Josh Singer (First Man; Spotlight) and Cooper have written flirtations that are buoyant and free, a white-hot beginning that makes the complications that lie in wait all the more brutal to witness.

A++++ flirting. These people are going to be in love

LOVED: Old Meets New

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Adrian Todd Zuniga
Adrian Todd Zuniga

Written by Adrian Todd Zuniga

is an award-nominated author (Collision Theory), award-winning director/screenwriter (HOLD ME, DON'T TOUCH ME) and the creator and host of Literary Death Match.