I normally enjoy watching something I know I have a connection to, whether it’s something about the story, the character, the era… But this time it was really just informative and eye opening what the personal life of Leonard Bernstein allegedly was.

In a word, I’d call this movie “tremendous” - many things contained in it had an underlying powerful tremble to it. For one, Bradley Cooper’s acting and commitment to the exuberant and varied character of Bernstein himself, and then Bernstein’s lifestyle, his explosive scores and emotional compositions, his style of conducting, his love for Felicia and all his frivolous yet deeply intimate relationships with those he encountered. His intense zeal for everything created such high stakes for his entire life! Kind of like the bigger they are, the harder they fall?

It was a long movie, but an interesting, sometimes cute, and sometimes tragically frustrating story to watch. Unrelated, but I liked how they included full scenes where Bernstein was depicted in concert as the impassioned conductor he was known to be.