Movies Like
Movies Like Maestro: Genius and the People Nearby
By Jordan A. · · Updated · 5 min read
Maestro (2023) was directed by Bradley Cooper, who also stars as Leonard Bernstein opposite Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre. The part people remember is not the conducting. It is Mulligan, standing in a doorway, being married to a man whose talent has already decided how much of him she gets.
That is the actual subject: genius as a weather system that other people have to live in. So this list is not a shelf of music biopics. Every film below is about a gifted person and the cost paid by somebody standing nearby, and each entry says who pays and how hard the film is willing to look. Where each one streams changes, so the title page on BingeNext shows current US options.
The films that indict the genius
Tar (2022) is Todd Field's, with Cate Blanchett as a conductor at the top of the profession who has arranged the world so that nobody can say no to her. It is the closest companion to Maestro and the more rigorous film, because it treats the podium as an instrument of power rather than a stage. Blanchett is extraordinary and the film is two and a half hours with no soft landing. Start here.
Amadeus (1984) is Milos Forman's, with F. Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as Mozart, and it invented the modern version of this story: the film is told by the person standing next to the genius, and his grievance is the plot. Historically loose, dramatically perfect. If you have only seen clips, the full film is funnier than you expect.
The Master (2012) is Paul Thomas Anderson's, with Joaquin Phoenix as a damaged veteran and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the charismatic founder of a movement. It is about the pull one person can exert on another, and neither man survives it intact. Opaque by design. Skip it if you want the film to explain itself.
Whiplash (2014) is Damien Chazelle's, with Miles Teller as a drummer and J.K. Simmons as the teacher destroying him to make him great. It is the most exciting film here and the most argued about, because it never quite tells you whether the method worked. Ninety-six minutes and it moves like a thriller.
The films that stay with the person nearby
Love & Mercy (2014) is Bill Pohlad's, with Paul Dano and John Cusack playing Brian Wilson at two ages, and Elizabeth Banks as the woman who eventually gets him away from his controlling therapist. It is the best film ever made about what recording sounds like from inside a mind that hears too much, and the later timeline is a rescue story rather than a genius story.
Control (2007) is Anton Corbijn's black and white film about Ian Curtis of Joy Division, with Sam Riley and Samantha Morton. Corbijn photographed the band in life, and the film's real subject is a nineteen-year-old with a wife, a child and epilepsy who is also a great artist, which nobody around him is equipped for. Bleak and beautiful.
Shine (1996) is Scott Hicks's, with Geoffrey Rush as pianist David Helfgott and Armin Mueller-Stahl as the father whose ambition breaks him. It is more conventional than the rest of this list and it earns its place because it puts the damage before the triumph rather than after.
The films about the work itself
Mr. Turner (2014) is Mike Leigh's, with Timothy Spall grunting his way through the last decades of the painter J.M.W. Turner. There is no arc. There is a man making extraordinary things and treating the women in his household carelessly, and Leigh refuses to resolve the two. The most patient film here.
The Brutalist (2024) is Brady Corbet's, with Adrien Brody as a Hungarian architect who survives the Holocaust and is taken up by a wealthy American patron played by Guy Pearce. It is three and a half hours with an intermission, and it is the most complete statement any recent film has made about what patronage does to an artist. If you loved Maestro's scale and disliked its distance, this is the swap.
A Complete Unknown (2024) is James Mangold's, with Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan across the years leading to Newport in 1965. It is the friendliest film on this list and it is honest about one thing in particular: Dylan is careless with the people who help him, and the film does not apologize for him.
The Red Shoes (1948) is Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's, with Moira Shearer as a dancer caught between an impresario who wants her art and a composer who wants her life. It is nearly eighty years old, it is in Technicolor that still looks better than most modern films, and its verdict on the choice is brutal. Every film on this list is arguing with it whether it knows so or not.
What to skip, and why
Most of the well-known music biopics of the last decade run the same shape: hardship, montage, addiction, triumphant performance, title card. They are not bad films, they are simply doing something else. The films above all refuse the final redemption beat, which is the only reason any of them tell you anything true about talent.
Where to start
If you want the film closest to Maestro, watch Tar. If you want the one that will make you feel something rather than think something, watch Love and Mercy. If you have an evening and want the biggest swing, The Brutalist is three and a half hours and worth clearing the night for.
If you would rather describe the film you want than pick from a list, BingeNext's movie recommendations take Maestro plus another film you love and return picks with a reason and where each one streams. A run takes about a minute.
Topics covered: biography, music, drama, artistic, prestige, contemporary
About the author
Jordan A., Founder, BingeNext
Jordan A. is the founder of BingeNext and is responsible for every guide published on this site. He built the recommendation engine after one too many nights lost to the streaming menu. Dates, season counts and where-to-watch details in these guides are checked against official sources before publishing, and corrections are welcome at Jordan@Bingenext.com.