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Let Bradley Cooper’s Maestro Be the Death of the Biopic

EILEEN JONES Jacobin
In Maestro, Bradley Cooper plays famed conductor Leonard Bernstein but leaves out the complicating — and fascinating — real-life details for a more streamlined, tearjerking product. It’ll doubtlessly do well at the Oscars.

Rustin the Liberal Biopic Versus Rustin the Labor Activist

DUSTIN GUASTELLA Jacobin
Netflix’s new feel-good Bayard Rustin biopic, Rustin, claims the civil rights hero has been forgotten because of his sexuality. But it was his fiery and provocative class politics that makes him both controversial and prophetic today.