Tar

Lydia Tar is a person who needs no introduction. She is a giant in her field, a writer, a musician, a composer, and a world famous conductor. She is an artist. A maestro. An EGOT. She is very nearly at the pinnacle of a long and impressive career, on the verge of her own great crescendo, and she is headed for a fall.

This film is the story of a manipulative and vindictive narcissist who takes one too many steps too far.

Cate Blanchett is astounding as Lydia Tar. Simply astounding. She inhabits the character, playing Lydia as charming, magnetic, a luminescent presence in any room, coolly assured of her own brilliance, but always the only sun allowed in her own little galaxy. Well aware of her value in the eyes of the myriad supplicants gathered at her feet, she is always performing, she is always pontificating, she is always imparting her wisdom. Lydia Tar is comfortably imperious, but she is also sadistic, and predatory, projecting a quiet menace in all her interactions, leaving you with a feeling as if you were warily watching a snake, waiting for it to strike.

Tar is an art film about an artist. It is a detached film, Kubrickian as the kids say, beautiful, cold, and tightly controlled. It’s filled with dread too, but you’re never quite sure if you’re worried that something terrible is about to happen to Lydia… or that Lydia is about to do something terrible.

Or maybe it’s both?

The film avoids judgement on whether or not Lydia is someone who should be admired or despised, or whether or not an artist’s work can truly be separated from the artist, or if that is even something that should be attempted. Often, the film seems to illustrate both sides. Unseen, this might sound cowardly, but it’s not, the film isn’t a screed or a glorification. It’s not an indictment of the character either, but more of a question posed to the audience, asking that you to do a little bit of self-examination, and perhaps interrogate your own place in the very real situations that Lydia causes and experiences. But Tar isn’t a Me Too parable either, at least, that’s not the focus. This is a film that is set in our own reality, in a place where power and privilege often trumps justice, or at the very least, skirts it somewhat.

I loved the movie’s unflinchingly eye. That, coupled with Blanchett’s fantastic performance… Amazing. It’s an incredible film. I loved it. On top of everything else, I was also captivated by the strangely procedural and collective-focused inner workings of professional orchestras, I had no idea…

Absolutely fascinating. Absolutely fantastic.