Pops Saw a Movie: TAR

I’ve now watched Todd Field’s TAR twice (and one particular scene three times) and not just because I was an hour into my first viewing before I realized it wasn’t a biopic (I can be rather dense sometimes)… This movie demands more than one watch because it’s so confounding in its invitation to interpret (much like music itself)… is it a condemnation of Lydia Tár that ends with a deserved comeuppance? Is it about the gray areas in which genius, talent, and destructive narcissism so often co-exist? Is it about the redemptive power of art? Or is it all of the above? 

Cate Blanchett (of whom I was already a huge fan) really is absolutely mesmerizing in the role (even if there are a few scenes in which she veers into Master Thespianic ”ACTING!!!” territory), and while my loathing of the entertainment awards is well documented, I do hope she gets all the shiny statues because I can’t recall the last time a performance unnerved me like this. 

If nothing else, TAR is a film that not only begs for debate about its content and meaning, but forces the viewer to contemplate just how much the art and the artist can be separated for each of us, a highly subjective, eternal conversation that only becomes more and more divisive as our culture evolves… or de-evolves. You choose. 

Originally posted on social media, March 1, 2023