Movie Review: Tár

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A+

A brilliant and thought-provoking character study.

Though Lydia Tár is a fictional character by the end of this film she feels more real to us than the real-life characters in real musical biopics do. She is an endlessly complex character whose actions can range from cruel to kind. These contradictions only make her feel more well. This is because we all have moments when we can be very kind or when we can be very mean. Real people are far from perfect but are also very capable of being nice. These types of contradictions are also quite common in people who have a brilliant artistic mind, which this character certainly does. They also make the overwhelming stress she is going through seem more real. She is a brilliant and much praised musical conductor who is who working on a major and often stressful project. Meanwhile she is having much trouble at home with her wife as well as intense conflicts with others in her life. At the same time as this she is being accused of sexually exploiting another conductor, who has recently committed suicide. There is no telling how we would act in the same situation. Through much of the movie we are seeing things through her eyes and feeling like we are right there with her. We practically breathe when she breathes. There is no way to deny that much of this is due to the always wonderful Cate Blanchett giving one of the finest performances of her career (and that is saying a lot). Yet there are major gaps in our understanding of who this character is. How we chose to fill in these gaps can completely change our understanding of the movie as whole. Depending how you feel in these gaps she can either being an innocent victim or a truly deplorable person. We might automatically assume the first option because she is the main character of the film and have become so invested in her character. This gives us an automatic bias, but there are times when we are unsure whether we can trust this bias. Yet when we fall into these moments of doubt, we have to ask ourselves, if we are the same as those who are accusing her with no proof at all. This also provides us with an uncomfortable look at today's social media influenced world where anyone's judgements on someone will be taken by many as absolute truth. Because of all this, this is a movie that cannot be watched passively. If you watch this while you are starting to doze off or (when it gets out of theaters) while doing things around the house, you will miss the entire point of the film and everything that makes it great. However when you truly experiance this film, it is a true masterpiece. 

This is director/writer Todd Feild's third feature film and his first since 2006's Little Children. If his fourth feature film is anywhere near as good as this, I hope we don't have to wait anywhere near as long for it.