OSCARS 2023: Tár (2022)

We're so used to awards bait movies being biopics. When a movie about a genius with a difficult personal life came along last year, it was perhaps forgivable to assume it was based in reality. No, Lydia Tár is not a real person. But I know so little about composers in the modern age of classical music that I would probably believe you if you had told me she was. Todd Fields' return to cinema, sixteen years after “Little Children,” “Tár” doesn't necessarily go out of its way to dissuade this notion though. The film opens with an interview between the fictional  Tár and real life NPR correspondent Adam Gopnik, listing off her countless achievements. It weaves various other real life figures, places, and concepts in and out of its story from there. Fields seems to be saying that Lydia Tár may not be real but she very easily could be. 

So who is Lydia Tár anyway? She is the first female conductor at the Berlin Philharmonic, currently doing a series devoted to Mahler. She is the most successful woman conductor in history, a superstar in the world of classical music. Lydia – a gay woman married to Sharon, her concertmaster, who she has a young daughter with – does not consider her gender notable. In fact, she's opposed to gender politics. As she begins the Mahler series, and preps the release of a new book, she becomes fascinated with Olga, a young cellist. The blatant favoritism she shows towards her does not go unnoticed. At the same time, the news leaks that a former student of  Tár's – that she seems to have had an affair with – killed herself. The girl's parents are suing Lydia. Soon mired in controversy, Lydia Tár finds her personal and professional life imploding. 

It is somewhat reductive to refer to “Tár” as a movie about cancel culture. It's also not an entirely wrong statement. The story of Lydia Tár forces us to grapple with the same question that so many high-profile cancellations have: How long do we let extraordinary talent excuse shitty behavior? Lydia Tár is a liar and a manipulator, who uses the power afforded by her position and fame to abuse people for her petty wants and desires. How much of a sexual predator she is exactly is left ambiguous, though it seems probable. More than anything else, she's a raging egomaniac, who thinks she can get away with all of it. Her pompousness makes it inconceivable to her that the people around her notice that she's doing these things. 

Yet she's also, unquestionably, a genius. This is apparent from the very first scene, where all of her qualifications are listed off and she responds brilliantly to each question. In probably the key sequence of the movie, Lydia teaches a class that soon degrades into her badgering a young composer-in-training who dismisses the classic masters because they were all racist old white guys. Perfectly conveyed in a single shot, it shows how utterly precise and biting Tár's wit is while never making us doubt that she's a huge jerk. She's one of those modern pop culture figures, who thinks themselves protect by their vaulted position in life, that can't even imagine that she's wrong. Lydia Tár never thought being a woman or gay held her back, so why should it go for anyone else? She doubles down, instead of ever having a moment of self-reflection. This certainly reflects her self-image as an impeachable genius, who looks down on young people as “robots.”

This makes “Tár” a thoroughly modern tale of our times, about those who abuse their power and the attitudes they have. Yet it's also a classical story of hubris destroying someone, a self-conscious tragedy about a genius brought low by their own ego. Cate Blanchett, never less than utterly brilliant and perfectly considered in every way, does not play her as an honorable anti-hero. The film is too honest about her countless flaws. Yet it does tell Tár's story in-context. In the final minutes, we are given an understanding of where she came from and what she sacrificed to get there. We see her be warm with her daughter, who she is deeply protective of. Blanchett makes Lydia a thoroughly complex, fully formed person. She is too totally human not to be, if not sympathetic, than at least understandable.

In bewitching sequences that push the film towards the margins of the horror genre, it becomes clear that Lydia is well aware of what's coming for her. While on her morning jogs, she hears a woman screaming in the distance, a mysterious moment that is never explained. She's awoken in the middle of the night by strange noises, finding objects in the house askew. Nightmares of Krista, the former lover who committed suicide, haunt her at nights. Maybe the most unsettling scene in the film has Lydia dropping Olga off at her apartment, only to be chased through the darkened building by an unseen dog. These moments are haunting and tense, supported by the sparse musical score and exacting cinematography.

I'm sure a hundred other reviews have made the observation that “Tár” is so precisely directed by Fields and his team, that it could've been conducted by Lydia herself. Probably the most powerful cut points right up at Lydia at the podium, right before the thundering first cords strike up. Fields utilizes many long cuts, such as in that immediately iconic class room sequence, with a deliberately watching camera. Everything about how the movie looks and sounds – How the hell didn't this get a Best Sound nomination? – is meant to put us into the very specific head space of this character and the world she inhabits. There's even an increasing sense of cosmic humor, as Tár spirals towards a suitably ironic fate, a personal hell of her own making.

“Tár” has emerged as the Film Twitter/Letterboxd Bro favorite of this year's Best Picture nominees. I'm not surprised about that, since this is exactly the sort of movie that rewards multiple re-watches and a meticulous attention to detail. But, like, it's really good. I can't deny that. It's a little too long and slow in spots but the precisely weaved spell “Tár” creates eventually got to me. Blanchett is utterly brilliant, the movie is fantastically assembled, and it repeatedly surprised me all throughout. Good shit. You should see it too, if you haven't! [9/10]