Tár

VOMIT! The tiresome disease of watching Americans telling themselves, according to themselves, how wonderful it are. Just GO AWAY!

Brilliant script. But like the themes, characters and content, this film left me cold.

Impossible to watch. I thought it was a comedy for the first 20’minutea

May just be biased because Cate Blanchett is my favorite actor. But Tár is one of my favorite movies of all time and is a film everyone has to watch at least once. The whole cast is brilliant, along with the writing, directing, and cinematography. So good that I thought Lydia Tár was a real person!

By the third act, TÁR flips the narrative on its head and inspects what defines us as people. And it does this almost as well as Lydia Tár conducted.

Sheer perfection, absolute masterwork of a film. It is deeply intellectual, and existential as well as visionary, so won't be for everyone, but perfect. Cate Blanchett is as usual, sublimely talented. The directing is divine, the cinematography delicious. The plot disturbing and powerful and great pacing. Very thought-provoking, I especially loved the interview scene at the beginning and the Julliard scene. SO many great moments though. The only slightly disappointing element was Nina Hoss's violin playing (she's not very good at mimicking) certainly not in the class of Blanchett, but then again, who is?

Tar felt like it was structured like an essay more than it was like a typical narrative film, for that reason I didn’t like it as much as a lot of people. I felt there were several routes they could have focused on and I wished the screenwriter would have picked one. Instead, anytime the film was getting interesting, it seemed to change to a different example of why this woman was getting cancelled instead of just following the natural trajectory of the story. This may work for some, but I don’t go to the cinema to watch films structured like essays. The acting was good, the character interesting, and there were some absorbing parts—but also too many moments when the movie was “telling me instead of showing.” I’m glad others enjoyed this film, I didn’t as much. People say it is kinda hard to follow and that you have to pay attention, sure it is, but that also means it’s too wordy of a screenplay. It functioned too much like a play at times. I wished it would have utilized “show don’t tell” more.

Much like the music lover who doesn't understand music theory but gets swept away by it, which I am, every time, in the same way the film watcher, goer or streamer don't have movie critique illusions, but gets swept away watching anyway. The lead character is incredible talented, a woman going down in musical history, larger then life. I have learned a lot about conducting. This movie is as good as the lead woman, is talented. At the end of the movie I was swearing at everyone around her, except the little girl. Especially at the character beautifully played by Mark Strong. I will of course watch it again at some point. I will let it settle first. The cancel culture and snowflakeism, that's just because this movie was made very recently, and it is fashionable to talk about these sort of things. I'm so happy I'm able to enjoy music without caring how many children did Bach sire. Lydia lost it as I would have had. It is not about gender politics, it's about learning the art and artist.

One of the greatest film performances is delivered by one of the greatest screen actresses. Cate Blanchett stars as an orchestra conductor whose life slowly unravels. For almost three hours Cate dominates every scene of brilliant film that centers on the conductors art, artistic process and personal life. Using her small world as a microcosm of modern society, the screenplay posits questions on personal morality and responsibility, cancel culture, generational differences and societal hypocrisy….yet most importantly it refuses to answer any of them for the audience; you decide. With a calm and deliberate hand on direction and camera that is reminiscent of Kubrick, the filmmaker has created a film I’ve watched several times and have felt differently towards each time I’ve watched it. That to me is great filmmaking.

This is one of the greatest films ever made. A film I still think about, more than a year after watching it. However, for people who have never experienced this rarified world, or are in no way curious about it, the film may seem bewildering and confusing. In the same way that anyone who has been brought up exclusively on fast food will react to a healthy meal with green vegetables, the negative reviews are really an expression of frustration at having to digest depth of character in stead of being stimulated by constant action. Cate Blanchette's acting is supreme but everyone involved delivered brilliant and convincing performances. It should have won Best Film at the Oscars.