TÁR (2022)
Directed by Todd Field
As celebrated conductor Lydia Tár starts rehearsals for a career-defining symphony, the consequences of her past choices begin to echo in the present.
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TÁR features some psycho-horror tropes à la Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan (2010), but Field mainly uses these to flatten and obfuscate at every turn.
But not the type of cruelty reserved for the black and white senses of a Hollywood movie. Tár isn’t Whiplash‘s Fletcher (J.K. Simmons). She’s many things, but she’s not Abigail Hill from The Favourite or Nathan Bateman from Ex Machina.
Although Whiplash is a completely different film, TÁR is what Whiplash would have been if it followed the J.K. Simmons character rather than that of Miles Teller.
In the line of Terrence Fletcher from Whiplash and Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, TÁR contributes an iconic character to film history in the form of Lydia Tar, with an undeniably memorable performance by Cate Blanchett.
Todd Field has never been a filmmaker who is interested in easy subjects. His 2001 feature In the Bedroom showed the extent to which a seemingly ordinary middle-class couple go to in extracting revenge for a shattering murder. His second film, 2006’s Little Children dealt with porn addiction, infidelity, and paedophilia.
Written and directed by Todd Field – the filmmaker behind the likes of Little Children and In The Bedroom, – this is just his third film but has already been nominated for two Academy Awards (at the time of writing) – Tár lands everything it sets out to achieve.
This drama set in the world of classical music is Field’s first film since 2006’s Little Children. He returned to filmmaking with a marvelous exercise in a character study that wal…
“Tár” also marks the return of writer/director Todd Field ("In the Bedroom") whose work hasn’t been seen on the big screen since 2006's "Little Children.” While I’d hate to wait another sixteen years for his next, this one has definitely been worth the wait, an awe-inspiring masterpiece which contemplates whether great artistic achievement should be judged in light of its creator’s moral failings.
Take, for instance, Henry Cavill setting “strict boundaries” for his friendship with Enola Holmes' leading lady, Millie Bobby Brown (also starring alongside the previously discussed Bonham Carter).