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Tar Movie Review

Tar is a 2022 drama film directed by Todd Field and starring Cate Blanchett. It is one of the best movies of the year.

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“The narcissism of small differences

leads to the most boring kind of conformity“

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Renowned musician Lydia Tár is days away from recording the symphony that will elevate her career. When all elements seem to conspire against her, Lydia’s adopted daughter Petra becomes an integral emotional support for her struggling mother. Todd Field hasn’t directed a feature film since 2006 and you can just sense that he had something important to tell by watching this movie. That sense of urgency was palpable and he should be applauded for being so honest in his observations.

Probably the biggest praise I can give this movie is that I genuinely thought it was a biopic until I read that it in fact is not. It is a drama disguised as a biographical movie, but it is sophisticated and so real in its characters and situations that it becomes much more authentic than the vast majority of real biopics out there. But it has something to say and we should all listen.

While not the best movie of the year, Tar most certainly has to be the most important American picture released in 2022 as it holds the mirror to some of the worst tendencies hailing from Hollywood, particularly focusing on cancel culture and just how morally and objectively wrong it is. Yes, Lydia Tar herself is guilty for some of the things that happened to her due to her lack of proper communication and her austere demeanor, but for the most part the culture is the main culprit here.

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In an era where anybody can just make up something about a celebrity or any well-known figure in any capacity, this movie is a crucial watch as it portrays in full detail how that witch hunt happens. They fabricate lies through misconstrued accounts, further popularizing them through news in the media and of course the social media itself, resulting in genuine backlash developing over truly horrendous fake news. Nobody is safe in the current environment where anything these celebrities say can be labeled as problematic by niche groups holding power in the media. The concept of innocent until proven guilty has never been more crucial.

Tar also takes a swing at social justice warriors. There is that one superb sequence where an obnoxious SJW is ridiculed by the protagonist and his views are made a laughing stock. Separating the art from the artist is one of the main ideas here and how we should view artists as artists first and foremost and not judge them by their sex, race or sexuality. By doing that, you effectively become ignorant and hateful, not the other way around.

So yes, Tar is thematically rich and a perfect encapsulation of everything that is going on in Hollywood right now. How the movie mocked the social media influencers was glorious to witness, but it also depicted them as holding a lot of dangerous power, which was important and truthful to convey. But the movie is also about art, in particular focusing on conducting, and in this instance, it’s a mixed bag.

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While I did appreciate how detailed and respectful it is toward this profession and art form, in there also lies a problem as some chunks of the film, the beginning in particular, can be overly technical in those descriptions of the art and craft, leading to a lot of unnecessary padding. This will undoubtedly prove to be great for fans of music, but for everybody else it can be tiresome.

There is also the issue of length. Why did this movie have to be two and a half hours long? There isn’t any reasonable justification for this runtime choice. It led to many overlong scenes that easily could have been either edited out or reduced in length. With that being said, for such a long movie Tar is actually surprisingly engaging and at times even riveting, which just goes to show how well crafted it is all around.

The cinematography is strikingly good, especially in the scenes where there is a lot of movement from the main character and in those driving sequences. The score could have been more memorable given that it’s a film about music, but it’s overall serviceable. The directing and writing are top-notch while the dialogue is consistently clever and involving. The highlight of the movie is obviously Cate Blanchett herself.

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This is one of her greatest performances so far and the fact that she still churns them out so forcefully is truly commendable. She escapes in the role, becoming Lydia Tar in the process. She is so authentic and riveting in fact that I genuinely thought that she must be a real person. This is how amazing Blanchett is and she should be given her second Oscar for this incredible work. This is entirely her movie as others only get minor roles – Mark Strong is deliciously serpentine while Noemie Merlant was also quite good. It was lovely seeing her after ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’, but her role is quite small.