Vastly over-rated anti-film
- Tár review by Alphaville
The first half-hour consists solely of people sitting around having an erudite discussion about classical music, shot with a static camera. It mighty be of interest to patient music students. If you get through that there are still two hours to go as one longueur follows another. This would be more suitable as a play on stage or radio. It’s not a film. It’s an anti-film.
5 out of 9 members found this review helpful.
A study in those who have power and fame, and how easily they can lose both
- Tár review by Philip in Paradiso
This is a psychological drama focused on the world of classical music. The central character (Cate Blanchett, remarkable, as always) is Lydia Tár, who is a talented American conductor. She does not hide the fact she is a lesbian. She is at the peak of her career and has become universally praised and famous. L Tár is the first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. On a day-today basis, she relies on Francesca, her personal assistant, and Sharon, her wife and concertmaster, for support. She often travels to the USA (and other countries); when in Berlin, she lives with Sharon and her young daughter.
The film is about Lydia Tár - a career-driven, narcissistic and self-confident artist who is obsessed with classical music and her role as a conductor. Music and her job are everything to her. What the film shows is what happens when things threaten to unravel, both on a personal and a professional level. (I do not want to say any more not to spoil the film.) As a successful artist, internationally appreciated, L Tár is on a pedestal, but she has also made many enemies along the way, and there may be some secrets that can come back and haunt her.
The film is powerful, intense and almost cerebral in some ways, as the central character is, and as the Mahler symphony that she has been working on with the Berlin Philharmonic also is. At 2 1/2 hours, the movie is perhaps a little bit too long, but it is never boring, as the story and its central character hold our attention. It is a very good and memorable film, but it is so restrained in some respects, with things and issues touched upon but never fully explained, that it, perhaps, misses an element of sensational melodrama, although towards the end there certainly is an element of that. So, it is an excellent movie, but not quite the great film it could have been, even if it is hard to pinpoint the precise reason for that. Overall, you should enjoy it, more particularly if you like classical music.
5 out of 7 members found this review helpful.
Gripping and original emotional epic
- Tár review by PD
Todd Field's highly original emotional epic, part psychological thriller, part character study, concerns the downfall of a world-famous conductor, superbly played by Cate Blanchett. The film is at its best in channelling a distinct sense of Kubrick-style unease as it charts the slow, tortuous unmaking of Tar, her seeming invincibility being of course precisely what leads to her downfall. It's basically a film about the corruption of power and the dichotomy of genius, although Field also attempts (rather less successfully) to include such topical themes as cancel culture and the #metoo movement. The film is mercifully not a manifesto, and cleverly eschews conventional narrative, and although it sometimes resorts to lazy shorthand in conveying the details of the protagonist's dilemmas, Blanchett's performance is compelling throughout, and particularly effective for me are the surreal elements that appear unexpectedly during the tale, which often effectively reveal a burdened conscience. Despite its length (over two and a half hours) no minute feels wasted, and indeed it is the last section that is particularly engaging, with an unexpected ending which is both quirky and tragic. Gripping stuff.
4 out of 8 members found this review helpful.
Thinks it's more than it is
- Tár review by PT
What a dull, drab, mess of a film. Totally over rated and tedious with characters that are very difficult to care about, it's also so long! I would have to be paid a fair amount to watch this ever again.
1 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Disappointing
- Tár review by SB
I had looked forward for some time to watching this film, which has received acclaim and awards, but found it disappointing despite the work which has obviously gone into it.
It is welcome at least to have a film which at 2hrs 38 mins is not afraid to be longer than the regulation 100 minutes.
I think the main negatives are:
a. the protagonist, conductor Lydia Tar, is a very unsympathetic character; she is brittle and arrogant. Now of course it's possible to have an unsympathetic protagonist but for this to succeed the audience still needs to be able to side with that person in some way, even if it's a not very healthy way. Here that is very difficult. This characterisation is enhanced or worsened, depending on your point of view, by Cate Blanchett's trademark cool demeanour;
b. the various accusations and situations piled up against Tar are too numerous and therefore each is dealt with too superficially. It would have been better to have concentrated on one situation (eg her obsession with the new cellist) and shown in much more detail how that particular pack of cards collapsed;
c. the last 30 minutes is a bit of a mess, rushing by into ever more unlikely situations;
d. although the film takes aim at people who judge based on stereotypes and lazy thinking, the treatment of this issue is pretty much primer-level only.
The design, locations etc are mostly dark and shiny, set in Berlin and what purports to be New York, and at the end Asia. They are coherent and glossy, but there is a bit of a feeling of design for the sake of design.
Would I watch it again? Well, I wouldn't buy it.
1 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Tar - Well acted but Long!
- Tár review by Rjs
Great acting, and the first hour is great, if a little difficult if you do not know much about classical music! After this first hour it becomes very slow going.
1 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Pretensions and dull
- Tár review by RB
For as long as I could stand watching this, it only consisted of a dry and dull interview, which occasionally referenced someone else I have never heard of. Maybe of interest to a classical music fan but of scant interest to anyone else. There are plenty of films on esoteric subjects or people that are engaging and inclusive. This isn’t one of them.
1 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Cynical Hollywood take on an arthouse film
- Tár review by CR
The machinery that is American filmmaking every so often puts together a mock arthouse film, usually to get the lead an Oscar. Here we have such an example, with bits of cod philosophy "raising" the tone. With wooden camerawork and random editing, it meanders along. Anyone with a foot in music like me cannot help laughing out loud at the Mahler performance. Finally, the committee couldn't work out how to end this mess so it morphed into a bit of Star Wars, at least the punters will go away whistling a tune they know.
1 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Complex Drama With Topnotch Performances
- Tár review by GI
Cate Blanchett is note perfect in this complex psychodrama that begins tiresomely but soon turns into something very original and interesting. She play the title character of Lydia Tár, an internationally renowned orchestral conductor who has become the first woman to lead a huge German orchestra. She's no doubt seen as a genius but she's a narcissistic tyrant ready to manipulate any and all around her as she lives her almost rock star lifestyle with her wife played by Nina Hoss. The suicide of a former lover of Lydia's begins her exposure and downfall as the loyalty she demands of her entourage is not as forthcoming as she expects. There's elements of a descent into madness narrative as Lydia begins to use control. The performances are all so good they are mesmerising especially Blanchett who delivers one take scenes of considerable length and at all times has authenticity in the role. Of equal note is Noémie Merlant as Tár's assistant who is instrumental in her downfall. Julian Glover and Mark Strong also have support roles. This is a film that skirts melodrama and some may find it stretches patience but film has a sensual extravagance that makes you want to keep watching. It's certainly a tor de force in screen acting.
1 out of 3 members found this review helpful.
An incredible Blanchett ignites this amazing film, examining pressure & power in the music world
- Tár review by TB
Tár is a fascinating film. As much as it's subject matter might put people off, it is in many ways an extremely accessible & riveting piece of work, as long as you have the patience to completely buy into its world. This is emphatically not a fast-moving film: the tension is cranked up extremely slowly and there are many scenes of conversations and following the timbre of how the atmosphere subtly changes as the story progresses. But it is in many ways a masterpiece.
This film is amazing. At its heart is Cate Blanchett, who in a career of many stunning performances, has probably delivered her finest ever. Lydia Tár is the first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra. She is revered across the globe and in the classical music world. When the film starts, she is about to launch a new book, class and also perform Mahler's Fifth Symphony. She is, in effect, at the top of her game, so there is in many ways only one way to go: down...
I am not going to say too much about the plot, because the less you know, the more you get out of it. But I loved it. I had in many respects a vague idea of what sort of a film this was going to be and, whilst it was those things, it was also much more. The demand of performing music at an elite level is shown as taking a toll not only in the expected ways but also the smaller ones, such as developing a hypersensitivity to small noises.
There was also an interesting examination of cancel culture in many ways, except this time it is flipped and the focus is on a highly successful woman rather than a man. Whilst I found certain elements of that funny, more than anything for me the central point of the film is one I agree with: people are messy and complicated. Whether you don't like or want to perform Bach because of how you view his history, down to whether internal office politics that spill out into the mainstream mean that a talented person has their work destroyed, I feel that the art should be separated from the artist. But also not to destroy those individuals who have in no way committed the sorts of crimes which someone like Harvey Weinstein has been convicted of.
Overall, despite the film's length, I loved it. I did think there were times where it was on the verge of outstaying it's welcome and the ending is slightly more protracted than it needed to be. But this is nitpicking in many ways. Over the course of 2 & a half hours, you watch the total evolution and destruction of a musical genius, someone whose abilities leave everyone around her in total awe, but who also is a human with her own very prominent flaws.
But this film, and Blanchett's stunning & masterful work elevate this to the highest levels of quality.
0 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
