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01.09.2022 / 18:34
‘TÁR’ Review: Cate Blanchett Is At Her Best Since ‘Carol’ In This Music World Psychodrama [Venice]
Who is Lydia Tár? Is she the acclaimed composer-conductor celebrated by The New Yorker in the opening of the movie that shares her fictional namesake as generational? Is she the heavily pruned and curated brand that she herself cultivates, her swishy suit pants as well-measured as her staccato? Or, indeed, is there an all-the-more sinister side: a narcissistic megalomaniac as beholden to her plaudits as she is driven by them? READ MORE: Venice Film Festival Preview: 16 Must-See Films To Watch The truth, as is so often the case, is nestled in the center of the Venn Diagram, astutely observes director Todd Field in his first film for sixteen years, “Tár.” Though not without its blemishes, here’s a timely — and, indeed, timeless — a piece about the corrupting essence of power, exploitation, and the burdensome nature of the crown, elevated by a hydrogen bomb of a performance from Cate Blanchett, inarguably at her best since 2015’s “Carol.” The aforementioned questions emerge, of course, across the two hours and change of runtime; as far as we’re concerned, the Lydia Tár we’re initially introduced to is a flawless demigod.