Tár (2022)

	Directed by: Todd Field	COUNTRY USA/Germany GENRE Psychological drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Tár RUNNING TIME 158 minutes
	Produced by: Todd Field Alexandra Milchan Scott Lambert
	Written by: Todd Field

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Lydia Tár	Cate Blanchett
Sharon Goodnow	Nina Hoss	½
Francesca Lentini	Noémie Merlant
Himself	Adam Gopnik	-
Krista Taylor	Sylvia Flote	-
Whitney Reese	Sydney Lemmon	-
Eliot Kaplan	Mark Strong
Max	Zethphan Smith-Gneist	-
Andris David	Julian Glover
Sebastian Brix	Allan Corduner	-
Olga Metkina	Sophie Kauer

Review

Todd Field’s only third feature in his more than twenty years as a director has some of the same qualities as 2001’s In the Bedroom and 2006’s Little Children in that his stories become remarkable through a cumulative series of seemingly unremarkable, everyday occurrences and interactions. Tár is in many ways a welcome return to a bygone tradition of big budget movies for adults – a serious drama which can afford to present its setting and characters comprehensively and uncompromisingly from within. Nothing is appraised or brushed aside in Tár, as we get to know the world of symphony orchestras and their star conductors, often referred to as "Maestros". You must make your own conclusions. And astoundingly, the deeper we delve into this particular niche of the modern art world, Field is able to create an unorthodox tension and suspense from a seemingly mundane spiral of work pressure, power struggles and our modern connectivity. Lydia Tár is in many ways a traditionalist trapped in hypermodern reality, but don’t think Field is making something as simple as an elegy – his film is not an attack on social media and wokeism as much as it’s placing these power-mechanisms in a historical tradition. Cate Blanchett gives a complete, absorbing performance in the title role, for which she was nominated for most of the major awards, but inexplicably lost to Michelle Yeoh in many of them.