TÁR
Never in my life i found it so hard to decide wether the movie was brilliantly or shitty made, it took me 24h to form a proper opinion on this. We're witnessing the unreliable narrator final boss, i genuinely felt pity for her for an embarrassing amount of time before realising her faults.
Under my good but still poor cinema knowledge, this actually changed my perseption of movies; a limit of mine when it comes to films is that i am hardly able to get 100% into a movie if i can't not even in the slightest emphasize with the main character. In Tár we don't have anyone else to blame, no past trauma to justify her, no sad backstory, no excuses: Lydia is just the worst manipulator ever. I've rarely seen such a controversial and conflicted lore and character; I'm not gonna lie, it leaves you with a bit too many question mark, and even though it is its whole goal to vaguely convey dilemmas and puzzles, im sure that a bit more transparency wouldn't have hurt the narrarive at all. This movie all plays with dualism, mirrored feelings and paradoxes, which have an impressive validity and realism, for example, how can a person so deeply aware, sensitive, and professionally brilliant be at the same time so selfish, greedy and devious? how can emotional depth and shallowness exists in a person at the same time? It (positively) triggers me how between all the victims of her mental tricks, me, the viewer, was the one who fell for it the hardest. I think the medium that mostly worked as a hint to show her evilness was the shade of darkness and the horror style used to represent her mental cage; every time she heard voices and saw figures the screen had that thriller connotation fundamental to speak to the spectator.
However, at the same time, crumbs of vulnerability and gentleness were left here and there in the film for us to decipher: starting from Tár's interactions with her sick neighbour to her relationship with her daughter, which distinctly was clearly defined as the only genuine affection felt by Lydia for anything other than music or career. And it's by wondering and debating if her chatacter is actually able to love that intrigue and interest is created: that's how you intelligently leave a movie up to interpretation.
What amazes me — and I'm not in any way a musician or particularly educated about the conductors world — is how good and mind blowing music representation is conveyed here. It might be an unusual take, but Tár's investment in her work and her insight of sounds is impeccably real, it's raw and studied, it genuinely makes it hard for me to believe that no musician was involved in this. The way Lydia's torments were projected in her musical designs is outstanding.
That leads me, finally, to Cate Blanchett's performance, which was, with not surprises, matchless. I've been looking forward to this movie for a really long time, and I've always been aware of Cate's skills, but after watching this i struggle to believe that it was not inspired by a true story or that Lydia Tár is not a real person. The coexistence of vehement, powerful and unconcealed feelings but also vulnerability are aspects of this chatacter that fits Cate Blanchett's acting impeccably.
It's a movie that requires dedication, but once you're into it, it leaves you brooding about it for days; wether its about the pros or cons, it leaves you with a whole bag of elements, themes and morals to analyse, which are personally one of the most important requirements in a movie, and that makes it a five star. (-1 star cause I'm biased and mad about how it adds a negative lesbian representation to an already queerness lacking cinematic world)