Tár (2022)

Spoilers

 In 'Tár' Cate Blanchet plays Lydia Tár, an EGOT winning composer and orchestra conducter, now based in Berlin whose life, marriage and career are upended by sexual assult allegations. The film chooses to never depict anything overtly sexual but Tár did the things she is acussed of, she is a manipulative and self absorbed woman, yet there are still some admiralable things about her, she's a bad person but I don't know if she's a monster. Powerhouse and often effectively subtle performance by Ms. Blanchette, while I may still root for Michelle Williams at the Oscars this is the most impressive performance of the year. 

There is something of an 'anti-woke' rant delivered by Lydia Tár in the film, it's quite effective and conservatives would love it, that it's put in the mouth of an abusive lesbian whose the villian of the piece they may not love so much. This is a long (158 minutes), talkie but still mostly involving movie, an examination of the MeToo moment this psychological drama probs into the mind of 'the difficult artsit' and you get to see that mind unravel. There is a moment in the film where Lydia Tár does something that as soon she does it you know it will irretrievably destroy her career and the resulting exile will be worse then anything else that could have been done to her. This is a movie whose somewhat confusing closing shot was the perfect way to end it. ****