Review of TÁR (2022) by Kos2 — 18 Dec 2022

I'm a trained musician - and also have studied film (mostly on my own) for over 50 years. Unfortunately it's an unnecessarily long movie - the exposition feels at least 45 minutes. Unlike other commenters I think every scene in the film does have a purpose. Musically, I was surprised at how good the script adhered to musical logic as well capturing current "events" on the classical music scene.

I suspect that might be the problem with the film, in that classical music is so removed from the majority of people's cultural awareness that it's difficult to understand how someone could be so driven to a niche field, or how someone could be bothered by hearing a sound during the night and following it.

Other than being too long, I felt the problem was that Lydia seems rather removed from her emotions - or that we don't see her emotional turmoil - or if she even had one. I think the key is in that master class scene at Juilliard - where she derides one type of contemporary music and composer - a better denouement should have had her reduced to conducting student compositions of the kind she hates. Or beyond a few tears, showing the angst she has from ruining her career - maybe that should have come out at the end when she conducts for the video game.

Maybe it's a skill that one gets only from watching avant-garde films: You don't wait for something to happen, you just sit back and let it unfold, keeping expectations low. With that approach, I found Tár a pretty good film.