Movie Review: Tar (2022) on Peacock
I'm grateful some of the Academy Award-nominated films this year are available to stream online or through cable TV systems. Tar is one of them, with six Oscar nominations.
Tar stars Cate Blanchett, brilliant as Lydia Tar, one of the greatest living composer-conductors and the first female director of a major German orchestra. She dominates the screen with her performance as a domineering force of nature in the world of Western classical music. The story focuses on her professional life, but it also veers through the controversies of her personal life, in which she is accused of favoring young women whom it is rumored she romances with advances in their professional careers. This threatens to plunge her own career into chaos, just at the height of her success.
There is much to love in the film, with its focus on musical theory and technique. Likely you will learn a lot about how composers and conductors and major orchestras work. But the music is electric and the cinematography is exceptional and the settings in New York City and Berlin and elsewhere are gorgeous. But the magic on the screen is in Blanchett's performance. It's no wonder she is nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role.
If I have any problems with the film, it is with the opening. There is a brief scene with Blanchette that goes no where, some texting, then black screen with opening credits that lasts way too long. And then there's the ending that isn't really an ending. Every story needs a beginning, a middle, and an ending, and while this film has a magnificent middle, it definitely lacks viable open and close (beginning and ending).
Tar is also nominated for Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing. I hope it earns multiple awards.
For these reasons, I would rate Tar a B++ for Blanchett, Screenplay, and Cinematography.
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