KingslandBarge I had quite a few negative feelings for Lydia through out the first 2/3rds of the movie. In tertiary education and professional hubs within high income/'high culture' cities, I'm sure most of us come across someone like this at least once, struck by their moral superiority/nepotism juxtaposed with their highly venerable talent and achievement. I need to watch it again because I am not sure this is just a classic god-complex case of reaching high echelons of status and developing hubris.
Absolutely eh … one thing that's predictable is that a lot of people responded to the film by heroising Tár and deciding she was wonderful. I spent a lot of the film thinking that I absolutely hate being in company with people like Tár, because she's so terrifying and castrating it's damn hard work.
But Blanchett submits such a rich and nuanced characterisation you're at times really seeing the extraordinary brittleness, the charm, the emotional wounds, and the rest. The Juillard scene was a little forced, I think Field set out to write some dialogue for Tár that would make us all think before revealing her (again) to be a horrible and cruel bully, but it came off a bit like a Sam Harris blog post in the end, a little too scripted.
I don't think the film forgives her in the end, and I liked that about it, but that was my reading and doesn't seem to be universally shared. What I loved about it (at least, again, in my reading of it) was that it talked about "cancel culture" (among many other topics) without taking a fixed or moral position on it, just by describing the sort of situation we've read about countless times, whether it's Weinstein or Scott Rudin or Avitall Ronell or Bill Cosby in enormous detail. My conclusion was what it usually is: yes, things get complicated but bullies, predators and abusers can fuck off.
Making the object of the story a lesbian genius narcissist was pretty key in creative terms to striking the right balance of ambiguity, write it about a comparable man and his monstrosity probably becomes rather more undeniable rather more quickly.
Anyway, cannot emphasise how much I admired the film, it was one of few where I came out going "Five fucking stars baby!" and raving about it for days, just incredibly developed and mature work on every level.
BANSHEES OF INISHERIN, well, I agree with you it was quite uncomfortable and weird as films go, darkly comic like a Flann O'Brien story, dipping into that vein of traditional Irish life as a form of hell with the surreal and Gothic behaviour of Gleeson's musician and the sheer gormlessness of Farrell's character, as well as the moderating relatability of Condon's performance. To me it's a lot better than Martin McDonagh's average with more to say and I liked that it allowed its absurd premises their rational consequences, like the actual removal of the fingers and the burning down of Colm's house.
Nowhere near TÁR for me but much much better than SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS (incredibly badly written sub-Tarantino trash talkfest) and THREE BILLBOARDS (why, Frances? And a weird combination of enthralling but also relentlessly disappointing and poor) … actually in conclusion, never watch a Martin McDonagh film if it's got a number in the title.
