In his 20-year career behind the camera, Todd Field has written and directed the excellent films ‘In the Bedroom’, ‘Little Children’, and now the equally (if not more) stunning ‘Tár’. Each is arguably better than the other (though all are as first-rate as they come). Perhaps everything has just been building to this point—a masterfully dark and twisted film and a tour de force by Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tár, a composer and conductor who seems to be hanging on by only the smallest of threads. The looming performance of Mahler’s famous Fifth Symphony is the driving force of the film, but it’s all of the ‘noise’ in Lydia’s life that propels it (and us) forward in the brilliant way that only Field can pull off.
4.5/5 stars