TÁR, the cancel culture conversation piece of the year starring Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss and directed by Todd Field

lol, i was literally typing that as an xpost!

Still blows me away that Todd Field wrote himself the most original American script of the year.

And that he directed a well-directed movie

somehow never saw either in the bedroom or little children so i came into this with zero expectations on the director front. this is exemplary work but i'm hearing that's not par for his course?

itt: too much hyperbole, not enough critical analysis of the SEINFELD PUFFY SHIRT

I overstate -- In the Bedroom is a reasonably well-directed take on reprehensible material

Ugh, that word again, I don't even know what it means!

not to put too fine a point on it but as I haven't seen this comment made elsewhere: a film about a woman who ensnares people in her own "transactional" machinations of growth and then chokes them out when they prove threatening that engenders a la brea-sized quagmire of provocative discourse might be giving away its endgame in the title.

^^^^^^^^^ !!!

Are you saying it’s the pits?

i'm calling it an attraction!

incidentally, i watched Corsage tonight and that's a good follow up to Tar. Both films about what a woman is worth, how she can work within the system, how much rope she needs to weigh anchor

I think In the Bedroom is very good.

Tár : when a movie character has this much sauce, that’s the filmmakers telling you that they are unambiguously cool & that you are supposed to root for them

Just one of many 2022 highlights we celebrate in the sletter today https://t.co/wqoelSmGdk pic.twitter.com/Hu9Kc6M1Sv

— Blackbird Spyplane (@BLKBRD_Spyplane) December 27, 2022

that misread iirc is the whole angle of richard brody’s piece about it (the man does not know how to watch a movie)

I don't think In the Bedroom is remotely terrible, just "determined" in that late 20thh century American fiction way.

I mean, it was adapted from a story by Andre Dubus.

well, yeah

House of Sand and Fog was probably the darkest book I've ever read, and the film had the same kind of feel as In the Bedroom.

And I didn't realize that the story on which In the Bedroom was based was written by Andre Dubus II, not Andre Dubus III. :O

the man does not know how to watch a movie

Brody is maddeningly idiosyncratic but I would never accuse him of not knowing how to watch a movie

he occasionally sees something i don't in a film and sometimes its helpful but equally often i want to hunt him for sport

When I seen Richard Brody’s byline, my heart sinks. (Occasionally he’ll write something that’s in the realm of right on.)

“See”

Yikes

I haven’t seen this movie yet, will probably wind up being a rental unless it opens back up again.

reopening Friday here (arthouse, vs previous multiplex run), so cross your fingers

I haven’t seen this movie yet, will probably wind up being a rental unless it opens back up again.

Amazon wants $20 to purchase it at the moment; when it's rentable (that is, $6 or less) I'll definitely check it out.

I haven’t seen this movie yet, will probably wind up being a rental unless it opens back up again.

― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings),

Do your best to watch it soon. I paid $20 on Amazon in early November.

I think this movie works as a comedy as much as anything. I didn’t feel anything about Tar’s fall since I felt she was a glib phony all through the movie, all her ideas were trite or received. I felt like her character had no actual passion for music and just liked conducting for the controls and access to high quality poon. Anyways, I was the only person in the theater who laughed at the supposed shocking climax, and the postscript joke reveal was *chef’s kiss*.

i don't know that I'd call it a comedy, but those scenes are funny

Olga chowing down like she hadn’t eaten in a week (although actually maybe she hadn’t) was hilarious too.

CB can do better

Do we know who suggested Monster Hunter? It’s so perfect yet I can’t imagine Todd Field knows about the Monster Hunter phenomenon.

And what did Kaname Fujioka think of the film?

I think this movie works as a comedy as much as anything.

i was the only person in the theatre laughing when i saw it so i think we're in the minority here. i had the same experience with phantom thread

Yes! I had audience members turning around watching PT, I was laughing so.

zadie smith weighs in
https://archive.ph/z0Ztj

Laugh during any and every movie, I say

Twitter doing what it does best:

Emily in Paris is a confusing show. What's her deal? Why is everyone in love with her? Why isn't the clear sexual tension between her and the handsome French woman she works for getting resolved?

— Lydia Tár (@LydiaTarReal) December 27, 2022

lol

Thanks for the Zadie Smith piece, insightful and interesting although we got different things from the film.

that's a great essay. curious if there was anything in particular she said that you took issue with, or if she just was elucidating things you hadn't yet considered (this was my feeling, in some respects)

i thought her suggestions about generational divide and of Tar as Gen-X exemplar were ideas i hadn't much thought about beyond her reflexive hunt for youth

I was. I adore those little creatures. https://t.co/XSasH9fRIT

— Lydia Tár (@LydiaTarReal) December 27, 2022

that Lydia Tar account is a good follow

If you see the whole movie as a comedy that solves the supposed riddle of the “totally different tone” of the postscript some have written about (it is not at all a shift in tone).

the shoes in the bathroom moment is one of the funniest things I've ever seen

didn't read the zadie smith piece but "lydia tár is gen x", tho true, strikes me as a boring thesis (like all other generational analysis)

one great comedic scene was when tár is commiserating with her older composer friend julian glover about cancel culture, but then he goes too far bemoans the denazification of classical musical and she calls him out on it

Saw this today. (I think it might have screened here a couple of months ago, but I didn't know a thing about it and skipped it.) It wasn't quite as involving as I'd hoped it would be, but I thought it was impressive (didn't care much for In the Bedroom at the time). I'm not sure it needed to take quite so long to get to where it was going, but I'm also glad such a film can get made and released in the Marvel moment, so I'm fine with that. My two favourite moments were at opposite ends of the spectrum: the Leonard Bernstein clip, and Lydia's reaction, and then the Spinal Tap ending.

I really loved that zadie smith essay