Tár (2022)

This movie is hard work, but my friends and I really liked the story about a prickly classical conductor at the top of her game, despite its overlong run time (2:38!) and esoteric dialogue. Our little watch party was grateful for the captions and pause/rewind buttons at home. Cate Blanchett just may win another Oscar for the title role of Lydia Tár, whose marriage and career are jeopardized by her behavior. Nina Hoss plays Tár's wife and co-parent and Noémie Merlant is Tár's assistant, heading up the big cast.

Director/screenwriter Todd Field wrote the part specifically for Blanchett and apparently would not have made it without her. 

Hildur Guðnadóttir's score, featuring the Dresden Philharmonic, which Blanchett literally conducts in at least one sequence, and others, can be streamed on Apple Music. I must also mention the spectacular cinematography by Florian Hoffmeister, gorgeous production design by Marco Bittner Rosser, and wonderful costume design by Bina Daigeler. There's a captivating sequence at the beginning where one of Tár's suits is being custom made.

Blanchett was last blogged for Nightmare Alley, Merlant for Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Guðnadóttir  for Joker, and Daigeler for The Zookeeper's Wife. Hoss starred in Barbara, though I didn't write her name in the exceedingly short post, and was in thirteen episodes of Homeland, plus many, many more projects, mostly in her native Germany.

Field was Oscar-nominated for writing both of his previous movies, which he also directed, Little Children (2006) and In the Bedroom (2001). Hoffmeister's dozens of credits include four episodes of Pachinko, which I loved, and Rosser is new to me.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging a rhapsodic 90%, while its audiences may have needed more breaks than they were able to take, coming in at only 72%. We rented it on November 27 on Apple TV/iTunes while Jack watched football in another room.