"TÁR" had everything to be unforgettable: Cate Blanchett as an amoral composer? How can you have that and make a movie as boring as "TÁR" turned out to be?

Submitted by Lili_Danube t3_11ejd38 in movies

I don't get how people have been falling over themselves for TÁR and Cate Blanchett possibly winning an Oscar for this is a joke to me.

It's tedious, it drags, it feels like a Sokurov movie at times with scenes that go on forever and you just want it to cut away.

It also feels uneven to me. Like one minute it's a serious "drama", then it turns into a commentary on woke politics, then it turns into a quasi-horror Roman Polanski movie. It has no identity.

It's SOOOOOO boring, and I know people hate that adjective and look, I'm a art-house fanatic. I enjoy Bergman, Leigh, Loach. So I'm not some Steven Seagal action fanatic so I don't call a movie boring unless it really is and this movie is so dull that I had a person next to me snoring. That never happened to me in a movie theater.

I don't get it, how do you cast Cate Blanchett as a ice cold bitch who takes advantage of young women for sex and makes it boring?

And Cate Blanchett wasn't all that. Her performance was very Judy Davis-like, meaning it's a bit hammy, overly theatrical and mannered with a few moments where it doesn't feel like acting. The response I get is "oh, that's how the character is supposed to be played". By that logic,. nobody has ever given a bad performance.

Do yourselves a favor and watch either John Cassavetes' OPENING NIGHT or Emmanuelle Bercot's BACKSTAGE. Way better.

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TappyMauvendaise t1_jaeedyb wrote

I thought it was incredible. Pretentious dialogue? How do you think people speak in the elite classical music world?

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Kylon1138 t1_jaep6ai wrote

>then it turns into a commentary on woke politics

How exactly is sexual harassment, abuse & suicide "woke politics" ?

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MartinScorsese t1_jaeify0 wrote

I find it ironic you list your art-house bona-fides in an attempt to bolster your credibility, then instead of offering what might resemble an actual argument, you just whine a lot.

> Do yourselves a favor and watch either John Cassavetes' OPENING NIGHT or Emmanuelle Bercot's BACKSTAGE.

Seen those, and I love Tar as well. Funny how that works.

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TheTurtleShepard t1_jaedcww wrote

I thought it was amazing, but to each their own

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Rswany t1_jaeeo0n wrote

I thought Tar was a pretty riveting character study and performance.

With that being said, I do think the climax and ending of the film unfold rather unceremoniously. I think you can argue, that's kind of the point but it does kind of make the ending less dramatic.

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mhowes666 t1_jaeghcn wrote

I felt very similar about the ending. I consider the ending to have pacing problems. One board room meeting and whammo >!she's in another country starting over.!<

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Lili_Danube OP t1_jaeh7yf wrote

It's a very cold movie. Not that it matters but I found the absence of background music a problem, even if done purposefully.

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AlanMorlock t1_jaeggdm wrote

"By thst logic no one has ever give a bad performance"

Most actors aren't performing someone putting on airs and giving a performance. Something tha actually is comparable, for reference, is Mark Ruffalo in Shutter Island, playing a psychiatrist pretending to be a cop. It seems like Ruffalo is awful in the movie until you find out what's going on.

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Lili_Danube OP t1_jaehjc9 wrote

I thought Naomi Watts in MULHOLLAND DRIVE was a interesting twist in that I thought she was terrible for most of it until I get to the last 15 minutes and everything changes and I had to revisit the movie and it changed my take on Watts, given the context, and I thought it was a brilliant performance but that only worked because of how the movie ended.

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AlanMorlock t1_jaejlpt wrote

Yes! Watts always comes to mindin this context as well. Another example is Rosamund Pike in certain sections of Gone Girl when it's portraying the fakely idealized narrative how her and Ben Affleck's characters got together.

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Zassolluto711 t1_jaehlee wrote

I found it rather engrossing. I’ve only saw it once, in a theatre so it’s easier to be more engaged, I guess.

What you refer to as “woke politics” (what is this in the film, according to you? I’m curious.) is just serious drama to me. There’s no distinguishing the two. In fact, I think it’s the crutch of the movie because it grounds it to the present world that we live in. I didn’t find it uneven because of that.

I don’t know if you can compare her performance in it to someone in a Cassavetes movie because they’re just different. Just because it’s different doesn’t mean it’s bad. By that measure every naturalistic actor is “good” and everyone else is “bad” when really it should be there’s good and bad naturalistic actors and good and bad non-naturalistic actors.

Even then, in this instance Lydia should be a theatrical person. She’s a conductor, not a violinist. I’ve met people like that, someone at the top of their creative field. I have literally worked backstage on plays and orchestras. Go watch interviews of some of these people. That’s just how they are.

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NeighborhoodLanky692 t1_jaehn5u wrote

I personally thought it was riveting, the only thing I wished was that they showed us Tar actually conducting a full piece and not just the glimpses that we saw.

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AlanMorlock t1_jaegvay wrote

You and thr guy next to you in the theater having shit taste or short attention spans isn't much of a comment on the movie.

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Blade_Trinity3 t1_jaeji9b wrote

It's important to attack the man, not the message. You've done a good job.

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Lili_Danube OP t1_jaei022 wrote

I watched SHOAH when I was 12. Please don't assume what my attention span is.

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MartinScorsese t1_jaeitsa wrote

Watching a movie and having it hold your attention are two entirely separate processes, and based on your post, I'm not surprised you conflate the difference.

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skatecrimes t1_jaeofli wrote

ive only made it half way and seems decent. its a bit slow but that arthouse for you. I'm a musician so i was actually really interested in what is going on because i have no window in that world of classical music. I think Cate's performance so far is very convincing.

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Mod-h8tr t1_jaes4tg wrote

I watched my vasectomy with picture in picture while watching this film. The film was the more painful thing to watch.

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Rayliex t1_jaexy11 wrote

I watched this last night, never seen a more pretentious film. And I'm sad about it too cause it had some really interesting parts within the film that could have been focused on as the main part of the movie and been way more interesting.

Like if it was an entire film about a conductor's reputation being ruined by people online, that would've been way more interesting. But it wasn't, that was only select parts of the movie and the end.

Or maybe it could've honed in on those really creepy and tense moments, since they were fun to watch, unlike the rest of this movie.

I was confused and struggled to care. Maybe I would've liked it more if it was shorter. It tested my patience the entire time.

I can see parts of which that people liked about this movie, but in the end, it's pretentious. It thinks it's a masterpiece and I believe it lacks care for the audience.

Doesn't deserve 6 oscar nominations.

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