TÁR (Todd Field 2022)

[Chris Knipp]

Xian Brooks of the Guardian enters the TÁR debate

This article in today's Guardian("Monstrous maestro / Why is Cate Blanchett’s cancel culture film Tár angering so many people?") winds up defending discomfiting protagonists. He cites Philip Roth in 'American Pastoral':

The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is about anyway,” he explains. “It’s getting them wrong that is living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful reconsideration, getting them wrong again. That’s how we know we’re alive: we’re wrong.”

Brooks seems a bit too sympathetic to the most naive members of the audience for my taste a times here but he seems fundamentally right, too. TÁR is a "challenging film," with an intentionally unappealing main character, and that's good.

But really these women are part of a long tradition, one that extends back through the likes of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Jane Austen’s Emma and Thackeray’s character Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair. All of these, too, were presumably seen as bad in their day. It’s only the passage of time that has rounded their edges.

But the movie has made back only $6 million of its $35 cost despite all the critical and awards admiration, because people want to be soothed. (Brooks mentions Marin Alsop of course, and the film is currently showing in the UK and coming in Australia Jan. 27.)

(Locally TÁR is now only still showing at small offbeat movie theaters. In NYC it's still showing at Regal Union Square and Angelika. You can rent it online now but it will cost you six dollars.)