About five minutes into this film, after some opening credits and well into this long-winded interview, I was about to give up on it. But, I kept watching and, even though I was intrigued by this arrogant and self-absorbed know-it-all, I kept thinking, when is this going to end? I fast forwarded on my dvd, which I had bought due to the great things I heard about the movie. I found I had only a few minutes left in the interview, so I went back and finished it. In the first 25 minutes, there are 3 scenes. I kept watching transfixed, by what I wasn't sure. Was it Cate Blanchett, who'd always been a great actress or by this strange hypnotic film, which somehow put me in a trance. I couldn't move. The more I saw, the more I was drawn in and maybe appalled by its central character, who lives on another higher plane and yet obtuse and/or uncaring to others' feelings or opinions, which are really not that important, you know. As it developed, I came to realize you can't grasp all this in one viewing and I came to appreciate the fact that "Tar" is possibly the most meticulously crafted film I've seen not only in recent years, but maybe since the Golden Age of Film (the 30s-50s), with unbelievable comparisons to "Citizen Kane," chronicling the effects one person has on those around them, and how each person has a different perspective of the individual. Director Todd Field has come a long way from starring in "Gross Anatomy" with Matthew Modine and Daphne Zuniga. He has crafted a masterpiece and Cate Blanchett could only have lost her Oscar to the whirlwind of a movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once." Had that been made any other year, I feel Cate Blanchett would have won. She was Tar. People may disagree with me, but you will be hard-pressed to find a more spectacular film made nowadays.
Review of Tár
