Telluride Film Festival Review: ‘Tar’

Right before Cate Blanchett was bestowed with the Silver Medallion Award at the Telluride Film Festival, a clip reel was shown highlighting some of her greatest performances. Among them were “Elizabeth,” “Veronica Guerin,” “Carol,” “Notes on a Scandal” and, of course, “Blue Jasmine” and “The Aviator,” for which she won her two Academy Awards (for Best Actress and Supporting Actress, respectively).

That’s an impressive list to be sure, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg of an incredible career that just went to the next level. Case in point is “Tar,” in which Blanchett delivers a bravura performance as Lydia Tar, a highly-revered orchestra conductor whose strive for perfection leads to her undoing. She’s at the top of her game, and she knows it, but her confidence and arrogance give way to vulnerabilities and insecurities that slowly build to a spectacular nervous breakdown.

That may sound like a description of Blanchett’s unhinged character from “Blue Jasmine,” but stylistically, the movies couldn’t be any more different. As written, produced and directed by Todd Field, “Tar” is an ambitious, riveting and mesmerizing character study that lacks a fully-defined narrative arc, but becomes more immersive as Tar loses her grip on reality over the course of its 2 hour and 38 minute running time.

With only his third feature in 21 years (after 2001’s “In the Bedroom” and 2006’s “Little Children”), “Tar” represents Field’s boldest film to date, and it’s a vision that was clearly influenced by Stanley Kubrick, with whom Field worked with as an actor on 1999’s “Eyes Wide Shut.” As with that film, “Tar” is a somewhat difficult film to review after only one viewing, since the symbolism and the significance of each finely-crafted scene might make better sense after repeated viewings.

That is, if you’re up for repeated viewings. “Tar” is a challenging film that requires patience and commitment, but if you’re up for the challenge, “Tar” reveals itself to be an audacious work of art and an exhilarating cinematic experience that will leave a lasting impression. That, of course, is largely due Cate Blanchett’s fully-committed performance as a woman who puts a great deal of pressure on herself while navigating the competitive waters of a male-dominated profession.

Those waters get choppier with each passing scene, as Tar – who proudly describes herself as “a U-Haul lesbian” – struggles to deal with motherhood, a scandal involving the suicide of a former student, her attraction to a new cellist in her orchestra (played by Sophie Kauer) and the pressure she puts on herself that causes her to spiral out of control.

After premiering to a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, “Tar” was greeted with a more muted response after its North American debut at the Telluride Film Festival. Clearly, this is a film that needs to simmer before better sense can be made of it. But regardless, Blanchett is bound to land her 7th Oscar nomination, while nominations for Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and Cinematography also seem possible, though not guaranteed. That, of course, may change after repeated viewings, which many cinephiles are bound to orchestrate.