Alright so with the Oscar nominations being announced about a week ago, Cate Blanchett’s
Tar gobbled up a handful of noms, and this isn't your typical dry drama.
Nah, this wasn’t marketed well, because this is a psychological drama tense “cancel
culture” thriller, so we’re going to be breaking this thing down for you, explaining
the ending, some of it’s themes, and why the heck there’s a ghost creeping on Lydia
Tar.
But with that out of the way, a huge thank you for clicking this, I’m your host Jared,
now let’s get into Tar.
So Tar follows Cate Blanchett’s Lydia Tar, essentially being at the top of her game.
An accomplished composer, pianist, musicologist, and the first female chief conductor of the
Berlin Philharmonic.
We see her relishing in these accomplishments, being interviewed at The New Yorker Festival,
promoting a handful of projects.
Two noteworthy ones are her new book, Tar on Tar, which just screams that Obama awarding
himself with a medal meme, and her upcoming live recording of Mahler’s (Mall-ler) Fifth
Symphony.
However, with this level of fame and expertise, we soon learn Lydia may have a bit more of
a dark side/past to her.
Sure being a bit demanding when it comes to the do’s and don’ts of her staff for the
upcoming Symphony, but very much badgers one of her BIPOC pangender students about their
influences in composers, urging them to focus on their art, rather than the transgressions
they may or may not have committed in their personal lives.
This of course is quite an “on the nose concept” for Lydia to suggest, because she
too has a clouded past, revolving around a past student of her’s, named Krista Taylor,
that she became romantically involved with.
Krista was then blacklisted from other orchestras by her, after the two had a falling out.
Lydia believes her professional and personal lives should be separate, but can’t help
but mix the two, as the same series of events similar to what happened with Krista, begin
to happen with a new young Russian cellist named Olga.
Manipulating the auditions, Lydia firmly plants Olga in the first chair position, granting
her a solo in the Symphony’s companion piece.
Alienating her relationship with Sharon, her wife and concertmaster of the orchestra.
The alienation continues, as Lydia is informed via her assistant, Francesca, that Krista
Taylor had committed suicide, and her parents were attempting to sue Lydia, after a number
of allarming accusations againist her came out.
Lydia instructs Francesca to delete any emails she had with Krista.
She doesn’t, instead quitting after failing to get the assistant conductor position she
was promised, and leaks the emails.
A series of bad press is thrown Lydia’s way, as she has to deal with the Krista suit
against her, then an edited out of context video of her berating her student from earlier
with accusations of racism, protests against her during her book promotion tour, Sharon
leaving her and not permitting Lydia to see their daughter, finally leading to Lydia being
replaced as conductor for the big upcoming Mahler’s (Mall Ler) Fifth Symphony.
Making a HUGE scene, tackling and assaulting her replacement the night of the performance.
Which was so reminiscent of the ending sequence from Whiplash.
So well done.
Now advised to lay low after these events by her representation, the ending is a pretty
big shocker, as it’s revealed Lydia’s not from some prestigious line of rich, pretentious,
elite composers, but rather returns to her childhood home on Staten Island, where her
brother calls her by her real name, Linda Tarr.
Showing us that almost all of Lydia was a “fake it until you make it” approach,
a charade if you will, forgetting her roots at the end of it all.
Months later is a complete change of scenery as we see Lydia now living her life in the
Philippines, a foreign land where no one knows who she is, essentially starting over again,
symbolized by the Leonard Bernstein tape “What does music mean?”
she watched back in her childhood room.
This is supposed to be Lydia starting anew.
However, her past ways may not entirely be washed away as she wanders into a high-end
brothel looking for a massage.
This ties back to her manipulative behavior and preying on younger women with Krista and
Olga.
As she eyes a young woman, who is sitting in the same exact position as Olga was in
the orchestra alignment, and sports a number 5 on her robe, referring back to the 5th symphony
Lydia didn't get to conduct.
Ending the story with the most ironic, head scratching scene of the entire movie, is now
seeing Lydia perform once again, but it is drastically different than the high-class,
snooty orchestra goers we saw earlier.
No no, these are all cosplayers, attending a comic-con like convention for the Monster
Hunter video game series, as she conducts the orchestra, in the same determined, serious
manner, playing the theme song of the game ending the film.
Now there is a LOT to unpack about what the hell this movie is fully encompassing.
First of which is a look at the idea of power, corruption, abuse, leading us into the #MeToo
movement of things.
Lydia is someone who gained such power in the musical world.
Her influence alone gained her notoriety from performances to even her book sales, but at
what moment does that power become too much for one person, and they start to manipulate
things because they simply can.
In an interview with Radio Times, Director Todd Field explained:
"I always knew where I'd start it and where it would end and I wanted to take a person
and make them a vessel for having to hold power.
And when does that vessel start to crack?
You know, and in what manner does that vessel go from being something on a pedestal and
sort of literally worshiped, to being stuck in the garage?”
Though Tar is an entirely fictionalized character, story, blah blah blah, there are some serious
similarities to celebrities and other powerful figureheads that fall right into the mold
of Lydia Tar.
From Cosby to Weinstein, to Louis C.K, the list could go on and on.
And with most of these cases, these people of power are torn down or “canceled”,
and the film even shows the concept of “cancel culture”, BUT in a really clever way.
Because yes, Lydia has lost her foothold in the prestigious musical world after being
canceled.
She’s lost opportunities, relationships, fame, there are crowds of protestors for her
book, and even legal trouble with the passing of Krista, mostly being blamed on her.
It’s also pretty on the nose for her to be orchestrating for a game called “Monster
Hunter”, when she was actually the monster of this entire story, bring exposed, now seeing
how far she’s fallen from the pretentious music world she was secure in.
BUT also how “cancel culture” isn’t necessarily a 100% fool proof plan.
In many cases, the persona in question can lay low, and come back without a problem.
Sure they may have to reinvent themselves a bit, which Tar showcases in a satirical
way.
For example Lydia going back to her childhood roots, shifting to a different country, and
conducting an orchestra for Monster Hunter.
She is still putting her heart and soul and seriousness into her craft.
As long as it sounds good, the Monster Hunter fans don't care who she is.
And hell, think about real life stories of this same thing.
How many of them were truly quote “canceled”?
Louis C.K did some heinous shit, but he just sold out shows in Madison Square Garden, like
whhhhaaaaattt?
This also brings up the concept Lydia Tar questioned her students about, can you or
rather should we be able to separate the artist from the art?
Someone’s personal life and reputation, should it be in question, when they release
an absolute banger of a song, movie, painting, or so forth.
In doing so, the culture of the time and place of that art is being forgotten.
Therefore important material in the past, wouldn’t have the same cultural impact it
does in the present.
This is elaborated on during the opening New Yorker interview.
And lastly we gotta talk about what the hell these ghosts just creepin’ about mean?
“I ain't afraid of no ghost” The first time I watched this, I honestly thought I
was seeing things, BUT on two separate occasions, a mysterious figure can be seen in the background
of Lydia’s apartment, and once again when she wakes up in the middle of the night.
There is also the scream in the park Lydia hears while on a jog.
Which fun fact, is the same scream from the Blair Witch Project.
So these horror elements are to symbolize Lydia’s past, specifically Krista, who was
the young protege Lydia used and abused, eventually taking her own life.
She is haunting Lydia.
Krista’s fate was actually teased by the book she had gifted to Lydia.
A bit of a history lesson, but the novel is the Challenge and was inspired by Vita Sackville-West's
passionate love affair with then Violet Trefusis in the early 1900’s.
The dedication page in Romany dialect translates to:
“This book is yours, my witch.
Read it and you will find your tormented soul, changed and free.
In the novel and in real life, Violet often threatened ending her life if Vita left her.
Lydia knows this, alluding to Krista eventually “unaliving”.
The pattern scribbled in the novel is also of Shipibo origin, which I’ll touch on in
a bit, but it’s Krista urging Lydia to come clean.
Now throughout most of the movie, Lydia never really thinks, dwells, even talks about the
immoral things she did to get to where she’s at, and vice versa what she’s taken advantage
of while in this position of power.
All of this haunting is actually her conscious hallucinating these things to show her inner
guilt, even though her outside persona that she built up doesn’t physically want to
approach these head on.
Almost acting like a robot, making excuses for the other party's feelings.
But these subtle hints are shown the two times we see the ghost of Krista in the apartment,
also when Lydia is constantly looking over her shoulder like she’s seen something.
The scream in the park, the several times she can't sleep, blaming it on a handful of
noises in her apartment.
Her coming back to reality and gripping the chair right as the New Yorker interview is
happening.
Even the dog she runs into when at Olga’s place, is just another image she hallucinates.
A black dog is typically associated with the feeling of grief or sadness.
Predators are typically haunted by what they do, so in Lydia’s case, haunted and having
a conscience are one in the same, and the major turning point is when she slams her
head.
It’s almost like the predator is now the prey, as everything slowly unravels for Lydia.
Surprisingly right before the fall is the weird dreamlike sequence of Lydia on her bed
in a swamp, with a snake swimming towards her.
For the Shipibo, serpents or snakes are entities that cleanse and purify their state of being
and are commonly seen flowing within their visions.
They’re also sacred creatures, specifically the cosmic serpent of Ronin, and are considered
the source of all patterns, as they are laid out upon its skin.
These patterns show up several times in the film, commonly associated with Krista.
For example on her face in a vision, and sketched out in the Challenger book she gifted to Lydia.
Anyway, Lydia bursting into flames, this in actuality is the beginning of her attempting
to atone for the sins of her past, and that's why there is the downfall of everything right
after, so essentially Lydia has to come clean.
All of this was spelled out in literally the first scene of the movie, via the live text
message exchange on the phone, with the one of the last messages being “Maybe”.
At the end, that “Maybe” is still a maybe.
Lydia gets sick after going to the brothel, and being reminded of Olga by the position
of the girl she picks, in relation to where Olga sat in the orchestra, along with the
number 5 being associated with the fifth symphony she was going to conduct.
But we never see if Lydia goes through with it or not, it is a maybe.
BUT I think this also symbolizes her growing into her conscience, having more of a voice
of reason, because it physically causes a reaction.
Whereas at any other time in the movie, Lydia is stoic and non reactionary.
Anyway I’d love to hear your thoughts on Tar.
What did you think of Blanchett’s performance, the messages it was saying, and did you catch
those darn ghosts on the first watch through?
And I’ll let you know
We’re currently running a competition giving away 3 copies of Wakanda Forever on the 15th
of February.
And all you have to do, to be in for a chance of winning, is like the video, make sure you
subscribe with notifications on, and drop a comment below with your thoughts on M3gan.
We pick the comments at random at the end of the month, and the winners of the last
one are on screen right now.
So if that’s you, message me on twitter at heavy spoilers
If you want something else to watch, be sure to check out some of our other videos, Last
of Us, tons of content for you chumps.
But with that out of the way, thanks for the constant support, I’ve been Jared, I’ll
see you in the next one, take care, and peace.