I don’t know if you’ve heard, but TÁR is a bit good. An often uncomfortably close character study of a complicated genius, we follow conductor Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) hailed as the greatest of her generation as she goes through a particularly tumultuous time in her life. Just as she is about to complete her life’s ambition of conducting all of Mahler’s symphonies she makes some questionable choices in her private life, which spills over into the professional, before controversies in her past resurface in a magazine profile. Just seeing the intensity with which Blanchett explains the role of a conductor or tears down a student unwilling to look past Bach’s less admirable side when talking about his music makes this well worth your time. As Tár’s life unravels around her in the final act the film becomes an oppressive psychological horror full of creepy-subtle imagery where our lead lives a waking nightmare, obsessing over niggling, unidentifiable sounds in her house before completely losing track of who she is. SSP
Review in Brief: Tár (2022)
Review in Brief: Decision to Leave (2022)
Park Chan-wook’s latest is less extreme than the films he’s most famed for (that’s the Vengeance Trilogy, particularly OLDBOY for most audiences) but is just as dazzlingly stylish and intriguing to unpack, a good deal sexier (OK, not sexier than THE HANDMAIDEN) and more emotionally heightened for good measure. An insomniac, obsessive Busan detective (Park Hae-il) becomes fascinated with a woman suspected of murdering her husband (Tang Wei) who seems to be keeping tabs on him in turn and the two embark on an ill-advised affair. You know the relationship is bad news from the start, but you are compelled by it nonetheless. The imagery doesn’t need to be explicit to make your stomach lurch and the whole thing has this gallows humour running through and punctuating all the affairs, deception and intrigue. How did this not even receive a nomination at the Oscars? SSP
SSP Thinks Film 