322 Comments

I hope "The Free Press" and its audience evolve to something that can discuss film as film. I was going to post my take on the movie, but as I am late to the game (I see the comments ending Nov 14 - I sometimes think about a movie for a year or so before commenting) and as most of the comments are about #MeToo, I will leave it at a link to my review of "Black Swan," ( https://cinemadiscourse.com/the-black-swan-a-movie-review/ ) which perhaps does a better job of the inner unraveling of an artist, and "Phantom of the Opera," ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Ua7VAeJWE ) which perhaps does a better job of a woman balancing her personal life and art. (That review contains a comment on "The Red Shoes'" depiction of a failure to achieve such balance.) It will be interesting to compare "Tar" and "The Red Shoes" in twenty years.

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Tár is a masterpiece, the most subtle and complex unpacking of #MeToo and the dynamics of elite power I've seen. Field channels both Kubrick and Tarkovsky in a film that's loaded with subterranean depth but deceptively simple on the surface. There are building blocks I didn't notice until the 2nd viewing, and some I didn't see until the 3rd. And I just read another analysis (from Dan Kois in Slate) that pointed out a few things I *still* hadn't caught. Tár is a work of autopoeisis, a deep dive into the experiential field of extreme high culture and the world around it. It's definitely not everyone's love language; the tone is extremely chilly and the pacing on the surface seems slow. But there's a LOT going on in every shot.

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I had a situation where my high school band director was removed for some alleged misconduct, so this movie really spoke to me. I've heard so many other stories like it since then, but this was the first one from my experience. And I remember even as a high schooler hearing the rumors of his innocence and the duplicity of his accuser and trying to balance those with the unnerving possibility of his guilt. But it was always a matter of integrity to support this person who I knew so well even given the uncertainty. After he was cleared and retired anyway, he showed up at one of our concerts as a spectator and I made a point of going up to him to show support.

And that's what stuck out for me in this movie. Not the Cate Blanchett character, but the supporting cast, who I think are so realistic in their mendacity. All of them are gunning for glory. Most of them are happy to support the main character until they are happy to dispose of her, showing little or no loyalty or integrity. The truth of the accusations are irrelevant to them, they just go whichever way the wind is blowing, and despite ostensibly being individual human beings, they act almost in perfect harmony. It's incredibly creepy, but not unrealistic.

My question is why are people like this? I don't get it. I don't get why they don't care about the truth. I don't why loyalty is so unimportant to them. I don't get why "cancellation" is considered a just outcome even for the guilty. None of it computes to me. It's self-apparent to me that even if you take Cate Blanchett character as being totally guilty (which the movie is somewhat ambiguous about), she's still the least despicable human being in the film (aside from her daughter). I assume there is some mechanism by which others disagree, but I struggle to understand it.

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Man, Freddie never disappoints! Bravo!

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I was at the academy screening with a Q & A with the cast and Todd. The moderator did not understand the film at all and proceeded to pontificate about his personal view that this was a gender reversal film and there are more people in hollywood that needed to be rooted out, rather than a sophisticated commentary on cancel culture itself. Is it OK to cancel Bach because of identity politics enforced by presentism? Does her crime fit the punishment especially when it is void of due process? Blanchett set the moderator straight with a bold sardonic quip, to which I was the only one applauding, and kept applauding, until slowly people felt safe to join me in celebrating her courage. Hopefully there will be more brave souls that stand up to this cancel-culture mob tyranny.

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Don’t chop people into little grievance groups and you won’t have problems with conflict between those groups

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This was a surprising piece if for no other reason than the fact that it was written about a movie, or that someone had decided to make one.

While this movie and the review focus on the so called "#metoo", another way to look at it is in the context of the "performances" that we are seeing at museums around the world by the hordes of not uneducated by anti-educated pretentious dimwits.

This movie seems to be a work of art that also discusses art in relation to artists. If these humanoids are in any way representative of youth everywhere, one thing that stands out is their complete lack of understanding and appreciation of art, and in extension of humanity.

Art is meant to be transcendental, and it is obvious that humans today are unable to transcend their narrow interest and shallowness.

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Self-conscious writing about an apparently self-conscious move does nothing to interest me in seeing the movie.

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This review has spoilers:

https://stream.org/the-new-metoo-movie-tar-makes-conservatives-into-monsters/

"Tár is a leftist film that is about the crashing and burning of an abusive conservative bully. The lead character is a symbol of what liberals think of as conservative privilege and cruelty, despite the fact that the character is a lesbian and a classical music conductor."

Many lesbians are loudly against the Trans Travesty of men in woman-face so I guess they are mean conservatives now?

"Make no mistake: Tár is a Progressive scolding aimed at the Right, despite its lovely music and urbane Berlin setting."

"This Film Manages to Slander Brett Kavanaugh, Again

How this opening scene plays out tells you everything you need to know about the next two-plus hours. Something related to time or turning back to something thought forgotten in the past is going to occur (teshuvah), and that will trigger the need for repentance (kavanagh). There’s also this wrinkle, which gives the game away. When Lydia Tár mentions “kavanagh” in her interview, she quickly adds that “to this audience that word might mean something else.” By this she means that they audience will probably think of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. As if on cue, the audience lustily boos."

"I can only say that it was a bit bizarre to step into a movie theater to see a well-acted drama and hear Mahler’s Ninth Symphony only to be confronted with a hostile New York audience booing my high school buddy, who was falsely accused of sexual assault.

The booing scene instantly made clear what I was about to watch. Tár would be another angry story about what heartless monsters conservatives are."

And,

"Make no mistake: Lydia Tár is a right-wing jackal and she is guilty. Don’t let the fact that she is profiled in The New Yorker or happens to be a lesbian fool you."

Yeah, I think lesbians are thrown under the bus now. We stopped caring about women or lesbians because we prioritize the right of fetished men and others with personality disorders to *be* women and to groom kids for "gender affirmation". Next up is the normalization of Minor Attracted People.

https://nypost.com/2022/11/02/prominent-new-york-trans-activist-arrested-for-allegedly-soliciting-a-minor/

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I'm glad they are making movies exploring this subject. On a less esoteric note, I just watched the horror film Barbarian and the #Metoo motif was oddly as terrifying as the demons dwelling deep in the earth. The descent into hell was palpable.

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I love Bach, so this is a must miss for me. I think a hashtag movement is afoot for young women who are now suing the doctors who removed their breasts when they went through a phase during their teens. Chloe Cole has announced she's initiating a lawsuit, following Camille Keifer's lawsuit statement a few days prior. Pans are for cooking and baking, not the bedroom.

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The Chloe Cole lawsuit will be big. She is one of many but most people have no clue about this stuff. I hope it raises awareness when she cleans out Kaiser.

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Candace Jackson Bone is one of the attorneys to watch in this. Great credentials. Unfortunate that the only way to get the word out is to go on Tucker Carlson. He also interviewed Helena Kerschner.

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I hear you. I mostly look online. There are sources like NotTheBee and the postmellenial. Also, Matt Walsh reports alot on this stuff. And, jt directed me to Yang's substack:

https://wesleyyang.substack.com/p/i-needed-love-i-needed-support-i

""I needed love. I needed support. I needed somebody to hear me out and not just tell me what I wanted to hear."

Chloe Cole on her life trajectory: puberty blockers at 13; double mastectomy at 15; detransition advocate at 18"

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I have the perspective, not often listened to, of the ex-wife, long ago story from 1992. This, what we have now, is exponential runaway. I regret to be so honest. For mind/body relief, Ute Heggen YT channel (Ex wife of trans heals in nature and movement) I have to isolate myself. I no longer leave my town, my friends, my land. My ex-husband is the self created captive, in his 3M apartment, fully owned in NYC. I have a freedom that he does not. Ute Heggen, YT channel

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I am very sorry, Ute.

You have lived with this a long time. So, it is likely you could have written this one yourself:

"Psychiatry Professor: ‘Transgenderism’ Is Mass Hysteria Similar To 1980s-Era Junk Science"

https://thefederalist.com/2016/11/17/psychiatry-professor-transgenderism-mass-hysteria-similar-1980s-era-junk-science/

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Please visit my youtube channel, Ute Heggen, for a demonstration of my nature work for healing and my mind/body movement series. I appreciate the sympathy, but I have chosen to speak out, since I see children lured into this cult of false promises and unhealthy pills, injections and surgeries.

Our stories are beginning to be told, as on Lime Soda Films channel, trailer for new docu:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhAlvw_kAHs

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It is interesting in an industry that gave rise to the term "casting couch" and whose ugly cousin, the music industry, created a whole new level of derogatory labels and treatment for women that the abuse of power is portrayed by a women. This is not an insightful examination of ethics, culture, and the #me too, but there's-the-ice-cream-truck distraction of a film.

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See now you've added additional information. Domestic abusers. Meaning not random hook-ups. Meaning established patterns of control. If so those are men (or sometimes women) with a predilection for violence. And you added Covid lockdowns. Lots of craziness induced by Covid lockdowns. I did not read the link but is it about threatening pets to get sex or domestic or animal abuse? Have you gone from rape to domestic abuse?

And yes my understanding of anyone in that circumstance is limited because I would never tolerate that kind of behavior. I am not a meek and mild creature. I do have sympathy and compassion for those who are. I just don't discriminate by seeing all women as like that, nor a men as having a predilection for violence.

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Wow - for the first time in 2 years, I have reason to go to the movie theater

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As soon as I saw "BIPOC pangender" I said "hard pass". Thanks for saving me money.

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Not for nothing, but one on my favorite movies in years "Aniara" does the same thing with the credits. The first time I watched it I thought it accidently skipped to the end. The Swedes are always ahead of the curve on us I guess :D

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