Stark Confines

Tár carries the vestiges of Blanchett’s performance in Carol (2015), her other titular sapphic role as a moneyed and repressed urbanite straining against the force of her own want. But here, Lydia Tár—who surrenders so intuitively to her desires that she could never see their pursuit as predation—strains against a life built on delusion. Every frame in Tár is as contrived as the person it follows: Field’s compositions are arrayed with enough luxury commodities for a feature in Architectural Digest.