Full transparency: I would not recommend this movie for everyone. It's a definite slow burn, it's long and it's a character study on a powerful, gay female composer.
It won't be everyone's cup of tea.
That being said, since I finished yesterday, I can't stop thinking about it. It absolutely stopped me in my tracks once it was completed because I can't quite figure out what the hell we watched.
Part of me feels like Lydia Tarr was simply going through a psychotic breakdown, but the movie plays it so straight down the middle that it's impossible to tell what is real and what is part of her breakdown.
A few things stand out to me...
a. The scene in the classroom, which is an all-time one-take masterpiece by Cate Blanchett, is confusing to me because when we watch her berate that student, no one in the classroom is recording her with a phone based on the angles of the classroom that we're shown. Yes, when a video of the situation comes out later in the movie, there are all kinds of various angles of the situation that would have you believe that a million phones were out at the time.
Which scene was the hallucination? The first one or the second? Which one was real, given that we're watching both from her perspective? Were they both hallucinations?
b. The scene were she drops off Olga at her apartment is the real giveaway that what we're watching isn't based in reality. She gets out of her car and goes down the walkway, only to end up in an open area where it's clear that there's no Olga. She goes down (by herself, no less) this dark corridor and finds herself about to be chased by a giant dog, only to take off running, where she busts her face up on a fall. What the happened to the dog that was about to attack her? None of that feels like it could be real.
c. When she tackles the composer that replaces her at the end... it all just feels less like reality and more like a hallucination. Had that happened in real life, such as the situation in the classroom, there's no way that it doesn't become a world-wide story, given her star status and the absurdity of her committing assault in front of hundreds of people. Yet, we're not presented with that in her downfall from there.
d. It doesn't make sense that she wouldn't be able to see or be with her child. She's kind of a horrible person, but she's not a horrible mother. It's hard to believe she would have no access to her child with the access she would have to good lawyers/ Also, the scene with the accordion... more mental breakdown. It just feels like the entire last third of the movie is her having a mental breakdown, but it's impossible to tell what is real and what is part of the breakdown.
It's going to stay with me for a few days.
This movie has some obvious cancel culture tone to it, but the end feels less like cancellation than it does a full on spiral into a mental breakdown that swallows her whole.
It won't be everyone's cup of tea.
That being said, since I finished yesterday, I can't stop thinking about it. It absolutely stopped me in my tracks once it was completed because I can't quite figure out what the hell we watched.
Part of me feels like Lydia Tarr was simply going through a psychotic breakdown, but the movie plays it so straight down the middle that it's impossible to tell what is real and what is part of her breakdown.
A few things stand out to me...
a. The scene in the classroom, which is an all-time one-take masterpiece by Cate Blanchett, is confusing to me because when we watch her berate that student, no one in the classroom is recording her with a phone based on the angles of the classroom that we're shown. Yes, when a video of the situation comes out later in the movie, there are all kinds of various angles of the situation that would have you believe that a million phones were out at the time.
Which scene was the hallucination? The first one or the second? Which one was real, given that we're watching both from her perspective? Were they both hallucinations?
b. The scene were she drops off Olga at her apartment is the real giveaway that what we're watching isn't based in reality. She gets out of her car and goes down the walkway, only to end up in an open area where it's clear that there's no Olga. She goes down (by herself, no less) this dark corridor and finds herself about to be chased by a giant dog, only to take off running, where she busts her face up on a fall. What the happened to the dog that was about to attack her? None of that feels like it could be real.
c. When she tackles the composer that replaces her at the end... it all just feels less like reality and more like a hallucination. Had that happened in real life, such as the situation in the classroom, there's no way that it doesn't become a world-wide story, given her star status and the absurdity of her committing assault in front of hundreds of people. Yet, we're not presented with that in her downfall from there.
d. It doesn't make sense that she wouldn't be able to see or be with her child. She's kind of a horrible person, but she's not a horrible mother. It's hard to believe she would have no access to her child with the access she would have to good lawyers/ Also, the scene with the accordion... more mental breakdown. It just feels like the entire last third of the movie is her having a mental breakdown, but it's impossible to tell what is real and what is part of the breakdown.
It's going to stay with me for a few days.
This movie has some obvious cancel culture tone to it, but the end feels less like cancellation than it does a full on spiral into a mental breakdown that swallows her whole.
