Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing 
Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) is at the top of classical conducting world. She has a book tour, a lecture series at Julliard, a beautiful family, and the respect and envy of her peers. But then one of her former students commits suicide, leaving behind allegations that Tár promised her professional favors and then blacklisted her after she broke off their physical relationship. Tár blows it off, but also instructs her assistant (Noémie Merlant) to delete any and all communications from the dead girl. Meanwhile, a new cellist (Sophie Kauer) catches her eye.
Director Todd Field wrote the story with Cate Blanchett in mind from the beginning, but you wouldn't know it from watching it. He wanted to interrogate having someone other than a cishet white man as an abuser and it mostly works. The questions are there, however, I would have liked to see Blanchett's Tár act less like an insert of a cishet white man. Everything is completely spelled out and there is no ambiguity, no nuance. It's just decaf coffee in a commercial. "We've replaced this serial workplace harasser with a lesbian. Can you tell the difference?" And maybe that's the point? That power is wielded like a club by those with it in the exact same ways? I just felt like there was more to be said that didn't.
That being said, Blanchett is incredible. She played her own piano pieces and accordion, learned German, and did all the actual conducting. She 100% deserves that nomination but I still kind of hope Michelle Yeoh gets the win. I wouldn't be mad, per se, if Cate won but I'd be a little disappointed. It's a no from me on any other category, though.
Tár is currently streaming on Peacock.
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