Specter of Reason

Todd Field's acclaimed and enigmatic  Tár  manipulates sound, images and even time itself in unconventional ways, immersing us in the labyrinthian mind of its plagued anti-heroine. Though the line between reality and perception is blurry, some events seem unquestionably real:  Lydia Tár uses her position to exert a toxic power dynamic over women near her, both professionally and personally; she alienates herself from all the women in her life, including her closest friends, her family and even herself; she spurns one of her closest protégées, a young woman named Krista, who eventually commits suicide; Lydia Tár loses her chance to conduct Mahler's Fifth Symphony, which was to complete the Tár-Mahler cycle and cement her place in music history; and finally, she loses her family, her professional position and esteem, and her self-respect.  That is the broad outline of the layered, complex story, but it fails to capture what makes the film so intriguing and perplex...

I will be the first to admit that  Avatar: The Way of Water  is not a great film, or even a very good one. While the visuals are often stunning, the dialogue and characters are rarely compelling--and sometimes downright problematic. The film propagates patriarchal tropes and appropriates Maori and Native American culture in superficial ways, and all at the expense of character development. To top it off, the plot is full of holes. And yet, on a thematic and emotional level, it sometimes works. At the very least,  the power-hungry, Tulkun-hunting Captain Mick Scoresby (Brendan Cowell)  is set up to become a formidable villain in the next installment. More than that, Payakun may be the most sympathetic adaptation of the character of Moby Dick in film history. (Unfortunately, that says more about the inadequacies of prior film adaptations than it does about Cameron's film.) In the end, James Cameron has established a viable connection to one of the greatest works in Ame...