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Reviews
Tár (2022)
Not worth the Benefit of the Doubt
I've thought about this one for days afterwards and unfortunately for all the think pieces that try to find some subtlety that just isn't there, this is basically a story about a scary Lesbian strawman who is "just as bad" as the abusive males we've seen well documented almost daily in real life.
I'm a bit of a duffer when it comes to classical music but the infamous Julliard scene instantly strained credulity: any student would have learned that Bach piece from the Well Tempered Clavier before they hit third grade piano. (Wagner and Ricard Strauss would be more likely targets.) Also if this movie is about "cancel culture" why isn't it made more obvious that Tar is the one doing the cancelling by rejecting the student's choice of composer and for all intents and purposes pushing him out of class? She's conducted a "master class" without actually teaching anything.
There's been a lot of special pleading that generating these questions was the point of the film. But the film attempts to divorce sexual harassment from sexism and tries to equate broadening the classical canon with social media witch hunts. Why in this day and age does one of the few films that depict (what at first seems to be) a successful contemporary same-sex family devolve into an updated remake of "The Killing of Sister George?"
This could have been a film about a super smart woman negotiating all the new minefields that appear once you break the glass ceiling. Instead we get a muddled string of reactionary talking points.
The Jinkx and DeLa Holiday Special (2020)
A Better Holiday than we Deserve.
I knew her from Drag Race of course, but when I saw INFERNO A-GO-GO! In Ptown, I left convinced that DeLa would at some point accidentally write the 21st century's answer to "Angels in America." That hasn't happened yet, but she's definitely getting closer with each outing.
DeLa's dedicated to silly puns and gags, but her ambition and perfectionism always pushes her to be more insightful than the campy dictates of the form demands. The most "blasphemous" joke even turns out to a little profound.
The half hour covers a *lot* of ground and a lot of costumes. Jinkx is certainly no second fiddle and is in fine voice throughout. The two play off each others' persona's with ease.
We definitely need more specials. There's a bit too many "whimsical" takes on alcohol abuse here but there's a lot of very sharp meta-commentary going on as well. Sometimes needing everything to be "just perfect" pays off.