This is the Pitchwork Review. I'm Pugetal, the editor-in-chief. And I'm the reviews director, Jeremy Larson.

Today we're talking about the Oscars. This year, two of the films nominated for Best Picture are about larger-than-life musical talents.

There's Baz Luhrman's dramatic Elvis biopic, which got eight nominations, and Tar, a psychological thriller starring Kate Blanchett that received six nominations.

And a little later, we'll hear from two nominees themselves, David Byrne and Sunlux, who are up for best original song.

So definitely stick around for that.

Here with us now to talk about all of it is Features Editor Jill Mapes. Hello, Jill. Hi, how's it going? Welcome to Music's Biggest

Night. It's Music's Biggest Night. I don't care what anybody else says. Hey, Joe. Hey, what's up? So let's talk about

the movie that everybody can stop talking about. Hey, Joe. Hey, what's up? So let's talk about the movie that everybody can't stop talking about.

A story of musical genius, a story about a kind of enigma of a woman. The movie is tar.

Jeremy, for folks who haven't seen it, tell us what tar is about. Sure. Well, to borrow a line that was made famous by Missy Elliott, the tagline for this movie could very well be,

music makes you lose control.

Tar is written and directed by Todd Field.

The plot is about a fictional composer named Lydia Tar, who is at the apex of her long and storied career as she prepares to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra through Mahler's Fifth Symphony.

Music It's an imposing and tricky piece that would make her the first woman to conduct all of Maller's symphonies.

Along the way to this performance, we see a heated discussion about Bach and identity politics at a classroom in Juilliard, an increasingly unsturdy marriage to the Phil Harmonix first chair violinist,

played by the wonderful Nina Haas, and her assistant played by Naomi Berlent, who knows where all

of Lydia Tar's bodies are buried. When we find out former mentee of Lydia Tar

has killed herself, we start to put some of the puzzle pieces together that Lydia Tar may be much

more and much less than her autobiography, Tar on Tar, suggests. Thank you, Jeremy. You're welcome.

You're welcome. I will say, because this character is so complex, some of the resonance of this movie has become so that people can't tell whether Lydia Tar is a real person or not.

Right.

There was an article published in Vulture a month or so ago that was like, what, 26 questions you need to know about Lydia Tar.

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