MOVIE TIP

Tár

This drama is all about Cate Blanchett. It’s a showcase for the actress — which is why she’s an odds-on favorite to win an Oscar for the role. Her performance as a renowned classical music conductor is thrilling. But the rest of the movie pales in comparison. Blanchett’s Lydia Tár is hugely talented but also hugely arrogant. She hasn’t realized that #MeToo has changed the way the world deals with sexual harassment and impropriety by the powerful.Tár is married to the lead female violinist in the Berlin Philharmonic, and they have a daughter (the only person Tár seems to actually love). But Tár sets her sights on a new female cellist, even as the suicide of a former musician/romantic partner casts an increasingly dark shadow. “Tár” begins with long stretches of conversation; we don’t see Tár first conduct an orchestra until perhaps an hour into the film. It’s as if writer/director Todd Field is testing the audience. If he hadn’t cast Blanchett as Tár, would this have been worth wading through? As the character of Tár unravels, so does the movie, down to its surreal ending, which leaves viewers a little unsure how much is reality and how much is Tár’s own fever dream.

— Kristina Dorsey

STREAMING TIP

Hello World

Nate Bargatze

Amazon Prime

Many southern comics play into the stereotype established by Jeff Foxworthy and his Blue Collar Comedy tours. Fair enough. There are plenty of New York and Boston comedians who embrace the possibilities of their turf, too. But Bargatze, who’s from Nashville, embraces his southern roots in a different way — chiefly through his delivery and demeanor. His is a sharp brand of family-happy comedy softened by a gentle, self-deprecating delivery. It almost seems as though he’s making these observations and jokes on the fly — and is delightfully puzzled by them as they leave his mouth. There’s nothing particularly new in any of the topics Bargatze explores, but his skewed angles and conclusions are overwhelmingly fantastic.

— Rick Koster

BOOK TIP

Egypt’s Golden Couple: When Akhenaten and Nefertiti Were Gods On Earth

John Darnell and Colleen Darnell

When I was a kid, I went to see a mummy at a museum. A big fan of the Boris Karloff “Mummy” film franchise, I was delighted and only mildly nervous to see a real mummy in person. That night, my dad tore a strip from a bed sheet, stained it an creepy yellow-brown color with maple syrup, scrawled hieroglyphics on it — then tucked it under my pillow. When I found the “mummy tape,” I lost my mind. It was with similar trepidation that I opened a book called “Egypt’s Golden Couple: When Akhenaten and Nefertiti Were Gods on Earth.” Yes, these were the parents of King Tut, and this book, authored by a married couple of Connecticut scholars/Egyptologists, is pretty wonderful. First, the layperson can understand it because large sections are written as speculative narrative nonfiction — based, of course, on their research. Second, Tut’s mom and dad changed Egyptian religion by altering the solar-worship system — and essentially appointed themselves gods. Not a bad trick — possibly even better than hiding some mummy tape in a kid’s bed.

— Rick Koster