Liars and Saints

  Lydia Tar loves music; we know this, because she watches old clips of Bernstein lectures, and she weeps with joy. Lydia's talent leads to an EGOT and a prestigious role in Berlin. (London and New York are great, but THEY ARE NOT BERLIN.) The problem is that Lydia has a mean streak: She reduces a small child to tears, she (sort of?) drives a fallen protege to suicide, she humiliates her lead cellist without warning, and she shouts at a driver (maybe when the driver deserves, at most, a quiet word, in private). Additionally, Lydia breaks the rules. She destroys evidence in an investigation, and she cheats during an audition. A tradition in orchestras requires that prospective recruits play their prepared excerpts behind a screen--so that the conductor renders verdicts that are based purely on "sound." (The conductor isn't considering race, or gender, or manner of dress.) But Lydia peers beneath the screen, makes some quick deductions about footwear, and changes her ve...

 Last week, a couple of Trump judges moved to make conversion therapy legal in some part of this country. The judges said there was "not enough research" to show that conversion therapy severely damages many lives. I thought of this while watching "Carol," Saturday, with my husband. It's a movie partly about a kind of conversion therapy. Carol, a gay woman in the fifties, has some trouble separating from her wounded husband. The husband--Coach Taylor, from "Friday Night Lights"--can't really let go. And it's embarrassing for him--the thought of his wife with another woman. This guy does all he can to break Carol down. (Also, he is not entirely unsympathetic, which is one of many miracles in this beautiful movie.) Threats pertaining to child custody get trotted out. A strange man on a cross-country road trip turns out to be a spy; he is collecting audio evidence of Carol's homosexual transgressions, to be used in court. Seemingly defeated, C...

Notes on horror, with regard to the Oscars: *Kathy Bates's "Misery" victory is not totally unparalleled. In addition to Jodi Foster and Anthony Hopkins ("Lambs"), we have, for example, Natalie Portman ("Black Swan") and Ruth Gordon ("Rosemary's Baby"). *One newspaper argues that "Silence of the Lambs" isn't even really horror; it's a psychological thriller. But what would define horror? Do there need to be supernatural elements? In that case, it's not clear why "Misery" would count as horror. (I guess it's maybe--slightly--supernatural at the very end, when James Caan is at lunch, and the face of the waitress briefly melds with--dead--Kathy Bates's face?) *Other scary films with Oscar-level pedigree: "The Sixth Sense," "Jaws," "Get Out," "The Exorcist." Toni Collette received her first--and, so far, only--Oscar nod for "The Sixth Sense." ...