Memeforum Movie Club: Tár

How many problems you got? A Lot.

It’s become increasingly clear that for a film to become an Oscar favorite, it has to have a strong and vibrant life online. It has to be in the zeitgeist. This was certainly true of the Best Picture Winner, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and the cultural runner-up, Tár. While both of these films both enjoyed popularity in online discussions of both the Oscar race and film in general, the tone of the conversations was much different for each film.

While Everything Everywhere All At Once, a high-energy oddball sci-fi film with an emotional center had a very earnest and serious life online, Tár, an almost punishing character study about art, power, and genius in a post #MeToo world was met with jokes and an overall fun tone. Lydia Tár, the film’s protagonist, quickly became the subject of many memes, and was easily slotted into existing formats. While the conversation around Everything Everywhere All At Once has mostly dissipated in the wake of award season, Tár lives on. One would think the film with hot dog fingers and time travel was more attuned to the wants of the meme-making public but instead, we canonized Lydia Tár as our stand out meme character, for not only the Oscar race but maybe the whole year. 

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The reign of Lydia Tár as Meme Queen is unsurprising to someone like me who has lived through many Oscar races online. It is a no-brainer that she would live on in the hearts and minds and posts of the audience long after they’ve left the theater. Tár existed within and created a perfect storm of culture. Multiple components came together to create one of the most powerful meme characters in recent memory.