Hilarious and haunting. There's a real beguiling quality to this film - it's a character study and yet it manages to touch on so many grand and complex themes while being so singularly focused. Power, obsession, identity politics, image/persona, the transcendent qualities of art, passion, the list could go on.

The classroom scene in the first act really seems to put a context around the rest of the film. Can the merits of a piece of art be separated from the creator? Are they inextricable? Is it an act of ego to dismiss something because we take offence? Do we deny ourselves of something valuable when we moralize art and the artist? Lydia Tar certainly seems to think so. She admonishes her student for letting his ego get in the way of perfecting his craft. She asks him something along the lines of "On what basis would you like those filling out your rating cards judge you?" The implied answer being, simply on my skill.

The "Apartment For Sale" song better be nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars!