I can’t sleep on a moving vehicle. Bus, car, boat, airplane, you name it, if it’s move, I can’t sleep. I might nod, but no real sleep for me. On long flights, I try to catch up with movies that either I missed or didn’t make it to Mexico and I couldn’t be arsed to obtain.

The lack of sleep changes my perception of a movie. I can hate something as inoffensive as the flawed Armageddon Time, or I can miss the point of a piece like She said.

Tar, however, I got. Even with the deafening roar of the jet engines, I could soak in the atmospheric soundtrack and witness Cate Blanchett’s finest hour as the unhinged Lydia Tar. Todd Field’s story about power, systemic abuse, and the cuttthroat world of classical music is a tremendous piece.

I struggled choosing one Hildur Guðnadóttir piece for today. I was a fan of the Joker theme, and the eerie Chernobyl soundtrack is musique concrete perfection, so I thought about recommending Tar instead. The film is now a little ignored, like a lot of cinema from 2022, and I think it deserves a reappreciation.

-Sam J. Valdés López