I left the theater thinking "I don't know whether Todd Field wants to satirize, mock, and critique the highbrow art world he's portraying or indulge himself in it." I'm not sure he knows either.
There are pretentious references a plenty. The German Idealists and Romantics are well represented. Just off memory, Lydia quotes Freud ("narcissism of small differences..."), and discusses "sublimation" -- a concept made famous by Freud. Her mentor quotes Schopenhauer (sensitivity to noise). And a number of references are made to Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner, and of course Mahler. Then there are the casual references to various highbrow institutions such as Smith College, Eastman, and Curtis. She pours her water from a frosted over decanter and lives in a brutalist West German apartment.
Todd Field is maybe a bit too clever for his own good. In one scene Lydia admonishes a self-described "bipoc" student for dismissing Bach's music, but during a later conversation dismisses Schopenhauer for having pushed his wife down the stairs. She makes mention of art intended for "cretins" then ends up conducting a "lowbrow" cretinous video game soundtrack. She goes from waxing philosophic about the function of great art and music to sort of debasing herself to make a living. I guess it's a play on the current state of art but `there is a lot of sleight of hand, hypocrisy, and cosmic irony going on.
Kind of bored me after awhile and the whole #MeToo angle didn't really do anything for me.
