Tony Manero

"Saturday Night Fever meets South American Psycho, but also harrowing and funny."

I don't like GREASE either.

Underfunded and uncomfortable viewing, but one that certainly hits its target. Larrain has got better as he has got more money, thankfully.

This is one disturbing film. On the one hand it's a wonderful critique of the U.S. backed Pinochet regime, on the other it's a shocking story of a violent, deluded, pathetic psychopath. The script is surprisingly well layered, and it's incredibly funny, but maybe not till after the shock has passed. A word of warning though; it's shot with a shaky handheld camera, which can be a little disconcerting for some, and the editing is clunky at times. Forgetful it ain't though.

Whatever political or sociological insights may have been intended are lost amidst dim lighting, shaky camerawork, uniformly unlikeable characters, and an overwhelming sense of morose unpleasantness.

Raul, 1978'de, Cumartesi Gecesi Ateşi filmindeki Tony Manero karakterine takıntılı, obsesif, şiddet dolu 52 yaşındaki bir adam. Pinochet diktatörlüğü Şili'nin ahlaki değerlerini, kültürel kimliğini yok ederken, ülke de Amerikan kültürüne, yağmasına açılır. Raul, bu yeni Şili'deki Amerikayı temsil ediyor. Acımasız, dengesiz, şiddet dolu, tam bir hasta ruh. Filmdeki tv, imaj fetişizmi, özenti, başka biri olma arzusu da cabası.

14 nisan 09, 21:30, ben amcam babam, 28. ist. film fest. yeni ruya. & izlemesi guc, seyirciyi zorlayan bir film. izlerken nefes almak zor ama sanirim yonetmeninde istedigi o donem, sili'de nefes almakta bile zorlanan halkin yasadiklarini deneyimlememizdi. bu acidan mukemmel bir deneyim. fakat halen cok cok kararsizim..

"A magnificently deranged study of overboard pop-culture fandom and authoritarian rule's destructive effect on its citizenry." - Nick Schager

When it's good it's great. Really, really great. The scenes in the movie theater are incredible, the dance performance scenes are good, among a few other things. However, for too much of the rest of the film it's constantly out-of-place, often unnecessary and occasionally bizarrely worrying and shocking without having too much of a reason to be so. I'm not entirely sure what I think about it, but it's certainly interesting and overall worth a watch, even if it is too crude.

Cinephilia -- the smart-about-movies concept about the love of film -- has been so distorted in contemporary movie culture that it has led to the repugnant Chilean film Tony Manero.

7+

1st film from Pablo Larrain that I've seen. It's a grim film with a strange premise which works surprisingly well. Hard to label - I'd say that it's a drama with pitch black comedy and enough suspense and sleaze to turn into a horror/exploitation film in less competent hands. The film takes place in Pinochet's Chile which gives it another dimension altogether. Larrain's naturalistic direction aside, it's biggest asset is the creepy central performance by Alfredo Castro.