the audience applauded

Just perfect...

Awesome Movie

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Edging to the annual awards season, this year a sure thing is that Chilean director Pablo Larrín will on everybody's radar with his one-two punch NERUDA (Chile's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film) and the formidable JACKIE, a biopic about Jacqueline Kennedy, may win its star Natalie Portman a second Oscar statue as a major player. So here comes a warm-up to get acquainted with Larrín's previous work, TONY MANERO is his second feature, a sombre take on Chile's darkest time under the Pinochet regime peppered by a less sombre through-line: the 52-year-old protagonist Raúl Peralta's (Castro, Larrín's regular, an Al Pacino doppelgänger both in appearance and affective intensity, also the co-writer of the script) obdurate participation of a TV program "One O'Clock Festival", where a Tony Manero (the lead character in John Badham's Saturday NIGHT FEVER 1977, played by John Travolta) impersonation competition is scheduled in Santiago, 1978. Examined closely by a hand-held Super 16mm, which intermittently toys with a blurry focus to accentuate the proximity of a sordid milieu, Raúl gives us the first impression of a pallid, taciturn, hangdog loner in the opening scenes where he mistakes the registration date as the actual contest, which will be held one week later. But that facet loses its disguise quickly, when he schematically assaults an old woman who has just been mugged on the street, at her own home, to take away her small boxy color TV set. He is not so much a petty criminal as a ruthless homicide, which ingeniously puts audience at the edge of the seat with a dreadful perturbation whenever he prowls or idles in the dilapidated environs, as violence could be erupted any moment if he sees the opportunity for a monetary gain, whoever the prey is. Raúl lives with a coterie of amateur dancers in the scruffy house of Wilma (Poblete), where they also occasionally perform to entertain customers. His troupe includes Cony (Noguera), his friend- with-benefit, her adolescent daughter Pauli (Lattus) and Pauli's boyfriend Goyo (Morales). Together they help Raúl to rehearse the John Travola routine, but there is seething tension underneath, Raúl becomes impotent during an overtly explicit rumpy-pumpy, and is mocked by Cony that the only thing can revitalize him is the urge to win the competition, which sours their relationship, Goyo is involved with some surreptitious anti-Pinochet movement, which will put everyone under the interrogation of Pinochet's plainclothes secret police, although Raúl manages to skulk out since it is his big day. Larrín's tack doesn't shy away from being obstinately provocative, up to an instance of sickeningly scatological malevolence, which seems like an unwarranted feeler to validate its sky's-the-limit artsy taste. But on the other hand, Larrín and his co-writers perspicuously cast a phenomenon of American culture invasion as an escapism for the amoral and the hard-up living under the terror of an autocracy, which indisputably hits the mark of liberating its restrained but astringent political manifesto. Alfredo Castro is absolutely electrifying to watch from A to Z in the central role, holding Raúl's interior thoughts at bay, but excellently transforms himself onto the screen as a ravishingly volatile monster, with no fear, no conscience, no hold-up can stop his destructive/self-destructive wantonness (as the inauspicious ending dauntingly beckons), who should be answer for this type of societal mutator? The culprit is clear as day in this slam-bang critique of a bygone era weighing heavily on Larrín's fatherland.

This film is very good in my opinion.I like odd, daring, crazy movies like this sometimes - not just the big famous titles.The film kind of sneaks up on you though as to just how dark and sad it is - so do be warned if you are easily shocked.The film is set during Pinochet's rule in Chile and the main character Raul is a dark, brooding, pitiless, frustrated guy who is obsessed with Sat Night Fever. He is around 50 but acts younger.He sees himself as Tony Manero - (John Travolta) and watches the movie often.I think the obsession is due not only to the fact that the guy has a screw loose but that he is dreaming of and projecting a better life than the reality of life under a curfew style oppressive regime in Chile.The cool thing to me is that Raul looks like Al Pacino not Travolta and the character has more in common with Tony Montana (Scarface) as you will see when you watch.Along with some other younger characters Raul has formed a dance act at a local bar/ cafe who are rehearsing to do some musical numbers from the film SNF.We quickly see that the lead actor Raul is not just a petty thief but actually a serial killer who will do anything to get by.There are constant appearances and references to Pinochet's agents and some of Raul's circle are involved in protesting and printing of leaflets so are often surveilled.There is some strong sexual content in this but Raul seems a bit impotent and kinda only really gets off on the movie Sat Night Fever.He seems to be idolised though by all the woman around him regardless of the fact that he cannot meets their needs.There is one awful scene where Raul uses the white suit of another person as a toilet - to prevent him being a rival in the Tony Manero look alike competition - so just be warned it is hard to stomach at times and not for the faint hearted.There are some bits I found funny too its not all dark but overall its just odd surreal and slightly unnerving throughout perhaps how life was in Chile during that regime.Its like you are sucked into the dream/nightmare or quest of this person and you want it to end but also want to see more.I think one reviewer said the ending was not good - I thought it was cool and it seems obvious what will happen next to me.Personally I love films like this as I stated but don't think it will appeal to everybody.

Tony Manero is a disturbing portrayal of humanity at its worst in trying times. During the dictatorship of Pinochet in the 70's, the movie portrays the suffering of the people and their efforts to continue life as normal. In contrast, the protagonist, Raúl, thinks of no one but himself and has no qualms about lashing out against those around him, seemingly with no consequences. The one thing he wants is to be Tony Manero and he is willing to do anything to obtain that goal, that lifestyle. The way that the plot plays out is often unexpected and the protagonist rarely speaks which builds up great anticipation. Raúl's attitude toward those who depend on him leaves much to be desired and he often betrays or abandons those who need and trust him most. The movie is violently unsettling and explicitly sexual; it leaves the viewer disturbed, almost traumatized. The events that take place in the film stay with the viewer – and that may not necessarily be a welcome thought.

The protagonist of this film from Chile set in 1978 Santiago at the height of Augusto Pinochet's reign of terror is a murderer and petty thief whose only goal in life is to dance like John Travolta's character Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever. It's already a year later, but Fever's still playing and Raul (Alfredo Castro) goes to watch in an empty theater, repeating Travolta's lines with a heave accent and mimicking his arm gestures when he dances. Raul is the lead dancer, if it makes any sense to say that, in a shabby cantina where an older woman, a younger woman, his middle-aged girlfriend, and a youth all seem to adore him even though he is tired and fifty-two and can't get an erection any more. Outside it's a quietly terrifying world where soldiers patrol the streets in open trucks with rifles raised and plainclothes agents stop people at random and you can get shot for being out of place or having political fliers. Early on Raul beats an old woman he's just taken home after she's been mugged. He seems to have killed her, just to get her little color TV. He kills again, each time without any qualms, to get something. He smashes the cantina stage floor and is bargaining with a dealer in loose building materials for glass bricks to make the stage floor like the movie disco, lit from below. He also wants to compete for "Tony Manero of Chile" on a little TV contest show. At times Larrain's film seems crude and clumsy, but it's nonetheless hard to get out of your head. Obviously Raul's behavior is a metaphor for the morally bankrupt-from-the-start Pinochet regime and the film does an excellent job of conveying the absolute sleaziness of absolutely everything--a terrible world pushed into existence by the CIA and perhaps now dominated by slick new US products like the Travolta picture. Just as Raul will kill to get his pseudo-disco floor effect (which is totally shoddy), the others on his little neighborhood dance team will betray each other to stay in good with the despicable regime. Raul walks away from his heinous crimes with no fear of capture; the regime is busy perpetrating its own crimes and its own terror. The concentration on the goings and comings of Raul give the picture unity, and the little cantina crew has a classic quality. This is down-market, black-humor Fellini. Wilma (Elsa Poblete) runs the place. She claims to adore Raul and want to run away to him (to where?) He's stuck with Cony (Amparo Noguera), but now prefers her young, possibly pregnant daughter Pauli (Paola Lattus). A willing helper but potential threat is the young man in the group, Goyo (Hector Morales), who is involved in anti-Pinochet activities, but also wants to compete in the tacky talent contest for the Tony Manero prize against Raul. Raul sees to that, in the crudest and sleaziest manner possible. One day Raul goes to the movie to see Saturday Night Fever and it's been replace with Grease. You can bet there's hell to pay. It feels like the movie will stoop to anything, but then, so would a dictator. The raw, hand-held camera work helps maintain the down-and-dirty intensity, as does faded, dingy-looking color. As Leslie Felprin notes in the Variety review, the camera follows around Raul as doggedly as the Dardennes have done in some of their films, but without any of the humanism or positive endings the Dardennes would provide. The action has a picaresque quality that makes it seem plausible: you just watch in mild horror to see what happens next. To top it all off, Alfredo Castro, in the brave and haunting lead performance, looks a lot like Al Pacino--a Pacino who hasn't been prettied up and will never see a fat paycheck. This is Pablo Larrain's second feature, and a selection of the New York Film Festival of 2008. It was part of the Directors Fortnight series at Cannes this year. Theatrical opening in France December 17, 2008.