Tony Manero details
| Format: | 18 DVD |
|---|---|
| Starring: | Alfredo Castro, Paola Lattus, Héctor Morales, Amparo Noguera, Elsa Poblete |
| Director: | Pablo Larrain |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Studio: | Network Releasing |
| Name | Discs | |
|---|---|---|
Tony Manero |
18 Feature |
DVD Information
| Run time: | 1 hour 38 minutes |
|---|---|
| Rental release: | 28 Sep 2009 |
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Most helpful review
Gritty story of identity and obsession
By bikertect (1 review) from London , 26 Oct 2008[Highly rated reviewer]
Against the turbulent backdrop of Pinochet's Chile, ageing low-life dancer Raul (Alfredo Castro) sees hope in repeated screenings of Saturday Night Fever, becoming obsessed by the lead character, Tony Manero, who has everything right.
As he leads a small troupe in Saturday night disco dance shows, Raul's character is exposed; layered with fear, self-loathing and above all ruthless ambition. When local TV station runs a competition to find the Chilean Tony Manero - how far will Raul go to win the prize and his ticket out of misery?
Disturbingly raw and unsettling camerawork, an excellent score and a great cast with an intense central performance from Castro make this an engrossing character study. The ever present menace of the dictatorship plays a supporting role to contextualise the story without overtly preaching.- Was this review helpful to you?
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(11)Good but not Great
By Iggi_1 (109 reviews) , 05 Mar 2012Maybe it lost something in the translation but there seemed to be more mileage in this film than finished up on the screen. Notwithstanding that, it is well worth a watch, but, don't expect this to cheer you up or have you rolling in the aisles, pretty bleak & nasty at times. The portrayal of the psychopathic central character is quite chilling.- Was this review helpful to you?
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Less disco, more bleak house
By a customer , 02 Jan 2012Looks fun - but isn't (says the Mrs). Difficult to watch a lead character that you dislike so much.
Bleak, sardonic, but disjointed (say I).- Was this review helpful to you?
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Loveless Vacuum
By Eye (3 reviews) , 16 Aug 2011There is some intelligence in how the character parodies an aspect of the Chilean government's brutality during Pinochet's dictatorship and the neighbourhood's atmosphere is well captured. The downfall, in my opinion, is that you have no empathy for the dry, bitter and competitive psycho who is the protagonist; if only there had been something or someone to care about, instead I felt the film sink into a loveless vacuum.- Was this review helpful to you?
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Portrait of a sociopath
By mattcole (4 reviews) from Kingswinford, West Midlands , 15 Aug 2011Little more than a sketch, the run-time feels truncated and I couldn't help but feel there was a great deal more mileage in some of the background material of policitical conflict under the Pinochet regime. However, this isn't overtly a film about a dictatorship, or even a specific society. Rather, Larrain and Castro have made a compelling and deeply disturbing character portrait of an unbridled sociopath, and while you can't avoid the sense that it is the specific social disintegration of 1970s Santiago that makes Raul possible, the characterisation bears comparison to other iconic cinematic studies in madness.- Was this review helpful to you?
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Not what I expected
By Minny (567 reviews) from London , 11 Aug 2011Very good film. Just looks a horrible place to live and there is a general feeling of despair and povety and nastiness throughout. The main actor is brilliant and looks like Al Pacino!! He is a very dark disturbed individual!! Worth a watch .- Was this review helpful to you?
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