Tony Manero Archives - The Playlist

NYFF ’10 Review: Director Pablo Larrain’s Continues His Dark, Comedic Preoccupation With Chile’s Tainted History In ‘Post Mortem’

Christopher Bell — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 17:07:00 +0000

Where did the American Independent cinema of the ’70s go, exactly? Did it fizzle and die, or did George Lucas scare it away with his mammoth sci-fi extravaganza? No one knows for sure, but there’s something suspicious about the films of Chilean director Pablo Larrain. “Tony Manero,” his debut feature, looked and felt like one of those movies, with a more brutal story. In fact, the main character even kind of looked like a young Al Pacino circa “Panic at Needle Park” or “Dog Day Afternoon.” The story was political, focusing on Chile during the Pinochet regime, but the director was smart enough to let it play in the background while the main character did his own thing, that being a disco John Travolta impression.

Continue reading NYFF ’10 Review: Director Pablo Larrain’s Continues His Dark, Comedic Preoccupation With Chile’s Tainted History In ‘Post Mortem’ at The Playlist.

Review: ‘Tony Manero’ The Solemn Cousin Of ‘Observe & Report’?

samcmac — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:33:00 +0000

We briefly reviewed “Tony Manero” when we saw it at the New York Film Festival last year, but it hit in very limited release late this summer and we wanted to bring a deeper look to your attention, as we didn’t really have much of a chance to review it in earnest.

Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain’s darkly compelling second film, “Tony Manero,” is a sadistic character study set in 1978 Santiago. It is unrelenting and often unpleasant to sit through; in a sense the more solemn cousin of another film from this year, Jody Hill’s “Observe and Report.” Both bear the unmistakable echoes of 1976’s “Taxi Driver,” by examining the behaviors of mentally disturbed and compulsively violent individuals.

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‘Tony Manero’ Coming Out Via Lorber Films In The Spring

Rodrigo Perez — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:02:00 +0000

Let’s repeat ourselves for about the 10 thousandth time: the 2008 New York Film Festival was excellent and many, many fantastic international films had their U.S. debut there like, the Palme d’Or winner “The Class”, the Mexican and super dynamic Godard/”Bonnie & Clyde” homage, “Voy A Explotar,” Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s immaculately crafted and internalized family drama “Tokyo Sonata,” and many, many more.

Most have finally received U.S. distribution, but not all of them. One late addition to the pact is Pablo Larrain’s “Tony Manero,” the Chilean political-metaphor drama about a psychotic disco-dancer obsessed with John Travolta’s character in “Saturday Night Fever.”

Chosen as Chile’s official Oscar contender for 2008, it didn’t make the Oscar final five in the Best Foreign Film category, but it’s a strong film nonetheless that’s both moving, darkly comical and at times, downright creepy.

Continue reading ‘Tony Manero’ Coming Out Via Lorber Films In The Spring at The Playlist.

Final Domestic ‘Che’ ‘Roadshow Poster

Rodrigo Perez — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:16:00 +0000

We have no clue why IFC gave AICN of all people the first dibs on the U.S. “roadshow” poster for Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” (Harry’s post makes it sounds like it’s ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ does this mean there’s a non-roadshow poster coming?), but they did. It’s pretty much like the French version that was released a few months ago and we have to say compared to the very incredible trailer that came out yesterday, it’s a bit of a disappointment.

Continue reading Final Domestic ‘Che’ ‘Roadshow Poster at The Playlist.

The New York Film Festival Starts Today

Rodrigo Perez — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:05:00 +0000

The 46th annual New York Film Festival starts proper today for the public and we’ve got to say, the line-up is stellar. It might not have gigantic names attached to it, but so what, we’ve some of the best films of the year at the festival.

Our top picks so far are Kyoshi Kurosawa’s jaw-droppingly good, “Tokyo Sonata,” Gerardo Naranjo magnetically-charged Mexican new-wave film, “Voy A Explotar,” and the Cannes Palm d’Or winner, “The Class” (“Entres Les Murs”) by Laurent Cantet.

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NYFF Review: The Obsessive John Travolta ‘Fever’ Of ‘Tony Manero’

Rodrigo Perez — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:04:00 +0000

Having read skimmed* the synopsis about a sad, immensely dysfunctional 50-something Chilean man (Alfredo Castro) who is obsessed with “Saturday Night Fever,” and names himself after John Travolta’s Tony Manero character, we couldn’t help but be somewhat disappointed simply because the film wasn’t at all what we expected.

That’s not to say Chilean director Pablo Larrain’s second feature wasn’t good, quite the contrary, but “Tony Manero,” sounds like a fun and light dance musical but the picture was much darker and sometimes even more disturbing than we ever would have imagined.

Continue reading NYFF Review: The Obsessive John Travolta ‘Fever’ Of ‘Tony Manero’ at The Playlist.