Summary: Tetro is the story of Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich), who travels to Buenos Aires to find out why his older brother, Tetro (Vincent Gallo), left their family years ago.
Let me start off by saying that this is not the type of movie that I would normally review for the C Word. It has no violence, to speak of (although there are some boobs and a borderline lesbian scene, but it is set in South America, and if stereotypes aren’t leading me astray, you can’t have a movie in South America without nudity). That said, it is a really interesting movie that people have like not heard of. Also, I haven’t written a review in a while and am feeling kind of guilty.
As I said, Tetro is the story of Bennie, who travels to Buenos Aires to find out why his older brother, Tetro, left their family years ago. As one might expect, Tetro does not want to see him and there is more to the story than it first appears. Ok, ok, we’ve all seen that story before. But it turns out Francis has a pretty interesting take on it. I found that I kept going back and forth between thinking I knew what was coming and then realizing that I was wrong then thinking I had it all figured out.
From an acting point of view the movie is pretty darn good. Much of it is subtitled Spanish, and I can listen to that all day long. Maribel Verdú does a great job as Gallo’s sort-of wife. I did find myself getting distracted by the fact that Vincent Gallo looked and sounded like Willem Dafoe and Quentin Tarantino’s love child. Also, Ehrenreich looked like a Hispanic Leonardo DiCaprio. Weird.
As for the look of the movie, it is filmed in black and white with colour for any flashbacks or dreams. I thought this was a pretty cool twist on the regular way of doing things, but then I learned he actually did this in Rumble Fish (1983). Either way, I wasn’t actually that impressed with the look of the black and white. I felt that it looked as though it was filmed in colour and digitally turned black and white instead of that great look that real old B&W movies have. I can’t really put my finger on what is different, it just feels off. Other than that one quibble, I thought Coppola and the cinematographer, Mihai Malaimare Jr., did a great job of capturing the beauty of Buenos Aires and Patagonia. I definitely caught a bit of the South American travel bug (fortunately not the kind that keeps you in the bathroom for a couple days).
Final thoughts: It is nice to see Coppola is back on his game. This is the first movie that he has both written and directed since 1974’s The Conversation (which I have not scene [shamefully] but I hear it is pretty fucking good). Anyway, if you have a chance to catch this movie, I heartily recommend it. It will help you forget some of the later crap movies he did (although I thought Dracula was actually pretty cool). Ciao.
As I said, Tetro is the story of Bennie, who travels to Buenos Aires to find out why his older brother, Tetro, left their family years ago. As one might expect, Tetro does not want to see him and there is more to the story than it first appears. Ok, ok, we’ve all seen that story before. But it turns out Francis has a pretty interesting take on it. I found that I kept going back and forth between thinking I knew what was coming and then realizing that I was wrong then thinking I had it all figured out.
From an acting point of view the movie is pretty darn good. Much of it is subtitled Spanish, and I can listen to that all day long. Maribel Verdú does a great job as Gallo’s sort-of wife. I did find myself getting distracted by the fact that Vincent Gallo looked and sounded like Willem Dafoe and Quentin Tarantino’s love child. Also, Ehrenreich looked like a Hispanic Leonardo DiCaprio. Weird.
As for the look of the movie, it is filmed in black and white with colour for any flashbacks or dreams. I thought this was a pretty cool twist on the regular way of doing things, but then I learned he actually did this in Rumble Fish (1983). Either way, I wasn’t actually that impressed with the look of the black and white. I felt that it looked as though it was filmed in colour and digitally turned black and white instead of that great look that real old B&W movies have. I can’t really put my finger on what is different, it just feels off. Other than that one quibble, I thought Coppola and the cinematographer, Mihai Malaimare Jr., did a great job of capturing the beauty of Buenos Aires and Patagonia. I definitely caught a bit of the South American travel bug (fortunately not the kind that keeps you in the bathroom for a couple days).
Final thoughts: It is nice to see Coppola is back on his game. This is the first movie that he has both written and directed since 1974’s The Conversation (which I have not scene [shamefully] but I hear it is pretty fucking good). Anyway, if you have a chance to catch this movie, I heartily recommend it. It will help you forget some of the later crap movies he did (although I thought Dracula was actually pretty cool). Ciao.
A
originally posted Jan. 25, 2010
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