Review of Tetro (2009) by William S — 09 Feb 2010
Francis Ford Coppola outdoes himself, let alone everyone else.
Tetro is an all encompassing thematic film. It is a coming of age story. It is a story of redemption. It is a story of a quest to discover self-worth.
Tetro starts out with Benny, a boy about to turn 18, out of commission for a few days so he hunts down his brother, Tetro, whom he has not seen for many many years.
At first Tetro refused to see his brother, but the next morning he immediately takes him for a walk and tells Benny to no longer call him by the name Benny once knew him and to never talk about their family. Not even Tetro's wife knows who Tetro really is.
Coppola made this film for himself. He wrote the film. He produced the film. He directed the film. This film is purely his. Some have called it pretentious. Some have called it similar to the work of a film grad student. Each of those two groups also complained that the film was incredibly slow. I will not waste your, my dear reader's time making fun of those people.
Every shot was set up not to show off, but to highlight quality. Without this, the story would lack the experience, the emotion and the seriousness of the story itself. The grayscale highlighted every emotion of some of the most fabulous actors I had ever seen.
Most of this film is in Spanish. There are no subtitles. You do not need subtitles. In fact, you are better without subtitles. It is a tool to draw you into the experience and keep you there.
Let me speak frank. I should have actually seen this last year so it could have made number one on my top films of 2009. This did not make it into the Academy Awards. Not for Best Picture, or even Best Screenplay.
This review of Tetro (2009) was written by William S on 09 Feb 2010.
Tetro has generally received positive reviews.
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