Review of Tony Manero (2008) by Vic R — 27 Dec 2009

Raul LOVES Saturday Night Fever and spends all his days doing anything (and I mean anything) to achieve his ultimate goal, to win the best Chilean Tony Manero impersonator contest at the local afternoon variety show.

Does that sound like a comedy to you? Well, it's not (except in the blackest and bleakest sense). Castro (an Al Pacino lookalike) gives a fantastically committed performance as Raul. His blank determinism attracting a fan base amongst the miserables around him.

Setting the film during Pinochet's reign Larrain delineates how Raul's atrocities go unnoticed when there is so much worse occurring on a day to day basis. Whether we read Raul as the logical conclusion of this oppressive tyranny or simply facilitated by it, the film works well as an indictment against Pinochet and his cronies.

Making Raul's fixation on an American underdog tale slyly digs at the U.S. and its partial culpability in keeping Pinochet in power. But Larrain's film has even more levels, examining the types of empty personalities that often fixate on celebrity and escapism as the world crumbles around them.