Tony Manero

Chilean director Pablo Larraín's TONY MANERO is a film that has very few cinematic precedents, if any. Establishing a tone of its daringly original own, it somehow manages to be three things at once: a powerful portrait of life lived under a dictatorship, a bitter critique of an individual who will do anything to reach his goal, and a blackly comic satire of celebrity obsession. Raul Peralta (Alfredo Castro) is a 50-something man who lives in Santiago during the fearful, suffocating days of Augusto Pinochet's rule. Raul is obsessed with John Travolta's character from Saturday Night Fever -- hence the film's title-- to the point where he's even bought a white suit similar to Manero's. Each weekend he performs with a small group of dancers at a small bar, recreating the moves from his favorite movie. But when the stage's wood begins to weaken, Raul is determined to rebuild it with glass blocks that light up. He finds an even more important purpose when a television station announces that they're holding a Tony Manero dance-and-look-a-like contest. In such a stifling social climate, Raul takes matters into his own hands, doing whatever it takes to make his dream come true. The tone of TONY MANERO is virtually impossible to describe, for the film's most brutal moments are actually its funniest. It doesn't seem appropriate to laugh at Raul's violent, unethical behavior, but it's hard not to. The fact that Lorrain chose to shoot the film in a fly-on-the-wall manner on grainy 16mm contrasts with the outlandish situations unfolding within the frame, resulting in an experience that will confuse many viewers and electrify others. TONY MANERO is a startlingly original achievement, marking Lorrain as a director to watch.