NYFF Podcast. Tony Manero.

Tony Manero has turned out to be both Aaron Hillis's and Andrew Grant's favorite feature at this year's New York Film Festival. Wrapping their series of podcasts, Aaron and Andrew talk with another fan of the film, Time Out New York critic David Fear.

To listen or download, click here.

"A magnificently deranged study of overboard pop-culture fandom and authoritarian rule's destructive effect on its citizenry, Tony Manero vigorously rubs one's face in the horrors of life under Augusto Pinochet," writes Nick Schager in Slant. "The center of director Pablo Larraín's social-realist nightmare is Raúl (Alfredo Castro), a corpse-gaunt 52-year-old obsessed with Saturday Night Fever, a film he constantly attends and plans to stage..."

Updated through 10/13.

"The point of Tony Manero is a relatively facile one, even though it's the most subtle political indictment in years; it gradually becomes clear that, however sociopathic he may be, Raul's an angel compared to the random round-ups and executions of Pinochet's army." Vadim Rizov at the House Next Door: "But director Pablo Larraín sets this up so subtly that it's never troublesome; it's surely a legitimate point, just one well-worn by cliche. What's important is the texture, which could be straight 1978. Grain prevails; everything exists in the same fucked-up analog patina as Manero's well-worn tapes, the subtitled prints playing at the local theater, the dirt and brown of everything, the overall beigeness of the damn film. Overt jokes trade with nervous laughs and provocations so outrageous they stop being offensive and start being pure jaw-droppers."

"For those not temperamentally inclined to celebrate uncompromising cine-machismo for its own sake, however, this is pretty thin gruel, deeply unpleasant without ever coming within spitting distance of enlightening," writes Mike D'Angelo at FilmCatcher.

Michael Tully, writing at Hammer to Nail, is going to have to catch this one again: "The mere shock of the tone caught me off-guard, thrilling me viscerally but leaving me unable to dive into the film's many subtexts: political suffocation, cultural deformation, the murderous attraction of cinema."

Online viewing tip #1. Filmcatcher interviews Larrain.

Online viewing tip #2. Kevin Lee has video from the press conference.

Earlier: Reviews from Cannes.

Update, 10/13: "Larrain has created a totally unique film, a brutal black comedy that brings personal and political disgrace into homologous ignominy," writes Tom Hall. "I can't stop thinking about it."

Posted by dwhudson at October 12, 2008 12:19 PM