Tony Manero

The title of this dark crime drama from Chile (the country's official submission to the 2009 Academy Awards) refers to the character from Saturday Night Fever played by John Travolta. Raúl Peralta (Alfredo Castro), a middle-aged petty thief and emotionally inert lowlife living in the drab outskirts of Santiago in 1978, watches the film repeatedly, obsessively memorizing the dialogue and mimicking the moves in a graceless recreation of Travolta's performance. As a portrait of Chile under Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship, director/co-writer Pablo Larraín presents a miserable, impoverished world, with an occasional streak of bleak humor. Tony Manero steers clear of overt political commentary—only hinting at brutal repression and underground resistance—but the central character is ugly enough—a sexually impotent, impulsive sociopath who fashions his identity after an American screen fantasy and ultimately kills anyone who gets in the way. Castro plays this part with dead-eyed blankness, creating a hollow yet terrifying character as fascinating as he is repellent. A disturbing and violent film that is uncomfortable to watch (with strong sexual content and explicit nudity), the well-reviewed Tony Manero is recommended for more adventurous collections, but optional elsewhere. (S. Axmaker)