NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Sima Sid The moment I saw a poster of this movie, I understood - those are the eyes I can fall in love easily. And the first impression was 100% right. An acting of Vincent Gallo (who acts the main character Tetro) is incredible. His shoulders are hump, face is in deep pain and eyes are in mystery. Every move shows his deep soul and a secret that lie in him(reminds me Al Pacino from Coppola's "Grandfather"). Tetro's spirit is broken, at some moments even I felt all the chaos that took control of his life. A look of a devil, just misunderstood genius that can explode every second. This is it, only his acting saves the movie.It's a little bit strange to see only black/white (with some short moments of colour) movie. It reminds me those old movies where femme fatale smoke cigarettes, where everyone are so elegant. That's why I like this movie, it has an aura of elegance.And, although, the work of a camera is brilliant and the montage just takes breath away there is something missing. It has a good, strong beginning, but with every minute your attention is more and more slipping away. Moreover, the ending is too predictable and cheesy (Coppola, I didn't expected that from you).I fall in love with Vincent Gallo acting, work of a camera and an old-fashioned style of Coppola. But in this story...it's too light, there's not enough weight to stay in my mind for a longer time. Maybe it's not a love, maybe it's just a crush.

Framescourer This not-particularly-involving-drama is well-cast and has a rather good script but Francis Ford Coppola has done his best work now. It doesn't help that he tries to articulate emotional episodes 'through the medium of dance' in sequences that don't measure up to the ballets already name-checked, The Red Shoes being the obvious elephant in the room.The narrative has a considerable twist towards which it can wind up. Unfortunately, the breezy manner in which the characters circle one another, combined with the coming-of-age/road trip sensibility of the film (the beautiful Maribel Verdú of car-trip flick Y Tu Mamá También overbalances the story occasionally) mean that we have as hard a time believing the reveal as the disabused principal.The wonderful Klaus Maria Brandauer is wasted. I always enjoy watching Vincent Gallo and his performance is excellent - I kept asking myself why he seemed rather more 'on the leash' than elsewhere. However, his work is also boxed ineffectively in the final showing. 4/10

bandw A young boy, Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich), a waiter on a cruise ship that is temporarily down for repairs in Buenos Aries, takes the opportunity to call on his older brother Tetro (Vincent Gallo) who has exiled himself in Argentina to escape some bad things in his past. Tetro wants nothing to do with his family, including Bennie; initially he even refuses to come out of his room to meet him. Through a complicated set of events, the estranged Tetro finally comes to the inevitable reconciliation with Bennie. In the process we get details about why Tetro has taken the path that he has.Tetro's girlfriend Miranda is played by Maribel Verdu in a consistently appealing performance. At times I thought that Ehrenreich may be destined to be the next great young actor, but at other times he seemed like a teenager just reading his lines. I do think we are going to see more of this attractive actor. In the spirit of full disclosure I have to admit that my comments on this movie are biased by a visceral dislike of Vince Gallo. Gallo plays Tetro as a most unlikeable character. Throughout the movie I puzzled as to why either Bennie or Miranda would hang around Tetro, given his fits of temper and general unpleasant behavior. Klaus Maria Brandauer, as Tetro's father in flashbacks, plays the role of an egocentric and manipulative symphony orchestra conductor to the hilt.The story becomes more absurd and implausible as the movie goes along. Are we to believe that Bennie takes the scrawls of Tetro, that have to be read backwards with a mirror, and turns them into a prize-winning play? Why does Tetro wait until he does to reveal his true relationship to Bennie? And in such a melodramatic manner? And what was with the all-powerful cultural critic named "Alone?" On the one hand we are told that Alone had impeded Tetro's career because of her criticisms, but on the other hand we are told that Tetro had never published. How does one criticize what has never existed?Filming the flashbacks in color (using what appears to be a faded red filter) is an interesting touch. Most of the flashbacks are operatic in nature, and some effects left me speculating about their relevance, like the one scene that starts out with dancers on a stage and then has an ocean lapping onto stage left. Nice effect, but what is the meaning of it? This could easily be staged as a play and the way the movie is filmed reminded me a lot of the filming of "A Streetcar Named Desire." And there are elements of imitating "8 1/2" as well, particularly the way that Alone and her entourage are filmed.As a lover of black and white, I found the excellent use of that medium in this movie a pure delight, but in the end I was less than enthusiastic about the film in general.

gradyharp Francis For Coppola has created a major cinematic miracle in his TETRO. The film is hauntingly beautiful to see, to hear, and to challenge the minds of the viewers. This is what great cinema is all about - taking the risks of storytelling to the impossible extremes available to only the great writer/directors such as Federico Fellini, Alain Resnais, Alexander Sokurov, François Truffaut, Jean Renoir, Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, and Luis Buñuel. Heady company, this, but Coppola rises to the occasion with this multilayered exploration of family secrets and the dissection of the concept of 'genius' - all in the quiet guise of autobiographical references that make this work more than simply one of his many successful films. He has the grace to select artists of his own caliber to assist him: the cinematography (as complex a marriage of rich black and white and stunning color as anyone has achieved) is by Mihai Malaimare, Jr.; the musical score is by the brilliant Argentinean composer Osvaldo Golijov whose atmospheric compositions mesh perfectly with the influential moments of Puccini, Brahms, Offenbach, and Delibes; and a group of actors whose range of talent spans decades of experience and levels of finesse. It all works to one end, and that end is a celebration of a master's art of making memorable film. The setting is Buenos Aires where Tetro (Vincent Gallo), a writer of plays and novels, all incomplete and written in code and confusing manner - never having published any of his output, lives with Miranda (the brilliant Maribel Verdú), a doctor at the 'insane asylum' where she met Tetro as her patient. Into this shadowy place steps Benjamin (Alden Ehrenreich) who has run away from military school and is working as a waiter on a cruise ship docked in Buenos Aires for repairs. Benjamin seeks out his half brother Angelo (Tetro's discarded name) to try to find out about his confusing and dysfunctional family. Benjamin worships his older brother who taught him all the important aspects of art and life before Tetro disappeared, shunning the family that birthed him. Miranda convinces Tetro to allow Benjamin to stay with them despite the fact that Benjamin represents the family he deserted. Benjamin discovers the writings of his brother and manages to de-code them and writes an ending for a play that Tetro never finished. The play is produced by a small but adventuresome theater run by one Jose (Rodrigo De la Serna) and enacted by Abelardo (Mike Amigorena) and Josefina (Leticia Brédice). Upon hearing this Tetro is enraged and begins to relate the truth about the family that produced both boys - crux of which is the father figure Carlo Tetracini (Klaus Maria Brandauer) who sole claim to 'genius' in the family is his power as one of the most revered orchestral and opera conductors in the world. The remainder of this complex story unwinds the secrets long held within the family and the truths discovered by Benjamin alter his life and his perception of family and love and commitment. Many of the secretive portions of the story are revealed not only in flashbacks of the family, but also in full color dance and theater sequences focusing on 'Coppelia' and 'Tales of Hoffmann', subtle suggestions to the audience of the truths yet put into words by the actors. These sidebars are brilliantly executed and designed and performed and beg for more time on the screen. If the last portion of the film is a bit slow (a flaw comfortably corrected by the presence of the great Carmen Maura as the preeminent judge of taste and talent who goes by the symbolic name of 'Alone'), this gives the audience time to assimilate all of the information that has been inexorably revealed throughout the course of the film. TETRO is film-making at its finest. It demands much from the audience, but its rewards are considerable. Highly recommended. Grady Harp