Tetro (2009)
Average Rating: 6.3/10
Reviews Counted: 100
Fresh: 71 | Rotten: 29
A complex meditation on family dynamics, Tetro's arresting visuals and emotional core compensate for its uneven narrative.
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Critic Reviews: 34
Fresh: 26 | Rotten: 8
A complex meditation on family dynamics, Tetro's arresting visuals and emotional core compensate for its uneven narrative.
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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 11,346
Movie Info
On the heels of the self-financed, modestly budgeted 2007 drama Youth Without Youth -- his first directorial outing after a ten-year hiatus -- filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola remains situated in the director's chair for this semi-autobiographical family drama concerning an artistic family of immigrants whose fierce rivalries span several generations. Vincent Gallo stars with newcomer Alden Ehrenreich, with Carmen Maura, Maribel Verdú, and Alden Ehrenreich rounding out the cast. ~ Jason Buchanan,
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Cast
-
Vincent Gallo
Tetro -
Alden Ehrenreich
Bennie -
Maribel Verdu
Miranda -
Carmen Maura
'Alone' -
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Carlo Tetrocini
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Tetro Trailer & Photos
All Critics (100) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (71) | Rotten (29) | DVD (5)
Unabashedly theatrical and richly cinematic, even when it's falling apart...
Top CriticTetro is a movie filled with splashes of brilliance rather than being a plain brilliant movie.
Tetro is, in many ways, a thematic and spiritual cousin to Rumble Fish, another tale of an innocent who idolizes his older brother and craves his affection more than he should.
What threatens to be a mere exercise in style proves to be as involving as it is inventive.
While Coppola seems revitalized by quoting from movies he studied at UCLA film school, what ultimately makes Tetro so compelling is the filmmaker's return to the motifs that made his 1970s films powerful.
What makes it eminently watchable is the craft. Cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr. films in luscious widescreen monochrome that looks almost wet. Osvaldo Golijov's score is another pleasure.
It's a deeply personal picture that's overflowing with exuberance and passion and is the director's best work in over twenty years.
A dazzling stylistic exercise, Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro pays tribute to great bygone European filmmakers.
Shot mostly in a chiaroscuro black and white, with color interludes for the flashbacks and for surreal ballet sequences in the mode of Michael Powell's The Red Shoes, Tetro rewards the eye.
Funny, haunting, strange and striking in equal measure, Tetro is a triumph that reconfirms Francis Ford Coppola's position as one of the great American filmmakers...
There is not enough dramatic tension to sustain the film for two hours and conjectures about the Coppola family saga are really extraneous to the experience of Tetro.
Incidents take a back seat to the main event, which is Francis Ford Coppola swooshing ideas and feelings about fathers, sons, blood ties and artistic accomplishment around in a big wine glass.
Stylish, involving and intensely personal, the film really gets under the skin with its emotional story and powerfully visual tone.
Coppola may be working on, for him, a smallish budget (reportedly around $15 million) but that doesn't mean his usual craftsmanship has abated. The film is sleekly shot and edited.
Coppola's fascination with family ties and guilty secrets is at the heart of a grandiose but half-baked saga that doffs its cap to the florid theatricality of Powell and Pressburger and Sixties Italian classics such as La Dolce Vita.
The way ahead could be for Coppola père et fils to stay away from personal themes. Family isn't everything.
Frustrating and fitfully compelling, Tetro may not be a return to former glories, but this is Coppola through and through, an over-ambitious effort about thwarted ambition, full of ideas and passion, and smitten with cinema.
It would be kindest to ignore Tetro.
Though it's unlikely to announce his return to the grand stage of big-budget cinema, the movie is graced with touches of the old Coppola magic.
Coppola is a shadow of the director he used to be. The use of black-and-white here only shows that more starkly.
The black and white cinematography and unusual sound design combining to haunting effect.
for the most part it marks Coppola once again at the very top of his game - and there are enough nuances, ellipses and ambiguities here to make every return visit reveal something different and new.
Francis Ford Coppola makes a superb return to form with this intriguing and poetic journey into a troubled sibling relationship and the tortured psyche of an artistic genius.
Tetro stands as proof that Coppola, with an almost stationary camera and nothing more technical than light on film, can still achieve a more stunning visual experience than the 3D CGI of Avatar.
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Movie: ID: 770805201 Title: Tetro Release Date: 2009-06-11 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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Bennie: Rivalry.
"Every family has a past."
Tetro is a beautifully shot and acted film. It is filmed in black and white against, with Argentina as a setting. The career of Francis Ford Coppola is filled with masterpieces and a couple disasters, most notably Jack. Tetro is in-between. It is incredibly well made, but comes off as a little overly artsy at times. I enjoyed it, but I can see it being a little off-putting.
The story concerns two brothers. Bennie is the youngest, and is sensitive and emotional. The other is Tetro, who is the oldest and seems mean spirited in the beginning, but as we learn the back story it makes more and more sense. The two brothers haven't seen each other in a decade, when Bennie shows up at Tetro's apartment. Tetro had left for a writing sabbatical, leaving a note for Bennie, saying he would come back and get him. That never happened and Bennie is hurt by it. He just wants to be close to his brother, but Tetro left the family a long time ago. They strike up some sort of relationship as we slowly piece together the family's story. It all leads to a plot, I don't want to say twist, but sharp right turn would work.
Everything about the movie is beautiful. The scenery, the cinematography, the performances from Vincent Gallo, Alden Ehenreich, and Maribel Verdú, and of course Coppola's signature touch. The only real problem I have with the movie is there's about a twenty to thirty minute period in the middle that just dragged. But the beginning and ending are great.
What you need to know about the movie is that it is extremely slow and relies much more on character, over plot. It could easily come off as boring, but it is always marvelous to look at. Plus Vincent Gallo always keeps the viewer interested.