Tony Manero 2008

Stephen Holden, New York Times: More than an indelible portrait of a sociopath with the soul of a zombie, Tony Manero is an extremely dark meditation on borrowed cultural identity. Read more

Kevin B. Lee, Time Out: [Director] Larrain deftly employs a Dardennes-style in-the-moment handheld lensing, managing a high-wire act in which audience disgust is outpaced by breathless anticipation. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Larrain's (literally) dark, edgy movie is a precise artistic commentary on Augusto Pinochet's miserable regime, which was 
under way while Travolta gyrated. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Larrain evokes the bleakness and oppressiveness of life in a police state with much subtlety even as he poses a much larger question about cultural imperialism. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: Shot with a hand-held camera and presented in a fragmented scenario, Tony Manero is the director's compelling attempt to find parallels between the Pinochet reign of terror and Raul's scruple-less antics. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: A memorably claustrophobic evocation of its time and place, as well as a reminder that the so-called escape offered by pop culture can sometimes be an escape into soul-sucking madness. Read more

Justin Berton, San Francisco Chronicle: Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

Wally Hammond, Time Out: This tough, impassive, marvellous second feature from young Chilean Pablo Larrain exhibits a candour and keen eye for its 'lower depths' milieu worthy of Pasolini at his most austere and non-judgmental. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Tony Manero has a purposefully murky look and a frantic feel. Read more