Tetro - Beautiful tortured art

Occasionally I leave a movie theatre and a thought will go through my head that sounds like “I’m glad to have lived to experience this movie.” Tetro was such a film. It plays out like an opera with music, dance, and a tragic story. Filmed in the backdrop of Buenos Aries in black and white with a few sections in color, it is art, culture, and emotion beautifully wound together and speaks to the audience the same way that Van Gogh’s Starry Night captivates its onlookers.

The story begins with a Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich), a young man looking for his brother Tetro (Vincient Gallo, Goodfellas) who left for a sabbatical when he was just a boy. He left behind a letter for him promising that he would return for him and that he would understand someday. He finds his brother, a tortured artist, who no longer wants anything to do with his family. He agrees to let the brother he’s abandoned stay with him for the 5 days it will take to fix the engine on his boat, but keeps all his motives to himself. Tetro’s wife Miranda (Maribel Verdu, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Pan’s Labyrinth) takes an interest in Bennie as she knows very little of her husband’s past only that he is a very tortured artist who harbors resentment for his family. Much happens in their short time together as Bennie learns about the life his brother is living now while he and Miranda try to piece together brother’s secrets.

The story of this family is Shakespearean in its conception and execution. It is something you would expect to see on stage but performed for the camera in such a way that makes film seem fresh and vibrant again. Frances Ford Coppola uses the sequences of color and dance to express everything that his characters are thinking and feeling and to tell the story without so much as a word being spoken. The passion of the actors in the main story matches the elegance of those in the dancers and the two weave gracefully through a story of trust, betrayal, love, art and beauty.

So many filmmakers are able to interweave black and white film with color and make it into an art form. Coppola makes it seem almost simple which is a testament to how much he knows what he’s doing. The last film I can think of that did it so well was Edward Nolen’s Memento. This is a movie you absolutely cannot look away from. It subtly and gently pulls you in without you noticing you’re on a hook. It makes me appreciate everything that has come before it and everything that will continue to come from this medium.

Grade A+
Meta Grade 100