If you look at the top critics for Tetro on Rotten Tomatoes you can basically see this following review. I got lazy and thought it would be kind of fun to try and edit all the review text on that site into a single review. I’ll at little bits of stuff but mostly the review will be made up of the quotes taken from rotten tomatoes top critics. (I’ll cite them all at the end too!)
Tetro is a visually lush cinematic fugue about love, ambivalence and two brothers fleeing the dark shadow of their domineering father (1). Returning to his origins as a theater and film student, Francis Ford Coppola deploys striking visuals, music, dance and classic drama to spin a tale of familial conflicts and brothers reunited (2). It has a verve and vitality that’s been missing from [Coppola's] pictures for 25 years, and its various and visible flaws all result from too much of that verve rather than too little (3). The direction of this film is extraordinary. With Tetro, it feels as if the Coppola is regaining his footing, figuring out which parts of his past to hold on to and which to let go (4). He returns to the motifs that made his 1970s films powerful (5). The black-and-white cinematography alone is as intoxicating as a bottle of the director’s finest red (6). Tetro percolates with energy and bawdy knockabout humor (7). Gallo is great in this film it seems as though this role fits well into his previous two films: Buffalo 66, The Brown Bunny.
[However] The heavy symbolism of binding family ties can become too much to bear (8) at times. Despite the overwrought plot and unabashed pretension, there’s something admirable about the fact that Coppola clearly made this movie for himself (9). [Even so,] 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 (10). Coppola is still very much alive(11). Despite all its longueurs and extreme aggravations, Tetro deserves to be seen as the late work of one of the cinema’s most accomplished masters of mise-en-scène(12).
1: Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
2: Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
3: Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com
4: Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times
5: Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail (heavily edited)
6: Aaron Hillis, Village Voice
7: Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
8: Christy Lemire, Associated Press
9: Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News (key tone edits)
10: Peter Howell, Toronto Star
11: Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
12: Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
There you have it. 12 reviews mashed into one. Sure I ripped a few quotes to shreds to make it all fit but I still got it done. I had fun. I may do this to some other movies.
