Variety’s Todd McCarthy has jumped the gun and posted an early review of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Tetro” only to have it swiftly taken down. Thankfully though, Jeffrey Wells was about to quote parts of the review before it went away.
While McCarthy wrote that the film was “remarkedly better than [Coppola’s] previous small-scaled, self-financed film, ‘Youth Without Youth,'” he still felt that “Tetro” was “a work of modest ambition and appeal.” The mostly black-and-white film reportedly “hinges on the tension between two long-separated brothers dominated by an artistic genius father [with] the angst-ridden treatment of Oedipal issues [making] the picture play out like a passably talented imitation of O’Neill, Williams, Miller and Inge.”
“Coppola has spent much of his career, as well as a great deal of his own money, seeking the ideal state of truly independent filmmaking,” McCarthy concluded. “The trouble, as always, is in being careful what you wish for, since when he finds creative nirvana, he frequently has trouble delivering the full goods. Tetro represents something of a middle ground in that respect.”
In addition to his lukewarm thoughts of the film itself, McCarthy also wrote glowingly on the young, debuting actor Alden Ehrenreich, who plays Bennie, the younger brother of Vincent Gallo’s title character. McCarthy noted that “[the film will] likely be most remembered for introducing a highly promising young actor, Alden Ehrenreich.” He then compared the young actor to all three male leads of Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed”: “When he first appears, he looks like the younger brother of Leonardo DiCaprio; then, at certain moments, his smile and the look in his eye recall Jack Nicholson, while his head and facial shape are reminiscent of Matt Damon. Not only that, he has a winning screen presence and proves entirely up to the role’s dramatic requirements.”
Big wraps for a guy who was reportedly first spotted in a bar mitzvah home video by Steven Spielberg. “Tetro” has a tentative Spring release but, before that, will be screening under the Director’s Fortnight umbrella of the Cannes Film Festival.