SOMETHING’S WRONG WHEN a Francis Coppola movie inspires equal dread and anticipation. Coppola doesn’t just defy popular appeal, he snubs it. His Tetro is not about the discovery of Tetracycline antibiotics—and that’s the problem. Coppola creeps around his true subject: masculine camaraderie as learned through psychic and genetic history (c.f. his best films, The Godfather Trilogy,Gardens of Stone,The Rainmaker and the “boy movies” The Outsiders and Rumble Fish). Instead, Tetro is a meandering family saga where young Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich) finds estranged brother (Vincent Gallo) hiding out in Argentina, shortening the family name Tetrocini.
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