When Saturday Night Fever opened in theaters in the U.S. in 1977 and went on to become the third highest grossing film of the year, the disco craze was near the end of its popularity. That style of dance music that started in the early 1970s had effectively played out its popularity by 1980. There were plenty of movie musicals with disco soundtracks that followed in the wake of Saturday Night Fever like Thank God It’s Friday (1978), Roller Boogie (1979), Can’t Stop the Music (1980) and Xanadu (1980) but nothing that approached the success of John Travolta’s breakthrough role with the possible exception of the belated sequel, Staying Alive (1983), directed by Sylvester Stallone with Travolta returning as the main character, Tony Manero. Flash forward 25 years to 2008 and Tony Manero is once again a cultural touchstone from the most unlikely of places – Chile. Directed by Pablo Larrain, Tony Manero is the tale of Raul Peralta (Alfredo Castro), a 52-year-old second rate entertainer/dancer who is so obsessed with the title character of Saturday Night Fever that he builds his nightclub routine around it and dreams of winning an upcoming Tony Manero dance competition. It sounds like the premise for a goofball comedy featuring Adam Sandler, Kevin Hart, Paul Rudd or some other popular comedian but Larrain’s film, despite some moments of pitch-black comedy, is a dark and disturbing portrait of someone who is a sociopathic outsider in his own country and culture.