I was excited for this film. Upon hearing the early reviews, I just assumed the critics didn't get it. Nope. They're right. I spent $10 on this film, and I regret almost every penny.
Here's why:
Tom Hardy gives a riveting performance as Al Capone. He's a Frankenstein-esque presence throughout the entire film. He stumbles around paranoid, grumbling in a raspy voice and shouting expletives. And while this sounds like severe overacting, he does it in a way which seems utterly real and mesmerizing. He's the center of attention every moment onscreen, and he deserves all the praise. He's pretty much the only great thing in a bad and mostly unimportant film.
Why is it so bad? Well, Josh Trank directed, wrote, and edited this film. While the direction and editing are serviceable at best, with them being nothing to shout home about, it's his script which is extremely poor.
To put it simply: "Capone" has absolutely nothing to say, and no reason to exist.
The script, once you meticulously rip out the unneeded ambiguity, is simplistic and infantile. It's merely a stripped down imagination of Capone's last year alive, and it's filled with only commonly known vague historic plot points to stretch out it's runtime. It doesn't explore these historic events besides recreating them on film. It adds no substance, and no depth. It's essentially like viewing a history book. Here's this scene, here's this scene, here's this scene, and the film ends.
From the trailers, I expected a character deep-dive into the mind of a mob boss plagued by dementia. But even the feverishly mad hallucination sequences serve no purpose, and offer no depth. It's like they're there to show off gore, lavish parties, and introduce a character that they never do anything with besides having him reference a pointless plot point that never goes anywhere as well. This film has nothing to say, and never makes an attempt to say something. It's basically just being a voyeur. We see moments in Capone's life in an unstructured and ambiguous manner, and then the film ends.
It does nothing with the one thing it presents, which is Capone's childhood, and what it does show makes no sense because it never takes the time to explain anything. Showing, and not telling is a very important part of storytelling. But when you have a simplistic plot with no depth, and you simply throw in meaningless ideas, references, and situations in an ambiguous manner, that doesn't make a script deep. In fact, it makes it even more empty.
It's like Trank wanted to do one scene in this film, and simply threw in stuff from Capone's life to try and make it a feature length film. It offers no new insights, or any interesting development to Capone as a man, or as a gangster. It's honestly utterly meaningless in almost every sense of the word. You can try and tell me that it's about a mob boss losing his power, but right at the start of the film, it's clear Capone can't do anything anymore besides grunt, speak in growling sentences, and move like a zombie. And by the end of the film, he's no different. Capone doesn't change into anything worthwhile, (besides an increasingly sicker old man), and neither does anyone around him.
I'm giving it a 3 purely because of Hardy. But if any future filmmakers are out there reading this, take this into consideration: If you have an idea, and you want to explore it subtly, go explore it! But make sure you show, as well as tell in the right moments. We've seen many times how insufferable a film is when it purely tells, and now, we have an example of when a film only shows, but doesn't tell. When making a film, don't balance your entire plot on ambiguity. Ambiguity is good in snippets, but when the story relies on it, it cannot bolster a full film. It will fail, because you as the filmmaker are not making a statement, or saying anything worthwhile. Instead, you're saying nothing by showing the audience nothing that can be tethered to anything important, since everything can be classified as being non-existent.
Confusing? Yeah, that's how the film feels.
This is not a mob-movie. Nor is it really a movie. It's a collection of moments made to seem like there's a coherent, structured, worthwhile story. Believe me, no matter how appealing it may be, there is no story. There is nothing except the exceptional performance by Tom Hardy. Don't be like me, and spend ten bucks on this film. I got majorly Ca-pwned by this picture.
Here's why:
Tom Hardy gives a riveting performance as Al Capone. He's a Frankenstein-esque presence throughout the entire film. He stumbles around paranoid, grumbling in a raspy voice and shouting expletives. And while this sounds like severe overacting, he does it in a way which seems utterly real and mesmerizing. He's the center of attention every moment onscreen, and he deserves all the praise. He's pretty much the only great thing in a bad and mostly unimportant film.
Why is it so bad? Well, Josh Trank directed, wrote, and edited this film. While the direction and editing are serviceable at best, with them being nothing to shout home about, it's his script which is extremely poor.
To put it simply: "Capone" has absolutely nothing to say, and no reason to exist.
The script, once you meticulously rip out the unneeded ambiguity, is simplistic and infantile. It's merely a stripped down imagination of Capone's last year alive, and it's filled with only commonly known vague historic plot points to stretch out it's runtime. It doesn't explore these historic events besides recreating them on film. It adds no substance, and no depth. It's essentially like viewing a history book. Here's this scene, here's this scene, here's this scene, and the film ends.
From the trailers, I expected a character deep-dive into the mind of a mob boss plagued by dementia. But even the feverishly mad hallucination sequences serve no purpose, and offer no depth. It's like they're there to show off gore, lavish parties, and introduce a character that they never do anything with besides having him reference a pointless plot point that never goes anywhere as well. This film has nothing to say, and never makes an attempt to say something. It's basically just being a voyeur. We see moments in Capone's life in an unstructured and ambiguous manner, and then the film ends.
It does nothing with the one thing it presents, which is Capone's childhood, and what it does show makes no sense because it never takes the time to explain anything. Showing, and not telling is a very important part of storytelling. But when you have a simplistic plot with no depth, and you simply throw in meaningless ideas, references, and situations in an ambiguous manner, that doesn't make a script deep. In fact, it makes it even more empty.
It's like Trank wanted to do one scene in this film, and simply threw in stuff from Capone's life to try and make it a feature length film. It offers no new insights, or any interesting development to Capone as a man, or as a gangster. It's honestly utterly meaningless in almost every sense of the word. You can try and tell me that it's about a mob boss losing his power, but right at the start of the film, it's clear Capone can't do anything anymore besides grunt, speak in growling sentences, and move like a zombie. And by the end of the film, he's no different. Capone doesn't change into anything worthwhile, (besides an increasingly sicker old man), and neither does anyone around him.
I'm giving it a 3 purely because of Hardy. But if any future filmmakers are out there reading this, take this into consideration: If you have an idea, and you want to explore it subtly, go explore it! But make sure you show, as well as tell in the right moments. We've seen many times how insufferable a film is when it purely tells, and now, we have an example of when a film only shows, but doesn't tell. When making a film, don't balance your entire plot on ambiguity. Ambiguity is good in snippets, but when the story relies on it, it cannot bolster a full film. It will fail, because you as the filmmaker are not making a statement, or saying anything worthwhile. Instead, you're saying nothing by showing the audience nothing that can be tethered to anything important, since everything can be classified as being non-existent.
Confusing? Yeah, that's how the film feels.
This is not a mob-movie. Nor is it really a movie. It's a collection of moments made to seem like there's a coherent, structured, worthwhile story. Believe me, no matter how appealing it may be, there is no story. There is nothing except the exceptional performance by Tom Hardy. Don't be like me, and spend ten bucks on this film. I got majorly Ca-pwned by this picture.