Film Review: "Capone" (2020).

"We all pay for our crimes in the end." This is true for Capone. This biographical film written, directed and edited by Josh Trank. A ruthless businessman and bootlegger who ruled Chicago with an iron fist, Al Capone was the most infamous and feared gangster of American lore. At the age of 47, following nearly a decade of imprisonment, dementia rots Capone’s mind and his past becomes present as harrowing memories of his violent and brutal origins melt into his waking life.

After the critical and commercial failure of Fantastic Four (2015), Trank, in an interview with The New York Times, recalled that he "went from my phone ringing all day and getting emails", after the success of Chronicle (2012), "to just dead silence in a really jarring way. I was left with a lot of confusion, and I felt really numb. I sat still outside, chain-smoking cigarettes for a good two months without speaking to anybody. At some point during my internal meditative state, I started to think about the story I knew from years of reading about Al Capone. I kept thinking about Capone at the end of his life, sitting outside, smoking a cigar, not knowing what’s going on, dying from syphilitic dementia. It was a place that I went to in my head to reconcile with the things that I was feeling." In October 2016, the film, originally entitled Fonzo, was announced with Trank as writer, director and editor and with Tom Hardy to star as the infamous Chicago gangster. Filming was initially eyed to begin in the summer of 2017, with Hardy stating it would be released sometime in 2018. However, in 2017, Hardy instead ended up filming Venom (2018). By March 2018, Hardy announced that Fonzo would be his next project. In addition, Linda Cardellini, Matt Dillon, Kyle MacLachlan, Al Sapienza, Kathrine Narducci, Noel Fisher, and Jack Lowden rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, with a budget of $20.6 million, principal photography commenced, and wrapped in mid May. Filming took place in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. In late April, The Run The Jewels MC/producer El-P was hired to compose the film's score. In mid April 2020, the trailer for the film was released with its new title, Capone. The film was originally intended to have a theatrical release, however it was eventually released on VOD due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The film stars Hardy, Cardellini, Dillon, MacLachlan, Sapienza, Narducci, Fisher, and Lowden. The cast's performances are highly accomplished. Hardy is startlingly off-kilter, his performance a veritable textbook example of deranged.

Capone may be a beautifully structured and well-acted movie, but it certainly's isn't an easy film to watch. Still, if you like horror movies, this one will keep you on the edge of your seat, albeit squirming every minute. It is not a fun or particularly upbeat film, but it does grab you by the collar and it sucks you right into the screen.

Simon says Capone receives:

Also, see my review for Fantastic Four (2015).