Capone

Der zerfallene Al Capone, von sich verschlechternder Demenz und den Folgen von Herzinfarkten und Geschlechtskrankheiten geplagt, verbringt sein letztes Lebensjahr auf die Fürsorge seiner Angehörigen angewiesen, wobei er in zahlreichen Halluzinationen mit seinen vergangenen Sünden und der brutalen Vergangenheit konfrontiert wird. Trotz des wenig attraktiv klingenden Themas könnte es sich um ein zumindest interessantes und bemerkenswert konzipiertes kontemplatives Biografiedrama handeln, jedoch ist seine Umsetzung sehr unglücklich. Die repetitiven Motive und Capones wahnhafte Visionen haben praktisch keinen Sinn und der ganze Film ist daher irgendwie nichts und zerfällt genauso wie der Geist des Hauptcharakters. Dank der Schauspieler ist es zumindest nicht peinlich und unfreiwillig komisch. Es kann zusammengefasst werden als eine unbefriedigende Wartezeit, ob sich Capone am Ende daran erinnert, wo er seine gestohlenen Millionen versteckt hat, jedoch ist das weitaus größere Rätsel, wie es gelungen ist, Tom Hardy für die Rolle zu überreden, in der er als berühmtester Gangster der Geschichte nur in die Windeln kackt, italienische Schimpfwörter murmelt, Karotten lutscht und abstoßend aussieht. (21.10.2020)

An eccentric creative view of the last year of Al Capone’s life. Hardy feels at home with the bizarre and his transformation into a doubly incontinent, syphilitic wreck is perfection itself. The screenplay is more a series of hallucinations created by his failing brain (trying desperately to remember where he buried those ten million bucks) mixed with reality and memories of torture and killing. It is both shocking and surprising (gouging eyes out), but also lacking any prominent storyline. Calling him Fonzo does more harm than good, because it makes everyone expect a classic mafia movie. Krusty the Clown with a golden Tommy gun just won’t cut it. (22.05.2020)

This hurts. Capone sits and grumps, is incontinent and chomps a carrot instead of a cigar, and everything is so spectacularly uninteresting that it was hard to believe. Greyness and boredom only interrupted by a violent darkness and Tom Hardy, who once again manages to perfectly blend into the character and keep the viewer awake with his words. Trank is slowly moving towards TV and he can be grateful that the coronavirus spared him of another failure in the cinema. 40% (13.05.2020)

I don't envy Trank. After becoming one of the few filmmakers who proved incapable of letting the studio collar him, and despite getting the money for his challenging auteur project, he was forced to finally send it to the living rooms of apathetic VOD viewers who only care about the star in the lead role and tagging the film a gangster flick. Capone, on the other hand, is far closer to Sokurov's Taurus (a once prominent, strong persona irreversibly withers in mind, body, and influence while being manipulated by those around him) or Zeller's The Father (a subjective depiction of the protagonist's damaged mind). While Trank's direction isn't anything particularly distinctive, and Hardy already pushes the role imo unnecessarily beyond the point of funny grotesqueness, I think in an era of overblown egos and ambition, the reminder is quite apt that the more convinced of ourselves we are during our lives, the more pitiful a caricature of ourselves we become in the end. Plus, it teeters on the edge of sympathizing with an utter monster, which always earns points. (27.06.2022)