Tom Hardy
Al Capone
Overview
The 47-year old Al Capone, after 10 years in prison, starts suffering from dementia and comes to be haunted by his violent past.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
r96sk
<em>'Capone'</em> disappoints. It's not what I was expecting. I hadn't heard much about it admittedly, but I was anticipating a full blown film about Al Capone - especially with the casting of Tom Hardy. That's not a bad thing in isolation, at all, but coupled with iffy storytelling it ends up being a waste. Hardy (Al) is undoubtedly the best thing about this, yet I still think he had way more in him for this sort of role - if the filmmakers had allowed him to use it, of course. There aren't any standouts behind Hardy, though Linda Cardellini (Mae) and Kyle MacLachlan (Karlock) are OK. There's nothing I massively dislike about this, I just wanted so much more from it. It is, I will say, at least a film that makes you think - I just don't, personally, think it came out as perhaps intended.
Read full reviewtmdb28039023
Bobby De Niro's Al Capone in The Untouchables could make you figuratively crap your pants. Tom Hardy's Capone, on the other hand, is the only one soiling his pants – literally. In the Godfather, Don Vito Corleone leaves, through Luca Brassi, a horse's head on Jack Woltz's bed. In Capone, the only thing the titular character leaves in a bed, which happens to be his own, is his dinner – after he has digested it. The events of Capone take place during Al Capone's final year on Earth, when the notorious criminal was “no longer considered a threat” to anyone or anything other than his underwear or his bed sheets. This film is arguably the second lowest point in the Al Capone mythos, following The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults. Not unlike Geraldo Rivera, Capone purports to give us access to the vault that was the mobster's psyche during his last days, and the result is equally disappointing. In theory no movie should be too bad that includes Hardy (or at least the Tom Hardy I remember from The Revenant), Kyle MacLachlan and Matt Dillon, but Capone gives them very little to do. MacLachlan looks as if he got lost on his way to the Twin Peaks set, Dillon wastes his considerable talent on some sort of Sixth Sense-esque routine, and Hardy spends the entire film wearing a prosthetic masks that covers the entire surface of his face and skull, making him look like Michael Myers in Halloween 3000: Massacre at the Old Folks Home. The worst part of the whole thing is that the majority of events in Capone take place only in the protagonist's feverish, senile mind, and while there's nothing wrong with a film that reflects the deteriorated mental state of a character – e.g., The Machinist –, my problem is that director/writer Josh Trank has no way of knowing what was going on in Al Capone's head during his last days of life; in other words, he's making this stuff up as he goes, and this gives the film a double layer of unreality. Put another way, we are dealing with not one, but two levels of fantasy; there's the character's ravings, and then there's the filmmaker's musings as to what the actual person's ravings might have been. We cannot expect to gain any new insights from this approach, and indeed the film fails to reveal anything important or relevant about its subject.
Read full reviewAudience Opinions
Audience 5.0/10
"A bold, grotesque end-of-life portrait anchored by Tom Hardy’s commitment but dragged down by sluggish pacing and an almost non-existent plot."
Tom Hardy’s physical transformation and willingness to dive into an ugly, pitiful version of Al Capone draw interest and give the film a disturbing psychological edge. The focus on dementia, decay, and hallucinations creates an eerie, haunted tone that some find fascinatingly strange. At the same time, the story drifts without clear direction, moves very slowly, and often feels like a collection of unpleasant moments rather than a satisfying crime drama or character study.
What viewers praise
- Committed Tom Hardy performance Hardy throws himself into Capone’s physical and mental breakdown, delivering a grotesque, full-bodied turn that dominates the film.
- Unusual focus on decline The choice to center on Capone’s final, dementia-ridden year instead of his rise as a crime boss offers a stark, unglamorous angle on the gangster myth.
- Bleak psychological tone Hallucinations, confusion, and bodily decay build a morbid, unsettling atmosphere that plays like a horror-tinged study of a collapsing mind.
Common complaints
- Very thin storyline The film offers little in the way of plot or escalation, leaving many scenes feeling repetitive and purposeless.
- Slow and meandering Long stretches pass with minimal development, leading to frequent complaints that the experience is boring and anticlimactic.
- Unclear dialogue delivery Hardy’s guttural voice and mumbled delivery make large portions of the dialogue hard to understand, which further distances viewers from the character.
- Ambition exceeds execution The strange, experimental concept never fully coalesces, coming across as messy and misguided rather than profound.
Recommended for
Tom Hardy completionists Experimental crime drama seekers Bleak character study fans Psychological decay narratives Offbeat gangster film collectors
Buzz & Rumors
Public reports“Capone” Chaos: Diapers, Twitter Meltdowns & The Gonzo Gangster Movie That Broke Everyone’s Brain
Al Capone may be rotting away on screen, but behind the scenes of the 2020 film “Capone,” the real decay was reputational. Director in meltdown, an actor obsessed with bodily functions, a cartoon-inspired accent, and fandoms at war – this movie’s off‑camera drama is juicier than anything in the script.
On-Set Drama & Director Meltdown
- Josh Trank came into Capone fresh out of what he calls a “Hollywood nightmare” after the Fantastic Four implosion. He described the fallout as “the most humiliating, imaginable nightmare,” going from hot young director to total silence, chain‑smoking in his backyard, gaining 60 pounds, and wondering if he should move back in with his mom and file for unemployment
. - The director openly admits he felt stuck in “director’s jail” and thought he might never work again unless it was “something very low budget” [1]. Capone was his attempt at clawing his way back – which makes its messy reception all the more brutal.
- When Capone launched on VOD and critics dragged it, film Twitter piled on so hard that Trank quit social media altogether after clashes with trolls and harassment over the movie . Harassed over a diaper‑gun gangster flick and rage‑quitting Twitter? That’s a 2020 mood.
Tom Hardy: Human Disaster Piece
- Trank says the script’s most disgusting elements were exactly what hooked Tom Hardy. He flat-out bragged that, “For somebody like Tom, you can’t have enough scenes in a movie where he’s going to shit himself” [1]. According to Trank, Hardy was game for all of it – the incontinence, the drooling, the rotting body. High art, but make it IBS.
- The two reportedly bonded so hard over this gonzo vision that their first phone call about the role lasted over six hours, leading to Hardy signing on as star and producer [1]. Six hours to agree to wear diapers and hallucinate in a swamp of neurosyphilis: dedication.
- Trank calls the movie a “deconstruction of masculinity,” praising Hardy for being willing to “undress himself” on screen and show Capone as terrified, vulnerable, and unable to defend himself even from his own thoughts [1]. Translation: if you thought Hardy went too far, that was the point.
The Accent Heard ‘Round the Internet
- That infamous, borderline incomprehensible Hardy mumble? It wasn’t random. Trank revealed that the Capone voice was inspired by Jimmy Durante, Bugs Bunny, and Call of Duty fatigue, all blended into one deeply cursed accent
. - Vulture reported Trank even played raw footage on his phone to show how Hardy based elements of the performance on Bugs Bunny [3]. Cue endless Reddit threads wondering if they were watching a gangster biopic or an experimental Looney Tune.
- Critics piled on, calling the accent “weird” and “perplexing,” and fans on Reddit tore it apart as yet another entry in Hardy’s long history of What-The-Hell-Is-He-Saying performances [3].
Cast Feuds & Set Stories (Or Lack Thereof)
- If you were hoping for full‑blown feuds, sorry — this set’s drama seems to have been more internal than interpersonal.
- Linda Cardellini did give one delightful tidbit: she admitted she was “terrified” to slap Tom Hardy in a key scene, but he told her to “go for it,” encouraging a real, hard smack for authenticity . No reports of Hardy retaliating in character, luckily.
- Beyond that, the dirt is mostly about Trank and the film itself, not actors clashing. The real “fight” was between the movie and everyone’s expectations.
Scandals, Backstories & Old Ghosts
- During the Capone press cycle, Trank resurfaced an earlier piece of Hollywood drama: he revealed he had **banned writer Max Landis from the set of *Chronicle*** years before Landis was publicly accused of sexual and emotional abuse . Trank said they didn’t get along and that Landis wasn’t allowed on set during principal photography [6].
- Once the Landis allegations exploded in 2019, this older story made Trank look strangely prescient – and gave his Capone interviews a little extra sting of “I told you so” gossip.
Fan Wars, Title Trouble & Wild Trivia
- The film was shot as Fonzo, then quietly rebranded as Capone right before release as it went straight to VOD instead of theaters. Coverage of the switch noted the title change and surprise VOD fate, sparking fan speculation that the rebrand was a last‑ditch attempt to make the movie more marketable after delays .
- Online, Capone quickly became one of 2020’s most divisive films. Reddit threads lit up with people calling it “ridiculously inept” and “like a feature‑length fake movie inside another movie,” while others dug its bizarre, nightmarish tone and defended it as misunderstood [3].
- A favorite fan talking point: Business Insider singled out the bathrobe‑and‑diaper shootout where Hardy’s Capone, carrot in mouth, fires a gold Tommy Gun — one of several “wild moments” that felt like fever dreams even by biopic standards .
IGInstagram·This Film Is Tom Hardy's Second Attempt at Playi… https://www.instagram.com/reel/CunTsV3I5V4/Loading Instagram post…
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CunTsV3I5V4/- And for bonus trivia: this wasn’t even Hardy’s first dance with Capone. A widely shared Instagram trivia reel notes that Capone was his second attempt at playing the mob boss, after a different project, Cicero, fell apart [10]. When the universe wants you in a diaper with a Tommy Gun, it really wants it.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
Movies
Similar Movies
Related titles ranked by rating and popularity.
