Touchable.
104 Mins. Starring: Tom Hardy, Linda Cardellini, Jack Lowden, Noel Fisher, Neal Brennan, Kyle MacLachlan & Matt Dillon. Director: Josh Trank.
Gold Tommy. Diaper. Carrot for a cigar. Growling like the cowardly lion following the 'Yellow Brick Road' memory lane of quoting 'The Wizard Of Oz', line-by-line with heart. Projector behind him as his spotlight for the second most iconic moment of a movie that may not have soul or substance, but has style in spades for a man who all cards on the table is playing his last hand in this last dance. Lumbering around in a robe like a prize fighter in walk out music visuals, punch drunk and about to swig swing for his final round K.O. The Kray's twinning double-act 'Legend' Tom Hardy is 'Capone'...but not how you know the gangster legend of Kevin Costner's Elliott Ness and Robert De Niro with a baseball bat's 'The Untouchables'. In a brutal 'Bronson' like fever dream that's more like a nightmare for the crime capering, 'Peaky Blinders' and 'Taboo' showrunning, mob hitman. "I came here for a f###### shootout, right," like the "Krazy" Kray Reggie says. "Like a western." And when you see Tom with the Tommy-Gun around 'Fonzo's' famous Florida mansions, moat surrounded by alligators press, police and all sorts of predators, you know he's not going to use it to bake you a cake. Instead the man who's getting all sorts of housewives hot in these desperate quarantined times by reading children's bedtime stories on the BBC is laying everyone to rest playing the most famous, public enemy number one and Scarface, saying goodbye this time with his little friend. As dementia sets in like the sun coming down on this former threat, put out to pasture following his escape from Alcatraz to a foggy cerebellum (like Wesley Snipes in 'The Expendables 3' what did they get him for? "Tax evasion!"). Compared to Hitler the only difference with this mob man being that he is "still alive"...for now. The gangster Godfather like Brando or Puzo.
Untouchable, but touching cloth. You'll s### yourself when you see Tom Hardy as Al Capone. As he soils himself like he was gardening like Don Corleone's demise. But out in the back yard the only thing this gangster is doing is a thousand miles starring into the middle distance. 8 ball eyes with visions of his friends gouging out their own like Johnny Depp's last stand in the 'Desperado', 'Once Upon A Time In Mexico' sequel. And whose that boy he keeps seeing down the road? Him? His son? There are visions in this movie that will stay with you like the submerged ones in Jamie Foxx's 'Ray', but this brutal biopic plays different Sam. Compelling when not in caricature mode, or in terrific transformation of the physical, this is one of Hardy's best for a man who has played everyone from characters like the Bane of Batman's life (who like a 'Ford vs Ferrari', 'Machinist', or the 'Vice' of an 'American Hustle' is following a Christian Bale physical career trajectory) and the 'Fury Road' of Mad Max. Mumbling his way through some incoherent inspiration like a 'Lawless' outlaw again and showing us that the lines lie deeper than the ones you can see on his face like a wrinkle in time. Spitting venom in a 'Locke' like situation lockdown we all feel socially isolated in right now, this guy with a disease that is killing him like corona shows us the destruction of a man's mind is maddening...especially when it belongs to an evil one with more dark recesses than most have skeletons in their closets. The 'Inception' and 'Warrior' actor who has excelled in epics like 'The Revenant' and the Dennis Lehane crime classic 'The Drop' has played perfectly both the comedy and tragedy side of Charles Bronson and BOTH Kray twins for his 'Legend'. And here he shows the culmination of this couple for a classic character that deserves better...only in the measure of this movie. Balding with sallow skin that looks like its been turned inside out like his stripped mind, there's no sympathy for the devil here as the gathering moss means this rolling stone stops in his tracks and the licks he took at people like their lives. And now with his on the line, crawling over all the water logged bodies in the rain like how they've weighed him down on his road to perdition, it's time for him to meet his maker and all the sins he's fathered.
Jadakiss once rapped, "gangsters don't die, they get chubby and move to Miami." Whilst also chomping on cigars and having Louis Armstrong perform for them. But we don't have all the time in the world anymore as other stars trumpet the brass balls of this solid effort. There's 'Green Book', 'Dead To Me' and 'ER' great Linda Cardellini always on fine form and stepping beyond the clichéd stand by my man wife role Hollywood gives out...albeit if she is a little criminally unused here. She always makes millions out of the spare change scenes afforded to her...and oh how it pays. Whilst '' 71' and 'War and Peace' actor Jack Lowden brings more of this in this war of wills, like 'Hatfield's and McCoy's' actor in this wild world that like General Custer is a saloon of violence. Even 'Chappelle's Show' co-creator and '3 Mics' Netflix standup icon Neal Brennan shows up, as serious as Capone's lawyer...despite the s### he gets. And then there's 'Twin Peaks' and 'Dune' legend Kyle MacLachlan (most recently soaring in Steven Soderbergh's iPhone shot Netflix basketball drama 'High Flying Bird') as a Doctor and the perfect prescription for the period piece look of this. But it's 'Flamingo Kid' Matt Dillon who pushes this over the edge as a friend of Capone's ugly mind. The 80's icon, most notable and noteworthy memorable last seen in the conflicted and controversial Oscar winning Crash, the 'Twin Peaks' like 'Wayward Pines' FX series a half decade ago and the Grammy nomination for his narration of Jack Kerouac's 'On The Road' is back on this one in a classic car that like a thunderbird makes for the most amazing automobile. But it's the 'Chronicle' of breakout director Josh Trank who is behind the wheel here with Venom and Bane and the rebound to his much maligned 'Fantastic Four' reboot, which had a lot more potential than invisible in ignorance critics gave flaming hot credit for. But this thing is something else entirely from the superhero director when it comes to this Kingpin villain complete with a cane. Rock hard like the rubble Capone's life was left in even in the parlour of his palace, this might be a stretch, but is shows just how elastic a director Josh is. Trank will belong with the statues one day like this movies opening even if they are being baliff lifted. No dart could take him out. Like Capone he'll do that all on his own terms. Rotting at the core like this man's mind, this notorious film may not be B.I.G., but this big poppa will still leave you hypnotised. You can touch this. Close...but no cigar. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'Legend', 'Bronson', 'The Untouchables'.
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