“TRAILER. Tom Hardy. Capone. Coming MAY 12. (Different title. My cut.) 🤩.” This is a tweet Josh Trank, the director+writer uploaded once the trailer became avaliable. After hitting it out of the park with 2012’s Chronicle (which I loved), and bombing hugely with 2015’s Fantastic Four (I didn’t dislike it as much as others but regardless, too often it felt like a mismash of different pieces). Now with his latest film Capone starring Tom Hardy as the gangster, in theory this would be his comeback. Worth it?

That depends on your taste. Certainly in the pre-credits I felt as if bits were starting to just not gel in the right way, only this time there was an evident personality behind it all, you could say an “auteur” energy. However, once the title credits rolled and we really start seeing Al Capone in his isolated, deteriorating days, the approach becomes clear. Sorta like The Irishman, it’s a gangster turned uncool, although unlike The Irishman there’s a very cartoony energy. That can be to a fault and only leaving two or three scenes where I felt emotional. There’s clearly a lot of passion to the film though, so whether it’s Hardy truly giving his all or Trank giving the project his all, it doesn’t feel like there was anything fake as such to Capone.

In fact, I learnt the only adjustment was to the title, because originally it was Fonzo, and naturally Capone was more marketable.  So all in all even though I wish sometimes certain scenes could be better synthesised into the whole, and that Linda Cardellini as Capone’s wife had more depth than it appeared (although Cardellini is brilliant), in the end I highly recommend this movie. If only so you can just see what it’s like!