How Capone Director Josh Trank Feels About The Movie’s Negative Reviews
With Capone being Josh Trank’s first film since 2015’s huge bomb Fantastic Four, the writer/director is coming off a major disappointment. Trank cited studio meddling on one of Marvel’s all-time worst big-screen adaptations, but the filmmaker cannot blame anyone else for any ill words about his anti-gangster flick. Trank wrote the script, directed and edited Capone, and although it has suffered a lot of negative reviews, he’s still proud of the movie he made. In his words:
Josh Trank is standing by his filmmaking decisions for Capone despite its “rotten” score of 42% by critics and 31% by audiences. No matter the overall response, the writer/director can actually call the movie completely his own this time around and for that he is proud.
He believes the words in the reviews reflect the movie he planned to make, with Tom Hardy’s Al Capone suffering a torturous final year of his life with syphilis and undergoing mental deterioration, making him reportedly on par with a 12-year-old. Trank explained his vision for the film to IndieWire:
As Josh Trank puts it, Capone is the kind of movie that “kicks you in the balls” with its discomfort – such as with a couple messy scenes involving the notorious gangster shitting in his pants… and more than once. Capone didn’t get a chance to hit theaters, but it did soar to No. 1 on the iTunes charts in its first week of release.
CinemaBlend’s own Sean O’Connell reviewed the film positively with 3.5 out of 5 stars, giving Josh Trank praise for showing “real flair” in his filmmaking approach and giving a thumbs-up to Tom Hardy’s portrayal of Al Capone. Plus, Trank and Capone are already planning to work with each other for a limited TV show about the CIA.
Josh Trank’s breakout film Chronicle opened a ton of doors for the writer/director back in 2012. After the indie film impressed critics and made close to $130 million worldwide on a budget of just $12 million, Trank was attached to a Star Wars film, Venom and a video game adaptation. But he made Fantastic Four… and found himself in “movie jail” for the barrel low returns from the film.
After Fantastic Four, Trank finds himself drawn to making more independent films like Capone that challenge viewers. Capone is available to buy and rent on VOD. Check out CinemaBlend’s exclusive interview with Josh Trank on a recent episode of the ReelBlend podcast.
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Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.