Parents' Guide to

Capone

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 16+

Violent chronicle of gangster's final descent into dementia.

Movie R 2020 103 minutes
Capone Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 18+

Based on 2 parent reviews

Tuckeraf
Tuckeraf Adult
May 23, 2020
age 18+

Absolutely awful

I cannot express this strongly enough. This is positively the worst movie I have ever seen.
Pete2494
Pete2494 Parent of 16-year-old
May 14, 2020
age 18+

Violent and dark

This film is set in the last year of life for Capone, so you would expect the violence to be at a minimum. We all know that he led an ultra violent life, but I think the violent scenes in this film (mostly as flashbacks) were extended when there was no need to be, seeing a man get stabbed in the next circa 30 times after prolonged torture was excessive and unnecessary, the sexual scenes for me were at a minimum, brief and clothed. The language was coarse throughout, with barely one scene not containing f**k or c**t or mother f*****r. I would not let my children view this and my eldest is 17, this has the potential to warp young minds and harm, it has to be 18+.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much swearing
See all 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

CAPONE follows the final year of infamous gangster Al Capone's life, during his mental and physical decline from advanced syphilis. Seven years after being released from prison, Alphonse Capone (Tom Hardy) -- who's called Fonz by his close family and friends (the movie was originally titled Fonzo) -- is cared for by his wife, Mae (Linda Cardellini), and a revolving door of gangland security while living at his Miami Beach mansion. Fonz grows less and less lucid, having vivid delusions that layer past violent crimes on top of his present-day life. He lashes out at Mae, his brother, and others and reveals to a mysterious associate (Matt Dillon) that he can't remember where he may (or may not) have hidden $10 million: the lost treasure that remains legendary.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2):
Kids say (2):

Hardy's commitment to director Josh Trank's uneven, trippy character study is both laudable and laughable: He offers a slurring, grunting, drooling depiction of the gangster during his final year. Trank, whose clever 2012 debut Chronicle was followed by the notoriously disappointing The Fantastic Four, isn't reclaiming any cred with this ambitious but unsatisfying biopic about the notorious crime boss's descent into madness and decay. The body horror here is real: Hardy's make-up team deserves a shout-out for making his skin authentically look like it's not only swollen and scarred but also suffering from the symptoms of advanced disease. Toward the end of the film, Capone looks like he's contracting Greyscale (from Game of Thrones) or turning into Gollum; the movie could be used as a PSA for serious STDs. Hardy, to his credit, rolls with it all, managing to project an aura of violence even when Capone is losing control of his bowels (twice).

Cardellini is noteworthy as Capone's long-suffering, devoted wife, Mae, and Kyle MacLachlan is good as Capone's personal physician. Dillon is a welcome source of humor as a fellow gangster (his line about what happens when you spend too much time in Florida is the screenplay's funniest moment). But audiences may also end up laughing at unintentionally funny times, like the over-the-top scenes in which Capone, wearing an adult diaper and smoking a carrot instead of a cigar, is walking around unhinged. At least it can't be said that this is a glamorization of Capone's mob-boss life. It's unclear, however, what the point of Trank's film really is, and it's too slow and unsettling to remember for anything but Hardy's outsized performance.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the violence in Capone. How is it depicted? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

  • Discuss the ways that Capone departs from typical gangster movies. What's different about this one? What did you learn about Al Capone's life?

  • Why do you think gangster-related movies and TV shows are still popular? What makes criminals fascinating to audiences?

  • How accurate do you think the movie is to what actually happened? Why might filmmakers choose to alter the facts in a movie based on real events?

  • Talk about the storied history of Capone's missing loot. What do you know about it? Does the movie make you curious about the rumors?

Movie Details

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