FONZO (2020)

Title: CAPONE Year: 2020 Rates: *

For all the people who loved The Untouchables and thought that old Al Capone had to pay for the rest of his life rotting in prison because of that tax evasion thing, there's a neglected part of history that many would be both surprised and then let-down about... being that Capone actually got out and lived about a decade, and with money to boot... The footnote of that is that he suffered from dementia and wasn't all there, which was actually only the last couple years after the first couple years after lockup...

Most are praising Tom Hardy's performance because it's hard not to praise Tom Hardy, but he's all makeup and imitation here, nothing else, really... Matt Dillon plays his former mentor Johnny and seems in even more of a cruise control mode than Hardy's Capone, who at least has a reason being he's so messed up mentally... But nothing much happens except for showing a guy getting what he deserved after he got what he deserved by the far more entertaining story of his peak as a gangster... one scene as he lies in bed, he... well let's just say the audience gets to actually watch brown stuff spraying from his rear-end and it's not supposed to be hilarious but it seems like something out of Neighbors or Old School, and, anyhow, Josh Trask, poor fella, he just can't catch a break... The "It Guy Director" in Hollywood had a chance here, after failing at the top, to prove himself with arthouse but... there's simply nobody home here, and the lights aren't even on.

IN & OUT

title: IN & OUT

year: 1997

cast: Kevin Kline, Tom Selleck, Matt Dillon, Joan Cusack, William Duell

director: Frank Oz

rating: **

Matt Dillon's character, a straight actor playing a gay man in a war film, wins an Oscar and outs his teacher, Kevin Kline, who isn't aware he's gay; in fact he's about to get married to Joan Cusack. The first half is funny as Kline tries his best to prove against Dillon's theory; but the second half, after Kline comes out publicly, is pure Hollywood propaganda as it tries way too hard to dispose of small town prejudice: battling "homophobia" at every turn and and forgetting what it is... a light comedy.

CITY OF GHOSTS

title: CITY OF GHOSTS

year: 2002

cast: Matt Dillon, James Caan

writer/director: Matt Dillon

rating: **1/2

Matt Dillon, who has always been one of my favorite actors, as a director is obviously very influenced by film noir: a stranger in a strange land being used by someone he trusts while not exactly being sure about what's going on around him. This is the basic situation, and the setting is modern day Vietnam. The subtle villian, James Caan, a con-man who swindled people in an insurance scam, doesn't have enough to do. He's a mysterious character but his mystery just isn't that dynamic. Either is the story or the outcome. First-time director Dillon shows the landscape of Vietnam a whole lot, and plays actual music from that region throughout, yet you never feel you're in this place... you're merely watching it, rather than living it.