‘Capone,’ Josh Trank, and the Myth of the Difficult Genius

From zero to hero back to zero, we’ve found the limits of an uncompromising auteur

A million words could be written — and they no doubt have — about the utterly fascinating career of Tom Hardy. Never in the history of Hollywood has a movie star of his wattage been so committed to repeatedly transforming himself into someone else, even (and especially) if that means humiliating himself in the process.

In the case of Capone, that means burying himself under copious layers of makeup, adopting a voice that one character accurately describes as a “dying horse,” and pooping his pants…twice.

Hardy is the reason we’re even talking about this unfortunately terrible movie, honestly the reason it exists in the first place (he has not-so-secretly yearned to play Al Capone for years). But Capone is not a Tom Hardy movie. It’s a Josh Trank movie, written, directed and edited. And somehow, that is even more interesting.

Interpreted generously, Trank has had the career trajectory of an Icarus. He burst onto the scene in 2012 with Chronicle, a found footage superhero drama that grossed a remarkable $126 million on a $12 million budget while garnering rapturous reviews, minting the 26-year-old director as one of the industry’s new golden boys. Immediately he was handed the reigns to a…