Smells Like Sick Greasy Isolation

Director: Gerard Johnson
Main Cast: Peter Ferdinando, Ricky Grover, Lorenzo Camporese

At its heart this film has a bold vision and a powerfully uncompromising tone, but there is a wide grey line between respecting a film’s intentions and enjoying it as a complete piece of work. Gerard Johnson’s debut portrays Tony through an impartial and observational narrative, very little consequence between threads except Tony’s inability to engage with a world that seems to have neglected him. He clearly suffers from an acute psychiatric disorder, obsessive and anti-social, the neglect has left him on the fringe where his only protection from his unbearable existence is to slay those who would interfere or perhaps make him recognize his state.

Cinema Release Date: 5th February 2010
DVD Release Date: 8th February 2010

What began life as a rather grating short film, the original Tony was aiming for menacing-black-comedy with Tony slaying two jabbering, cockney junkies.  In the feature length the junkies are back and remain his victims but the comedy, Guy Ritchie caricatures, have been toned down to greater effect.  Peter Ferdinando’s performance as Tony is wonderfully nuanced, and authentically familiar, Tony is every creep that sits in the back of a pub on his own – “NONCE!” is thrown at him aplenty throughout and it is not without accuracy.

Tony is a picture of sick, greasy loneliness; the neighbour you’d tell your kids to keep away from, the one whom you start to breath through your mouth as he opens his door. But crawling beneath the surface, you see a man who wants to die but hasn’t realized it and probably never will. The moments where the film lies on the central performance it works; Tony’s own monologue in front of the mirror, a la Travis Bickle, is uneasy and you beg for Tony to slit his own throat. Unfortunately there are many scenes of poorly characterized performances that feel too familiar, too stereotypical, or hysterical for the viewer to remain engaged with the momentum.

A linear aspect of the narrative is that there is a missing boy on the estate. Before the disappearance the boy’s father, Paul (Ricky Grover), threatens Tony in the local pub. Tony can’t help but eavesdrop while Paul argues with his wife, such high-blooded emotions are alien to Tony. Unable to vent his full rage on his wife Paul turns on Tony, a tiny man by comparison to the ape-like Paul. When the boy goes missing there is lingering ambiguity, but the observational narrative seems to clearly show that we are seeing everything Tony is doing, Johnson purposefully tries to sway you to Tony’s sympathy when suspicions arise. Ultimately sympathy didn’t really come through, in fact you may find yourself willing Paul to get his hands on Tony and put him out of his misery.

Johnson keeps the running time short and, due to the lack of story, it is just as well. It also displays a considerable lack of ego in the director, the trend now is to make your movie even longer, especially if it is unnecessary – there is some misconception that maybe after three hours in front of a screen the audience will be convinced to take the film seriously.

Ferdinando’s performance, particularly his physical transformation, displays a committed and promising talent, but the film is ultimately let down by more than a few supporting performances and conclusion that makes a very effective title sequence, but undermines any real meaning for us or for Tony. It edges on insight but ditches the poetry of its influences and feels meaningless because Johnson just observes and doesn’t bring his intelligence into play. 

Country of Origin: UK
Running Time: 76 mins
Certificate: 18