DVDs in Review

Tony

Title: Tony (2009)

Release date: February 8 2009

Certificate: 18

Format:DVD

DVD RRP: £14.99

Rating: 3.5/5

'Tony' depicts the kind of character that a lot of us have met at one point or another; the kind of character who we choose to ignore or move away from - the clingy, odd, mysterious loner type. Moments after walking away, we've cast him out of our memory.

Does that make us a villain? After a while of being shunned, Tony (Peter Ferdinando in a potentially star making turn), a moustachioed man stuck in the 80s which formed his childhood love of bad action movies and the ease of not having a job or any responsibility, seems to think so.

He's probably been simmering since the 80s. Street venders aren't even interested in bothering him (they sell pirate DVDs, Tony only uses old school VHS) and those who do give him attention react violently because he stares at them or tries to hard to please, despite having little to give.

Set very much in London, an angry locale of anonymity and resentment without a glimmer of capital city glamour as depicted in Gerard Johnson's film, Tony is prowling and prone to snapping. He retaliates from this rejection with murder.

The act of murder doesn't satisfy Tony's mind overtly like, for example, Patrick Bateman in 'American Psycho' who feeds off the social power and sexual energy of his crime for which he isn't reprimanded. Tony uses the dead bodies almost like teddy bears, propped up on chairs, in bed and in closets - they're companions who can't hurt his already fragile state.

It’s this method that makes him so terrifying. Far too often have serial killer films gone for the blood splatters on walls and the burnt out cop on his tail. Here we have no grizzled detective; we've just got Tony continuing to do the only thing he knows, showing no remorse.

The only time he gets worried about being discovered is more because it feels like he's going to be told off by an unseen mother - he looks to the floor as if begging for mercy.

Tony is a truly intriguing character partly because he's stuck in the 80s with only overblown video violence as his reference point, yet he's living in a real-life world of modern violence that responds differently than his out of date thoughts. He's out of time and under the radar - no one would see him coming.

See this understated, solidly made yet brief film for a quick look at the effects of a society that doesn't pay enough attention to a troubled minority. The trouble is that it doesn't have a third act. Having said that, it could make the film all the more sinister that conclusions aren't drawn.