Tony: London Serial Killer

[bevvy]

A week in the life of Tony, an alienated psychopath with severe social problems, an obsession for action films and a horrible moustache. Unemployed and unemployable, Tony prowls the streets, his nervous attempts to make human connections invariably rebuffed by laughter or contempt. Occasionally he snaps, and violence is the result…

Gerard Johnson’s dark, brutal, bleakly amusing psychological thriller has already drawn favourable comparisons to John McNaughton’s seminal Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and features a star-making lead performance from Peter Ferdinando as the title character - probably the most alarming cinematic anti-hero since Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle.

Directed by: Gerard Johnson;
Starring: Peter Fernandino;
Ricky Grover;
Neil Maskell;
Lorenzo Camporese;

I can't find any reviews of this one yet. But I have noticed that Empire are selling tickets to tomorrow night's SFF screening in the massive screen 1 Leicester Square at £11.95 a time!

[Beate]

They might sell to horror fans, apparently "The director Gerard Johnson and lead actor Peter Ferdinando will be in attendance."

[priamia]

Wow - so will it be another industry-type screening??

£11.95 a ticket?! Is that how much Empire charge?! I knew it would be expensive, but come on!! Thank God for SFF and this forum! I look forward to the screening tomorrow and hope to sit in the 'circle' this time.

[bevvy]

I look forward to the screening tomorrow and hope to sit in the 'circle' this time.

It is unreserved seating so you should stand a good chance as long as they haven't earmarked the best seats for 'VIPs'.

[ckc1ne]

Tony Update - Apparently some of the cast will be at the preview this evening : Special preview screening of TONY:London Serial killer, with director and lead actor! 11:30pm TOMORROW at Empire, Leicester Square!

[ckc1ne]

Did anyone go to the screening? What was it like?

[priamia]

I went. The film was very 'a week in the life of'.

[spoiler]There was no real conclusion to the film which people may/may not like. I kinda liked it, as it left you using your imagination as to what happened to him. There were funny parts to the film (director said it was unintentional) and parts when you actually felt sorry for Tony as he was obviously very lonely. The first killing we the audience witnessed was a surprise, but you are shown that he does 'choose' his victims somewhat and lets those unwitting people he finds 'nice' go. Mainly set in his council flat, where the murders take place, everyone who enters comments on 'the smell' which Tony explains as a drain problem. Apart from his downstairs neighbour Dawn who invites him for Roast after giving her a plaster for a cut on her finger.[/spoiler]

The Q & A with the director and some of the cast, including the actor who played Tony was quite an insight. The film was shot in 12 days in 16mm film (I think that's the correct film term) with an original budget of £40,000 and added funds from the UK Film council bringing the final budget £120,000. We found out a little more on the research obtained by the director and actors and how they all rehearsed together, locked in a room together, exclusively actors and director only. There will not be a sequel. Unfortunately there was a man sitting at the front who seemed to hog most of the questions as though they were only there to talk to him - until someone shouted from the side 'Let someone else ask a question mate!'.

I've not stayed for a Q & A before and I may stick around for another one if I'm lucky enough to attend another screening with one.

Overall for the film, I would give it 7/10

[bevvy]

I gave it 7/10 as well.

I think it would have been better though if the film had just been called Tony and the serial killer part had come as a surprise (as I gather it was in a previous screening).
I agree about that man at the front hogging things and it didn't help that we were sat at the back and could not hear what his questions were.

[Beate]

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/films/tony- ... 19312.html

The ViewLondon Review

Review by Matthew Turner
03/02/2010
Opens Friday 05 February 2010

Four out of Five stars
Running time: 72 mins

Enjoyable, darkly funny and weirdly moving, this is a sharply written, well acted drama that marks writer-director Gerard Johnson out as a talent to watch.

What's it all about?
Written and directed by Gerard Johnson, Tony stars Peter Ferdinando as the eponymous Tony, a wimpy, unemployed weirdo who's frequently picked on in the streets thanks to his geeky appearance and poor social skills. Walking the streets of Dalston in search of some form of human connection, Tony tags along with drug dealers Smudger (Francis Pope) and Mackey (George Russo) and invites them back to his flat, only to unexpectedly murder one of them when they fall asleep.

It soon becomes clear that Tony is a frustrated sociopath who's so desperate for company that he'll kill people just to have someone to watch TV with. As the film progresses, Tony also encounters a kindly female neighbour (Vicky Murdock), a prostitute (Lucy Flack) and a TV licence inspector (Ian Kilgannon). Meanwhile, he's forced to take a job in a tanning shop and is also suspected of abducting a local child (Sam Kempster).

The Good
The posters for Tony include the legend “London Serial Killer” under the title, making this look like an East End version of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer but the film is much more of a blackly comic social drama than a horror or thriller and has more in common with the work of Mike Leigh and Alan Clarke than it does with the serial killer genre. It's immediately apparent, for example, that Tony's not really a serial killer, in that he doesn't deliberately set out to murder his victims.

Peter Ferdinando delivers a terrific performance, achieving the extremely complex balancing act of making Tony both heartbreakingly pitiable and chillingly unpredictable at the same time. Similarly, Johnson gets the tone of the film exactly right. For example, the scene where Tony is ejected from a brothel for asking “How much for a cuddle?” is both blackly funny and desperately sad.

The Great
In addition, Johnson's script is excellent and there are several very funny scenes. It's also a testament to Ferdinando's performance that he can make the delivery of a seemingly innocuous line like “Would you like some beans on toast?” seem like comedy gold.

Worth seeing?
Tony is a hugely enjoyable, superbly directed drama with a blackly comic script and a terrific central performance from Peter Ferdinando. Highly recommended.

[Beate]

We literally bolted out of the Vue Islington and ran as fast as we could into the tube, willing it to go faster! We made it just in time but as I arrived at the venue I realised I had somehow managed to lose the OH on the short walk from the tube station! Started to panick, ran back, phoned him... Once I had finally found him we were tearing back to the Passaje Del Terror which is just next to the Trocadero entrance and were cheered by the ushers, LOL. We picked up a few packets of Walkers crisps and plastic cups of coke handed out by a zombie (their idea of "food and drink") and were ushered into the screening room which is basically a small room full with uncomfy wooden benches. There were 16 people all in all sitting there, and we found ourselves next to phunky! We got a quick introduction by someone (but not the lead actor as promised, another disappointment), and then the film started.

I could feel straight away that the OH hated it. I found it faintly amusing in a dark kind of way, but yes, it was totally strange, and there were scenes when he was hacking up his victims and disposing of innards where I had to look away. Apart from that it was neither horror nor scary, just a weird story about a lonely unemployed bloke who can't help killing people who have in any way rubbed him up the wrong way, and who nearly gets caught for something he didn't do when a kid from the neighbourhood disappears. There is also hardly any soundtrack and the reel quality didn't convince me.

And I am left pondering whether you have to have a TV licence if your TV doesn't show any TV programmes but is only good for watching videos on?

5/10

After the film we got ushered out through the Passaje del Terror which added another 15 minutes and didn't impress me at all, and then we discovered that the OH had left his wooly hat behind in the screening room (with 2 film in one evening you can get confused at which film you have handed it over to the OH to be put in her bag). So we raced back but they were all locked up already. A very nice security guy finally got in touch with them and got the hat back! If there was indeed "food and drink served afterwards in the bar" we roundly missed it.

And I am completely exhausted now and will think twice before I do a double again!