SYNOPSICS
Tony (2009) is a English movie. Gerard Johnson has directed this movie. Peter Ferdinando,Greg Kam,Ricky Grover,Kerryann White are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2009. Tony (2009) is considered one of the best Drama,Horror,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
Meet Tony, a withdrawn, socially-awkward, and unemployed man living in a depressingly blah flat in a working-class part of London. In his free time, when he's not busy being an amateur butcher, Tony enjoys watching VHS action films on a small and obsolete TV, querying escort agencies and prostitutes about their services and prices, meeting new and interesting people on the streets and in gay bars, and taking long walks by the waterside, where he dumps body parts. Tony enjoys the occasional beer and a toke of crack, and is a non-smoker. He's lonely, badly in need of a cuddle, and would love to have you over for a powdered fruit drink and an uncomfortable and mundane chat and that bit of warmth that a corpse just can't provide.
More
Tony (2009) Reviews
TONY: An underestimated 'Could easily happen' small gem
A small budget, short film, well acted by all, the film puts the story across as a 'Fly On The Wall' real life drama and is really put across so very well, that this kind of person: Low life,no connections,loner could so easily do this kind of crime and get away with it, very easy without being ever getting caught. Certain 'so called' reviewers have had a go at this gem of a Lottery financed film and if the truth be known these people have never lived in the East End of London, I do and have all my life , Tony is shot in the area and the surrounding neighbouring areas where I live. There are literally hundreds of these kind of weird, lonely, strange and some dangerous psychos walking daily in the streets of East London, who knows? with so many "Have You Seen This Missing Person" posters all year round amounting to many people disappearing never to be found? This Tony character could easily be a real person. Friends and other people who have seen the film, have all said the same as myself, make a sequel the film is brilliant...
Beware of who you overlook
This is a fantastic film. Well shot, well written, well edited, well acted,effective soundtrack...and short enough to leave you wanting more. I cant say enough good about this film, as its one of those films that is so good that it takes on a life of its own. As all great art, this is not a 'horror film' but a sociological reflection of our times. The story introduces us to a lonely man who lives by himself and tries to form relationships with the vagrants and oddball characters but due to his inability to communicate properly, which we read into as shyness, years of repression, denial he ends up killing them. Humour is used as a temporary escape valve from the horror we see, and actually, the comedy is a real highlight of this dark piece, as we are challenged to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. This is nothing new, but it added to the humanity of the piece. To be honest, there are a few things that I have to criticize for this piece but these more loving embellishments than anything else. For example, the film could be longer as we are left hanging at the end and wanting more.without giving the game away, if tony had succeeded in his goals, and then given due punishment, it would have created the next layer of depth that the film is surely deserving.Also small symbolic indicators, without being too blatant would have added to revealing his past, that even if the film chose not to express, could add clues hinting at the person that Tony once was.Also could have done some scenes of him eating alone. However with respect to the directors artistic choices, I believe leaving certain issues unresolved allows the viewer to imagine and ponder more about an epidemic that wont go away, provoking deeper contemplation. So in this respect, it is an intelligent artistic decision which is in hindsight, to be respected. Like i said, great films are the ones that have a life of their own, not dictated by comparisons although comparisons are necessary to explain them, once you see the film, it goes far beyond that. this is a character study of a creature in pain. A product of its environment and even a sociological reflection of the dysfunction of its environment. As all good art does, makes us reflect and think in the here and now. And what we as people, society , generation, have become. Definitive stuff.
A brilliant slice of UK serial killer life
Meet Tony, perhaps the most understated and naturalistic Serial Killer ever put to the cinema screen... I saw this film at Manchester's Grimm Up North festival and was completely taken by surprise. Not knowing quite what to expect, the film grabbed me from the first minute with a deliciously dark, creep and comic turn by Peter Ferdinando as the titular character. Made with an intelligence rarely seen in this end of the genre scale, Tony is fascinating from beginning to end, and offers a great social comment on London's outsiders, and how society treats the 'invisible' amongst us. Working with a low-budget, the filmmakers have made a classic film here, with every element of the film's production worth a shout. The direction from Gerard Johnson is superb, the acting from all concerned is spot on, the cinematography lends the film a suitably dark and grimy feel and the music, by Matt Johnson from The The fame, matches the visuals perfectly without ever detracting or pulling you out of the film's journey. But it's Peter Ferdinando who really stands out here, creating a character that deserves to take pride of place next to other famous filmic serial killers such as Henry, Patrick Bateman, Dr Lecter and Ezra Cobb from Deranged, with a pitch-perfect tone that would, in all honesty, creep you out if you ever met him on the street. I hear the film is due a release in the UK in February, and thoroughly recommend you make the effort to see it. UK low-budget film-making of the highest order...
There's No Place Like London
Tony is a dark character study focusing on a week in the life of Tony, a British serial killer living in a London tower block. A socially awkward individual, Tony kills because it seems to be his only way to resolve difficult social situations. It is easier for him to commit murder than to relate to other people. To a certain extent, the film's examination of Tony resembles the 1980s film, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Peter Ferdinando's performance rivals that of Michael Rooker in the latter film, giving Tony depth and sympathy. However, the film has a class context that sets it apart from the earlier work. Paralleling Tony's bleak existence is the blighted section of London he lives in. Walking aimlessly through poor neighborhoods and interacting with their inhabitants, Tony's behavior comes to seem an understandable reaction to his social environment. Indeed, many of the people he encounters come across as even more savage in their own ways, whether through overt aggression or bureaucratic indifference. The film does have some flaws that prevent it from being a true classic. There are a number of scenes dedicated to establishing Tony's lack of social skills, which at times come across as overkill. Given that the film originated as a short film, these scenes seem like filler meant to bring it to feature length. Nevertheless, this British film is definitely worth a rent.
Psycho Killer, Ques Que Ce?
A week in the life of a lonely psycho-killer with severe social problems and an unfashionable moustache, Tony is a darkly comic take on the horror/killer genre. Peter Ferdinando plays our eponymous anti-hero as a nervous and misunderstood loser, unemployable and on state funded job-seeker allowance for 20 years, but prone to sudden acts of extreme violence against anyone who might torment him. The film is shot extremely well, with contrasting scenes of Tony's claustrophobic, spartan council flat and oddly lush views of a very grim looking London, complete with drug addicts, street walkers, homeless people, and a generally disenfranchised looking populace. Tony wanders the streets, really just looking for anyone to talk to or connect with. At one point he visits a local prostitute whose price list is pinned to the wall, 'Sex - £20, Oral - £30', etc. Tony asks, "How much for a cuddle?" and is promptly thrown out. As a character he seems obsessed with sex and violence, watching 1980's shoot 'em ups on VHS and keeping a box of Kleenex and some Vaseline on his coffee table, next to the discreet porn magazines. He visits a pub and is accused by a vicious thug of looking like a 'nonce' (paedophile to any non-Brits) and gets into a long running feud with the guy (played by Ricky Grover), which ends with a surprisingly touching redemption. He invites two crack addicts to his flat, after following them to buy some drugs from their connection, a black pimp who quotes poetry in a posh English accent and then snaps back to a London wide-boy guise in a split second. Back at the flat the guys hurriedly take their toke and try to ignore Tony as they fall into a drug induced stupor, only for our man to have some fun in brutally attacking them as they enjoy their trip. Tony's violent ways aren't fully explained, there are no flashbacks or insinuations of an unhappy childhood, he's simply insane enough to have convinced himself that he's different, and it works perfectly. My favourite scene, and one of the most chilling, has Tony staring at himself in the bathroom mirror. He says, "You're not a criminal, you're a soldier, you're gonna die like a soldier." A brief pause indicates a shift in tone and he looks back at himself, "You're no soldier, you're a fly on a pile of ****." He then lets out a guttural roar that even had the gigglers in the back row quieten down and sit-up. In short, Ferdinando is terrific in the role. Throughout the film, a beautiful piano melody plays during exterior shots, as Tony walks the streets and observes the filth that surrounds him, these parts of 'Tony' feel like a nightmare adapted for the screen by Johnson, as do the scenes where Tony painstakingly separates limbs from torsos to dispatch them in blue plastic bags in the Thames at night. The film is also hilariously funny though. It reminded me of the insane humour of American Psycho, when Tony wakes-up in bed next to a decaying corpse and offers it a good morning and a cup of tea. He quotes Rambo in 'First Blood' before a murder, shrugs his way through the world's most awkward job interview, and picks-up a copy of Héctor Olivera's 'Cocaine Wars' at a charity shop (I am guilty of this too, which freaked me out no end!). He visits a gay bar a few times and seems to enjoy the attention he receives at first, but on taking a guy home he changes his mind and... well you know. For such an unpleasant and brutal journey in voyeurism and perversity, 'Tony' has a twisted sense of humour and a beating human heart at it's core, that helps to seriously lift it above other recent films in the genre. For anyone who was left cold by Steven Sheil's 'Mum & Dad' or is tired of the same old torture-horror that's offered so liberally by the industry, Tony is something special and absolutely the real deal. 8/10