Here‘s a short piece on Tom Hardy from Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman, one that finally articulates my feelings towards the British actor, i.e. clearly competent but rarely plays a compelling character, and mumbles his way through most roles in a way that makes Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now sound like a perfectly articulated gentleman.

My first impression of Hardy was in The Dark Knight Rises, and it wasn’t a good one. While I’ve warmed slightly to his portrayal of strategic brute Bane upon repeat viewings, at first glance he is a poor substitute for Heath Ledger’s iconic, brilliant take on the Joker from the previous film, and seems determined to put on a decidedly nonthreatening voice that is barely comprehensible through the mask the production team stuck on the lower part of his face.

To make matters worse, the next thing I clearly remember seeing him in was Dunkirk, another Christopher Nolan film in which he mumbles incomprehensibly into a mask, and one where he can barely be heard over the sounds of gunfire and his character’s Spitfire engine. To be fair, this may have been more of a problem with the sound mixing than with Hardy himself.

Then came Venom and the less said about that the better. Although I could understand him in his role in that film, I’ll give him that. Unfortunately, the film was too crap to fully appreciate this. I’ve dipped into his back catalogue here and there since, and I fully agree with Gleiberman in his assertion that Locke was Hardy’s best role, in which he plays against type as just an ordinary guy trying to make his way in the world, dealing with his life shattering around him over the course of a film-long road trip. He’s magnificent, facing up to the challenge of holding the entire film on his shoulders admirably.

Hardy seems determined not to take these kind of emotionally expressive roles, though. He likes the physical ones in which he can grunt or mumble into a mask and generally let his body do the work for his mouth. Given the potential glimpsed in Locke, I think this is a massive shame, but it is not for me to decide what roles he takes, and perhaps it is nice to have an A-list star who doesn’t conform to the Hollywood charisma norm. I just wish he could be subversive in a way that was still engaging to watch.

The best role that he’s ever had in mumbling mode was Mad Max: Fury Road. The titular part seems tailor-made for him; man of action and of few words. Plus, it helps that he’s not the main character (that role is taken – arguably – by Charlize Theron’s Furiosa), so he doesn’t have to carry a whole lot of emotional weight on his shoulders. Basically what I’m saying is, I’d like to see him take more roles like Locke, but if he’s committed to the TDKR kind of character, at least make it something like Fury Road.

A new Scarface remake is incoming, apparently. It seems like whenever Hollywood runs out of original ideas they decide to throw some money at a remake of Howard Hawks’ 1932 film.

They did so back in 1983 with Brain De Palma’s version, starring Al Pacino in perhaps his most iconic role.

And now they’re doing it again. I agree that it seems unnecessary, and also an extremely difficult task given the long shadow cast by De Palma’s rendition. On the bright side, it does have some talent behind it. Luca Guadagnino of Call Me By Your Name and Suspiria (another remake) fame is set to ‘develop’ the project is rumoured to direct, and the screenplay is penned by (and this was most exciting) Joel and Ethan Coen. Any new Coen brothers film, even one they didn’t direct, is always a cause for excitement. Plus, I’ve been a bit concerned lately that the bros. had gone their separate ways given how Joel is making The Tragedy of Macbeth without Ethan, so I’m happy to learn that the filmmaking duo that has given us more than one masterpiece is still a duo.