There are two angles from which films usually approach serial killers: through their actions or by way of their psyche, with each of the different approaches neatly blazing trails right to the slasher and thriller genres, respectively. Tony, which is written and directed by first time feature filmmaker Gerald Johnson, works hard to avoid being categorized in either approach or intent, preferring to rest ambiguously in the middle. In fact, it makes so little active comment on its protagonist that it quickly dips beneath "minimalist" and practically burrows on down to "documentary". Tony just goes about being, and Johnson allows us to take a peek at the proceedings. Based on this technique, it's a given that Tony doesn't have much in the way of plot (infrequent encounters with a local drunkard are about as close the movie gets), but only the more ADD-afflicted viewers should have trouble paying attention.

I've previously written that too many of today's films feel like a shorts that have been desperately stretched out to 80 or even 75 minutes in order to hurl themselves into the "feature-length" category (Tony runs a mere 73), but since I've started complaining about it, this is the first film I've seen that actually began life as a short. On the DVD audio commentary, Johnson says he dislikes the idea that a short film should have its own contained story arc, and that he prefers to shoot them as if they were a piece of a longer narrative. It sounds like it's worth a shot, but Johnson's full-length version is just as open-ended and free of resolution as the truncated one. In the final feature, it's not so much that more light is pointed at Tony as a character, just further light, for longer; the viewer may get a more vivid picture of Tony's daily mindset, but they don't really gain a deeper understanding of who he is and why he kills.

This poses questions all of its own. It seems to me that unless you have a film inspired by the memoirs, writing, or testimony of an actual serial killer, anything a movie can tell you about people like this is simply speculation. Classic serial killer films like Silence of the Lambs or Seven avoid commenting on serial killers in general, focusing on the specific characters at hand, but as there's almost no backstory or meat for Tony the human being, the viewer is left to speculate on more general terms. Again, Johnson tries to let the audience figure things out on their own rather than filming a session's worth of tired, creaky armchair psychology, but Tony seems just like other second-rate movie serial killers, both as a madman and as an enigma.

The one area where Tony is subtly effective, though, is in Ferdinando's portrayal of the character. Even without much on the page, he stays in the moment in every scene, adding a bit of nervous, twitchy tension to each interaction Tony has with other people. Most disturbing of all, he remains sort of pitifully weak even in the moments when he finally kills, as if he's an overgrown child with a flash of anger that doesn't quite understand what he's doing. He cleans up his messes with a hint of embarrassment, and helplessly watches the limbs float off with a tinge of regret. Combined with the bizarrely hopeful music by The The, it's spooky how the viewer will find themselves almost on Tony's side at the end. Moments before your skin starts to crawl, don't be surprised if you find yourself thinking, "If only he wasn't a murderer, he'd be kind of a nice guy."

The DVD
I don't have a problem with the bold artwork produced here, although for any horror fans out there, it's probably important to point out that the movie never gets particularly bloody, even if there are quite a few shots of meaty tendons and other musculature being hacked apart. I just wish Revolver Entertainment had a white version of their logo; the bright blue font stands out a bit awkwardly on the case. I also find it a bit strange that the whole poster is on the spine. There is no insert.

The Video and Audio
Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, Tony looks pretty rough, but maybe that's intentional. It's often hard to tell in the film's many dark scenes whether or not the noise in the picture is inherent to the source or something caused by the DVD compression process. The whole film also errs on the soft side, and there's some motion blur that may have something to do with British, PAL-native footage being released on an American NTSC disc. All-in-all, though, these quibbles aren't much of a distraction from the film itself; the grungy appearance feels almost fitting with the movie's low-rent aesthetic and setting.

Dolby Digital 5.1 is pretty subtle, with only the occasional, fairly infrequent music cue here and there activating the surrounds. Most of the movie is dialogue, which is fine. No real quibbles, unlike the picture, but this is far from a demo title. English captions for the deaf and hard of hearing are also included.

The Extras
First up is a fairly engaging audio commentary by director Johnson, star Ferdinando, and producer Dan McCulloch. It's a solid listen, in which Johnson and McCulloch cover most of the bases the audience will want to hear in regards to the film's production and research processes, while Ferdinando keeps things light with a few low-key jokes and talks about his acting headspace. I doubt it will make anyone's all-time favorite commentary lists, but this definitely ranks as a good solid B, which, based on the number of commentaries I hear, seems like a rare, rare thing.

The only other two extras on the disc are Johnson's short films "Mug" (10:44) and "Tony" (14:06). I didn't find either to be wildly satisfactory as shorts in and of themselves, but they're interesting curiosities. Of the two, ironically, "Mug" is better at making the audience want to know more about the short as a piece of a larger puzzle than "Tony", although perhaps that's because I've already seen where "Tony" decides to go. "Tony", on the other hand, makes for a nice compare-and-contrast with the feature film, and the feature is superior in all respects. The production value and acting is much better (particularly Ferdinando, who seems almost comic in the short).

No theatrical trailer for Tony is included.

Conclusion
I was actually struck with a terrible case of writer's block trying to get this review done, and while I sat at my computer screen and considered the qualities of the movie, it grew on me quite a bit. The fact that you as a viewer come to almost like Tony, despite his murderous ways, is really psychologically distressing, and I appreciated that aspect of the movie greatly. That said, given the movie's somewhat lackluster visual presentation and a good-but-far-from-great collection of extras, combined with the fact that my satisfation was quite subtle, I think this disc only merits a rental rather than an all-out purchase.