Wise Guy- David Chase And The Sopranos Miniseri... | LATEST ◎ |

The documentary implies, gently but unmistakably, that Gandolfini became Tony in ways that destroyed him. The weight of the role—the rage, the loneliness, the endless appetite—was not a performance. It was an exorcism that went wrong. Wise Guy ends not with a thesis, but with a question. Gibney follows Chase to his childhood home in Clifton. It is now a dentist’s office. They stand in the driveway. Chase points to a second-floor window. “That was my room. I used to sit there and watch the men in black cars drive by. They were connected. They had respect. My father didn’t have that.”

In the end, Wise Guy is not about a TV show. It is about the price of looking into the abyss. And David Chase, like his creation, stared so long that the abyss stared back. The only difference? Tony had a gun. Chase had a pen. And somehow, the pen was more dangerous. Wise Guy- David Chase and The Sopranos Miniseri...

But the most moving segment is reserved for James Gandolfini, who died in 2013. Gibney has access to unreleased behind-the-scenes footage from the final season. In it, Gandolfini is not acting. He is sitting alone in the Bada Bing! set, in the dark, smoking a cigarette. He looks exhausted. Chase’s voice cracks as he describes their final conversation. “He said, ‘Dave, I don’t know who I am without this guy.’ I said, ‘Jim, you’re a father. You’re a husband. You’re an actor.’ He just shook his head. He knew something I didn’t.” Wise Guy ends not with a thesis, but with a question

Gibney challenges him: “Was the point that Tony is a monster?” They stand in the driveway