Black Mass

Starring: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard, Jesse Plemons, Rory Cochrane, Adam Scott, Corey Stoll, David Harbour, W. Earl Brown, Juno Temple
Directed by: Scott Cooper
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
2015

Times Seen:
Tim: 1


Summary:Whitey Bulger (Johnny Depp) acts as an FBI Informant, which gives him the freedom to run a violent criminal enterprise in South Boston.

Review:

Tim: As I'm currently living in Boston, I am obviously familiar with Whitey Bulger. However, I really didn't know all the details of his story. I was already invested in learning more and Black Mass does give us some fascinating insight into this horrible criminal and the shocking details of how he pulled off his illegal acts right under the nose of the FBI. I found the film very informative but only mildly entertaining. Scott Cooper does enough for me to consider this a good movie, but it doesn't leave as much of an impact on the audience as it needed to.

The most engaging part of the film is just learning the true story of how Bulger ran his criminal enterprise. It's a shocking look at corruption among the FBI and in Boston. How a murderer like him was allowed to commit the crimes he did is a stunningly horrible story. If it wasn't a true story, it would be hard to believe. I loved this aspect of the film and I just sat happily, waiting to see what would happen next. This is the film's greatest strength.

The cast is interesting- it appears stronger on paper than in actuality, although it's still a solid cast. Johnny Depp sort of turns his losing streak around with this film. He gives a very good performance. With all his zaniness and the terrible movies he's been making, I sort of forgot how talented he is as an actor. His performance is one of the highlights of the film. I do think the makeup was atrocious, though. He doesn't just look bizarre, he doesn't look like an actual human being. He looks like someone done up a whole lot to look like someone else. I hated his appearance and it took me out of the film constantly. Luckily, his strong performance worked to bring me back in. Otherwise, I'd have really struggled with this film.

Joel Edgerton is very good as John Connolly. Edgerton is quietly becoming one of the actors I strongly look forward to seeing. He's talented and has a habit of picking interesting roles. I hated his character here, but I loved his performance. I liked seeing Benedict Cumberbatch here, but it felt like he was miscast. He never has enough to do and never felt truly comfortable in the role. It was good to see Dakota Johnson here, but again, she has little to do and makes no impact on the film. Kevin Bacon always makes a film better. He has a few good moments, but I wish we could have gotten more. Peter Sarsgaard and Adam Scott are underutilized. Corey Stoll gives a nice supporting performance. As a whole, the cast is absolutely good- but on paper, they appeared truly great. Director Scott Cooper isn't able to leverage the full extent of his cast effectively.

I would unhesitatingly recommend Black Mass for anyone who wants to learn more about Whitey Bulger while also being entertained. However, if I was recommending a crime drama purely for entertainment purposes, there are a lot of movies that would rank higher than this one. This is a good movie- it's solidly made, has a strong cast, tells an interesting story. However, it's more forgettable than it should be. It tells an interesting story but never a powerful or truly compelling one. There's enough flaws here that blunt the overall effectiveness of the film. This should have been one of the stronger movies of the year, but it never manages to be more than middle-tier.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



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