Black Mass

If Johnny Depp’s mesmerizing performance — a bracing return to form for the star after a series of critical and commercial misfires — is the chief selling point of Black Mass, there is much else to recommend this sober, sprawling, deeply engrossing evocation of Bulger’s South Boston fiefdom and his complex relationship with the FBI agent John Connolly, played with equally impressive skill by Joel Edgerton.

The film, directed with exceptional flair and elegant concision by Scott Cooper, even comes from Warner Bros., the studio that specialized in psychopathic monsters played by such stars as James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson during Hollywood’s golden age.

While highly entertaining and sometimes inspired, Black Mass is more like Scorsese lite. In perhaps the most memorable sequence, Bulger sardonically tests a childhood friend (Joel Edgerton) for loyalty by teasing out a “secret” steak sauce in what’s basically a reworking/homage of Joe Pesci’s famous “I’m funny, how?” scene in “GoodFellas.”

The “banality of evil” was never so hypocritical, so banal and so evil.

As a movie, Black Mass often drowns its dramatic potential in a dreary atmosphere and grisly violence used to dubious effect. Depp, however, operates on another level.

It’s hard to shake the suspicion that Depp is playing a type – almost as if he’s trying to replicate the kind of performance Nicholson might have given in the same role. You long for him to roll his sleeves up and grasp the character’s shape and soul himself, ideally without the aid of those distracting prosthetics.

Like any crime saga without a more potent thematic hook, the film's relentlessly insular script dwells on themes of loyalty and fraternity.

..................................................................................................................................................A Great Mob movie

before we start.. Black Mass There is enough darkness in the lead character to give you goosebumps as you cringe yourself on the seat and luckily Johnny justifies it as he empowers each and every actor and character in this throwback of 70-80's old gangsta drama.before we start.. Black Mass There is enough darkness in the lead character to give you goosebumps as you cringe yourself on the seat and luckily Johnny justifies it as he empowers each and every actor and character in this throwback of 70-80's old gangsta drama.

Quite frankly, on the way the movie is made and the story is told, there is not much to it. It is really not that investing or intriguing and the plot feels a bit discombobulated. What saves the day for this film is Johnny Depp's extraordinary performance, the pretty neat score and a dark and raw cinematography that makes the movie feel dirty and disgustingly violent.

The problem with Black Mass is that the scenes are so short it never really allows the characters to breathe and let the audience get to know them. The time jumps around too. It's as if someone really wanted to say everything they know about Whitey Bulger and never slowed down because they only had so much time to say it. The whole movie is cut like a news reel with each snippet getting across only it's simple intended themes. Characters come and go so quickly as if they don't really matter. The dark mood is pounded into your head so thoroughly that you never form any trust with anyone making the entire affair distant and ineffectual. That said, the costumes are done well.

This movie definitely did not impress me. The story lacks focus, the writing takes an interesting story and leaves A LOT to be desired, the cinematography was dark and gritty merely for being dark and gritty's sake, and there is WAY too many "LOOK AT ME I'M ACTING" performances. Definitely not Johnny Depp's best work. There was a lot of wasted potential in this movie.