Black Mass 2015

"Thank God for Whitey Bulger."

Johnny Depp gives a brilliant performance as Jimmy "Whitey" Bulger, leader of the Irish-American Winter Hill Gang in the 1970's and 80's. The film follows his infamous rise to power, with the help from his childhood friend and now FBI Agent, John Connelly (Joel Edgerton).

There are a lot of events that occur in this movie that Whitey has to constantly fix, and that's the coundrum many biopics tend to face; the loss of a sense of direction. The film seems to be heading to a lot of places but the story and narrative seem very unfocused, as the director does not know how to balance several arcs within the film. It feels as if I just saw a story unfold with a very interesting character but in the end, nothing really mattered because there was no specific plot or objective driving it forward. Films such as The Social Network, The Imitation Game, and Straight Outta Compton are examples of biopics that have a driving energy throughout the film; something Black Mass severely lacked, that may have led it to fulfill its potential.

That being said, the cast in this film is absolutely superb and the highlight of the film by far. Depp delivers a long awaited comeback of a role, Edgerton is sharp as usual, and though I wish Cumberbatch was in it more, he obviously delivers as well.

The cinematography is also fantastic in this movie, and really sets the vibe and environment of Boston in the 1970s and 80s. Couples with a tense and unnerving score, there are some great scenes in this film and I truly hope it could have delivered more.

In the end, Black Mass is a biopic that shines because of its brilliant ensemble of a cast but in the end, is muddled down due to its lack of focus and narrative structure.

Never spill the family secret.

Ever since the first teaser trailer for Black Mass came out, I knew for a fact that Johnny Depp was back to his old roots and finally playing a character that wasn't Jack Sparrow. It looked gritty, sharp, brutal, and totally refreshing to see Depp in this type of role. I was hyped as sh*t to see this movie and I couldn't wait to watch Johnny Depp's performance as Whitey Bulger.

After finally seeing the movie, I can say that 'Black Mass' was pretty solid and Johnny Depp's performance in this movie was freaking fantastic, as he stole the whole show.

This has to be Johnny Depp's best performance in years. He's was darkly comical, frighting, and really uncomfortable at times. That's the power and weight Depp brought to this performance and he absolutely pulled it off. I'm so happy to see Johnny Depp giving a good performance that wasn't anything like 'Transcendence' or 'The Lone Ranger'.

The cinematography in this movie was beautifully shot and the camera work used in the film was just stunning. Benedict Cumberbatch, Joel Edgerton, and Kevin Bacon gave great supporting performances in the movie.

Now for the problems: The movie itself felt pretty empty and very hollow to me. There wasn't anything to latch on to since the movie doesn't have a protagonist or a character that you can relate to. Everyone is a villain.

Overall rating: Black Mass has amazing cinematography, a great performance from Depp, and good directing. But it isn't something that I will be watching again anytime soon.

Here was Johnny Depp’s chance to kill off his ‘every role is Jack Sparrow’ label, well that’s what this film said to me. Overall I have to say, not being a big fan of Mr Depp’s acting style, he managed it.

The big trouble with this film is that it is something we have seen before, many times. A further problem is we have seen this so many times done better too.

The film is certainly disjointed, right from the beginning we’re introduced to Kevin Weeks who through a fight and then a beating gets into Whitey’s gang, ‘just like that’, so we’re going to see the story of Whitey Bulger from one of Whitey’s strong-arm lieutenants, err no he sort of drifts off after this, drifts back in again, but hardly does a voice over again. Perhaps we’ll see it from Whitey’s point of view, why he worked like he did, we certainly see set up scenes showing his strong family ties and he certainly reiterates how he values loyalty above all, although the real Bulger, like many politicians valued it until it didn’t suit him.

The film continues disjointedly like this throughout the running time. Sometimes it comes up as a part of interviewing with some Whitey’s gang, sometimes it is general film story-telling. For instance, we get interviews with Matt Berry look-a-like Rory Cochrane, as the delightful Stephen Flemmi and then back to story narrative, but Flemmi saying Whitey Bulger was ‘purely criminal’ gives us no clue as to what motivated the man or how he operated. If you watched the film you should have some idea.

Joel Edgerton, rapidly becoming one of my favourite actors, gives the best bang for bucks, giving his character a more complex feel and a strange warped motivation and he genuinely portrays a man slowly losing control of situation in which his loyalties are stretched thin. '

Benedict Cumberbatch is fine as Whitey’s politico brother Billy but it has to be asked why he was cast. It just seems a bit flashy to me. Also the story gives no real view on his involvement in Whitey’s empire, did he cover him, was he fully aware of the murders and extortion? Well we won’t know. In fact, John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) was complicit in the covering up of Bulger’s crimes but was it blind ‘Southie’ loyalty or did he truly believe he could take down the mafia and the price was a local boy in charge of crime? How many others were in on the conspiracy, if indeed it was a truly organised one? How did one man get away with such a cover-up, it seems far-fetched. Who knows? We never really do that’s for sure.

Kevin Bacon and Adam Scott are amongst a great supporting cast of venerable actors who seem to pop up early in the film and then drift off only to return again near the end. All the more for making room for scenes of Whitey killing and hurting people and there is the problem with the film in a nutshell. A great cast but too much trying to make the film a South Boston Good Fellas instead of making it a Whitely Bulger biopic.

I finished watching the film not having learned anymore about Whitey and his evil inner sanctum other than they didn’t like rats, Whitey was protected by the FBI and when the chance came his lieutenants ratted on him.

There is a great story to be told about one of the nastiest, vilest, organised criminals in US history but I feel the makers, whilst creating a good gangster ‘B’ movie, missed out because they wanted to make a gangster masterpiece.

“Whitey did in Captain Jack but we don’t know why.”

Excellent movie. The acting was incredible (Depp easily should've won the Oscar for Best Actor). the visual style was extremely effective at communicating the message they were trying to get across showing you exactly what they wanted especially when it came to the really tense moments. I guess you would mainly classify this as a drama but the tension they were able to create was greater than any thriller that I can remember. In terms of the pacing I think it was one of the weaker points but I don't think it was bad at all especially considering that it was done to stay true to the real story and I can't fault them for trying to be accurate. the action wasn't in long, highly choreographed sequences but instead took a more realistic and ultimately more terrifying quick gun and done approach. They would pull out a gun, shoot who needed to be shot, get back in their car and then it was done. This while not being as exciting to some really made the movie feel more like a true reenactment rather than an artistic interpretation. Something else that I think needs to be said that I don't think is a bad thing but I think a lot of people won't like is that there really isn't a main character that you root for, maybe you root for Kevin Bacon or the newer Prosecutor but they are only in small bits of the film. It's impossible to root for Bulger or Connolly who take up the vast majority of screen time. It makes sense considering how much they wanted to show and what aspects they were showing but I do think some people might have a problem with that.