Review of Black Mass (2015) by Gabriel C — 21 Nov 2016

Third-time director, Scott Cooper, gets no help from his Oscar-worthy actors in improving the horrendous dialogue co-written by first-time writer, Mark Mallouk. Subject matter this interesting should never be left to such hacks.

This is two hours and two minutes of pure boredom telling a story that shouldn't be remotely this dull. Depp is trying. Hard. But his performance (and makeup, for that matter) seems forced. There are several scenes, specifically the ones with Depp and Dakota Johnson and Depp and Julianne Nicholson, that are unnecessarily long, with uncomfortably cringe-worthy dialogue that is offensive to actors of this caliber.

Even Kevin Bacon, who tends to steal every scene he has when he cameos in movies, is equally as boring and unbelievable in his role. There are countless scenes that mean absolutely nothing to the story.

There are countless behaviors that are meant to define "Whitey," yet are inconsistent depending on the character, and when said characters aren't treated the way "Whitey" is meant to act, the characters inexplicably disappear with no explanation as to what happened to them.

For a story that is rooted in truth, it frequently makes no sense. This movie could have been done so much better, but in this form, isn't worth the viewing.