Review of Black Mass (2015) by Patrick L — 29 Feb 2016

"Now this is what I call a comeback for Johnny Depp. He gives one of his best performances as infamous mobster Whitey Bulger".

Movie Review: Black Mass.

Date Viewed: September 25 2015.

Directed By Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart and Out of the Furnace).

Screenplay By Jez Butterworth and Mark Mallouk, Based on the novel by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill.

Starring: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Peter Sarsgaard, Benedict Cumberbatch, Corey Stoll, Dakota Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Rory Cochrane, David Harbour, Jesse Plemons,.

Julianne Nicholson, Erica McDermott, W. Earl Brown, Juno Temple and Adam Scott.

Welcome Back, Johnny Depp. This is what I call a comeback. "Black Mass" is a gritty and serious gangster movie with Depp giving one of his best performances as infamous mobster Whitey Bulger. Even though he's surrounded by a talented cast that includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, Corey Stoll, Jesse Plemons and Dakota Johnson, they get very little to do. They pop up for a few scenes and then they disappear. The only star who stands out behind Depp is Joel Edgerton playing John Connolly, an FBI agent who is also close friends with Bulger. Like most of this year's upcoming Oscar contenders, "Black Mass" is of course based on a true story. Whitey Bulger was not only one of the most wanted criminals in American history, he was also inspired by Jack Nicholson's character in the Oscar-winning film "The Departed" which is one of my favorite movies.

"Black Mass" isn't on top of the gangster world with "The Departed" and "Goodfellas" but it's still worth seeing because of Johnny Depp's brilliant performance. In 1975, Whitey Bulger (Depp) was not just a low-key crime figure in Boston, he was the leader of the Winter Hill Gang. The Irish criminal organization controlled almost all of South Boston. With his right-hand man Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi (Rory Cochrane), sinister hitman Johnny Martorano (W. Earl Brown) and new blood Kevin Weeks (Jesse Plemons), Bulger is on the brink of war with the Angiulo brothers, a powerful Italian family with ties to the mafia.

Soon, he gets an interesting offer from his Boston native now turned FBI agent John Connolly (Edgerton). He offers Bulger to become an FBI informant and complete protection from the authorities if he gets cold hard evidence to go after the Angiulo brothers. How much protection does Bulger have? His close friend from the Boston area is an FBI agent and his brother, Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch) also happens to be a powerful state senator. Flemmi is in dismay with the idea of Bulger as an FBI informant but he goes along with it. This dark alliance raises questions from Connolly's boss, Charles McGuire (Kevin Bacon), he wants to put away Bulger as well but Connolly's alliance with the Irish mobster gets defended by co-worker John Morris (David Harbour, who seems to be in every tough crime movie these days).

When the FBI takes down the Angiulo brothers, Bulger's empire rises and he continues on with his criminal activities ignoring FBI informant rules of no killing or committing crime. While Bulger is evading law enforcement, a bulldog prosecutor named Fred Wyshak (Corey Stoll) wants to know why Bulger is still clean. Wyshak wants to clean up Boston, stop the idiotic friendship between Bulger and Connolly and stop the mighty Irish mobster himself.

In 1995, when the crackdown on the Winter Hill Gang was shaking up Boston, Bulger left the city and remained on the lam until the FBI finally caught him in 2011. Director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart and Out of the Furnace) has made a tight and dirty gangster movie with Depp giving a knockout performance.

He is scary and riveting as the Irish mobster.

After critical and box office flops like "Dark Shadows", "The Lone Ranger", "Mortdecai" and "Transcendence", Johnny Depp is back on the top of his form. This movie is the kind of great comeback Nicolas Cage needs right now. He doesn't seem to care about the state of his career anymore as he stars in more low-rent movies than ever before. We lost him forever when he made the godawful Christian thriller "Left Behind" and he has only himself to blame for his career downfall.

Joel Edgerton is also terrific as John Connolly who went out of his way to protect Bulger and his rising FBI status. With makeup, bad teeth and a thick Boston accent, you may think Johnny Depp has never done a gangster movie before but actually, "Black Mass" is his third gangster movie. He co-starred with Al Pacino in the fantastic "Donnie Brasco" and he played another infamous gangster, John Dillinger in Michael Mann's "Public Enemies". "Black Mass" does go through familiar territory but it's still a very good movie.