Review of Black Mass (2015) by Spangle — 18 Sep 2015

Overall, Black Mass is a good film largely elevated by the acting. While Scott Cooper's direction is tight and taut of the film as a whole, he does his best work bringing out the best in his cast. Just like his previous films, the acting is where it soars.

Johnny Depp is stellar, Joel Edgerton is fantastic, while the rest of the cast highlighted by Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Jesse Plemons, David Harbour, Peter Sarsgard, Rory Cochrane, Adam Scott, Brad Carter, and Juno Temple, are all also great in the film.

Truly, no one does a bad job, but those are just the ones who stood out to me the most. Yeah sure, I named most of the cast. Sue me. The film's writing is also very good and it does a great job telling the story of Whitey Bulger and shows his multiple sides; the friend, the father, the husband, and the ruthless killer.

Great at capturing the visceral terror inspired by Bulger and the sense of fear surrounding him like a black cloud, the film does a great job capturing the atmosphere needed. Another major strength of the film is the makeup.

Both Depp and Plemons' transformations stand out the most, but they are truly remarkable and unrecognizable in their roles, while becoming their character looks-wise (and acting-wise). Finally, the costume design was also very good and looked the part.

Overall, Black Mass is a very good gangster biopic. There are far better gangster flicks and far better biopics, but not many films have such a fantastic cast from top to bottom that knock all of their roles out of the park.