Director: Scott Cooper
Writers: Mark Mallouk (screenplay), Jez Butterworth (screenplay), 2 more credits
Stars: Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson | See full cast and crew
John Connolly and James "Whitey" Bulger grew up together on the streets of South Boston. Decades later, in the late 1970s, they would meet again. By then, Connolly was a major figure in the FBI's Boston office and Whitey had become godfather of the Irish Mob.Storyline
What happened between them - a dirty deal to trade secrets and take down Boston's Italian Mafia in the process - would spiral out of control, leading to murders, drug dealing, racketeering indictments, and, ultimately, to Bulger making the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List.
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Black Mass Movie User Reviews
Black Mass is directed by Scott Cooper and is written by Jez Butterworth and Mark Mallouk. It stars Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Rory Cochrane, and Benedict Cumberbatch along with Dakota Johnson, and Kevin Bacon.
Black Mass the true story of Whitey Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, who became an FBI informant to take down a Mafia family invading his turf.
What would happen if you mixed Good Fellas, Wolf of Wall Street, Casino and the Departed minus Scorsese plus a non-linear format?- Black Mass.
Black Mass has quite a few strengths under its belt to justify quite a few of the flaws it garners. For one the direction is rock solid. With some inventive shots that I've never seen used in a Gangster flick. For example in the first 30 minutes the camera is placed on the trunk hood of a car, in just the right angle to hide the faces but show the actions of Bulger's gang. Too add on to the direction was a good script that got a ton of support.
But, by far the greatest asset of the movie is its performances. This has got to be the greatest screen ensemble cast of year by a long shot. Everyone was absolutely brilliant. There wasn't a single bad performance in the entire movie.
The best of these is clearly Johnny Depp. He was perfectly cast. Meeting Ian McClellan in brilliance, Depp has become one of the head runners for best actor. He was subtle at times and volatile at others. He portrayed the smarts and nefariousness of the character masterfully and deserves more than some praise for it. He was nuanced to the point in which I thought I was watching a real Gangster at work. From the quite grin that meant lights out to the mournful tears Depp deserves the Oscar nod.
Joel Edgerton Was brilliant as well giving a an understated but slippery performance as the infamous F.B.I. agent, John Connolly, who helped Bulger get out of a lot of misdeeds. Along with Edgerton was a beautiful performance by Cumberbatch who through subtle implications showed the audience he was as corrupt as the rest of the bunch. Rory Cochrane gives it his all to portray a sympathetic mobster and largely succeeds. This very well may be his best performance to date. Even side characters like Kevin Bacon and Dakota Johnson give it their all to make their characters as believable as possible.
With all that said I did have ONE major problem with the movie, the non-linear format. I feel that all gangster and con movies should be told in some kind of Chronological order to show the audience the full picture and keep the attention to the central plot. The format in this movie is very if-fie most of the times. Through interviews they successfully make the movie feel like a documentary which is a a good thing and a bad thing. These said Interviews either make the things that Bulger do too small to be noted or inflate them to unbelievably degrees therefore splitting the audiences interest and making the movie duller than it really is.
Black Mass Movie.
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