Movie review | Depp shakes fun roles and sinks teeth into Whitey Bulger in ‘Black Mass’
Black Mass ****
Johnny Depp is back! Sure, Captain Jack Sparrow, Barnabas Collins and even Willy Wonka or The Mad Hatter must have been fun roles for him, but as bad to the bone, real-life criminal James “Whitey” Bulger, Depp shines brightly as this darkest of modern gangsters.
Set mostly in mid-1970s Boston, “Black Mass” is the Hollywood version of a mostly true tale of fragile alliances between the FBI and the most notorious Irish crime boss of South Boston; a man suspected of 19 murders and who is now serving two life sentences in a Florida prison.
The film actually underplays the level of depravity with which Bulger is widely suspected. By skipping town in the mid-1990s, Bulger initially escaped incarceration as his cozy crime world was unraveling.
Not quite as character-driven or energetic as “Goodfellas,” which is maybe the best gangster flick ever made (apologies to “The Godfather”), “Black Mass” is a classic, new wave gangster flick filled with gritty realism and a stand-out cast including Kevin Bacon, Benedict Cumberbatch and the real star of the movie, Joel Edgerton, who plays Bulger’s childhood friend and real life FBI agent John Connolly, now serving a 40-year sentence.
Spot-on makeup, believable accents and deft movie-making will give fans of “The Departed” a new film to view set in iconic Boston featuring its tough-as-nails street criminals, corrupt law enforcement agents, and fierce neighborhood and ethnic allegiances.
What do those stars mean?
* Really, really, really bad. Don’t bother.
** Pretty bad, with one or more redeeming scenes.
*** Pretty good, but maybe not great, worth seeing for most
**** Really great, a winning combination of story, casting, and directing
***** The rarest gem, an all-around perfect motion picture
This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 12:22 PM with the headline "Movie review | Depp shakes fun roles and sinks teeth into Whitey Bulger in ‘Black Mass’."