Black Mass
Grade: B
Starring: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch,
Kevin Bacon, Corey Stoll, David Harbour , Adam Scott, Jesse Plemmons, Rory Cochrane,
Dakota Johnson, and Julianne Nicholson, with Peter Sarsgaard and Juno Temple
Premise: Notorious South Boston
criminal James ‘Whitey’ Bulger increases his empire of crime under the veil of
immunity he received due to his agreement to become an FBI informant.
Rated R for constant profanity, bloody violence and
disturbing images
Black Mass, based
on a book of the same name that detailed the rise of real-life criminal James
‘Whitey’ Bulger, is the most Boston-accented movie I’ve seen in a while. In
fact, I can trace a direct connection between this movie and The Departed, another film about cops/agents
of the law and career criminals set in Boston .
Like Black Mass, that Oscar-winning
film featured a huge cast of notable actors all barking relentlessly in ‘pahk
the cahhh’ accents. Also like Black Mass,
that movie made the idea of the cops, the FBI, or anyone else agreeing to deals
with criminals who wish to become “informants” a fairly poor idea given the
possible (and, this film argues, likely)
repercussions of granting streetwise criminals a feeling of freedom. But,
unlike The Departed, Black Mass is
based on true events.
Plot
In the early ‘70s, James ‘Whitey’ Bulger (Depp, in blue
contacts and under a lot of makeup) was already a noted criminal, having spent
nine years in Leavenworth and Alcatraz
prisons and tending to "take care of"
people who got in his way. The much older brother of a senator, Billy Bulger (Benedict
Cumberbatch), don’t-call-me-Whitey-or-else
kept his dealings relatively on the DL. Then the ties he’d formed with good old
“southie” paid off when ambitious young FBI agent John Connolly (Joel
Edgerton), with whom the Bulgers had grown up, offered ‘Jimmy’ immunity as
an informant—Jimmy, who hated the idea of ‘rats’ or ‘informants’, considered it
an ‘alliance’—if he helped the FBI bag the Boston branch of the mafia, which
was based on the north side.
Jimmy, it transpired, did lead the FBI right to the house of
the local Mafioso, but the FBI agents (Kevin Bacon, Adam Scott, David Harbour)
around Connolly slowly begin to realize Jimmy is abusing his place in the
“alliance” by expanding his criminal activities, to the point that he is soon
tied to the murder of the head of a million-dollar business in Oklahoma. And
after Jimmy’s young son (Luke Ryan) and elderly mother pass away, leaving him
with lots of criminal associates but no one with whom he feels truly close, he
becomes more unhinged and wanton in his killings. As the crimes continue to escalate, Connolly--once a stud for making the
“alliance” that landed the FBI the mafia--begins to feel the noose
tightening, his claims of “southie ties” and “southie blood”
paling in comparison to the reign of terror he’s helped unleash.
What Doesn’t Work?
I would guess we’re going to see four or five more movies
with the same general appeal as Black
Mass between now and mid-January—i.e. the season in which awards contenders
are released. That would be films based on interesting, catchy real-life
stories that transpire over a number of years. Such movies are innately interesting
given their ripped-from-the-headlines, history-making content, but the movies
are often no more than competent. These real-life stories that take place over a
large expanse of time tend to leave little room for character development,
strong relationships, or even, sometimes, a particularly strong narrative arc.
One of the people with whom I saw Black
Mass claimed during the end credits it was “different than I thought it was
going to be” and “kinda boring”. While I can’t imagine anyone claiming Mass was “crap” or “a waste of time” or
the worst movie they’ve ever seen, you might hear a lot of watered-down,
lackluster “praise” like “it was well-made, and well-acted”. That’s exactly Black Mass.
Also, something that didn’t quite work for me was one of the film’s main selling points—Johnny Depp in blue contacts and under a lot of makeup
meant to depict him as an aging, balding, white guy from southie. As soon as I started seeing him in marketing material for the movie months ago, to me, it just felt like a gimmick. There’s an
argument to be made that Depp doesn’t sound like, act like, or, obviously, look like his normal characters, and
that may well please fans who have felt he’s coasted in recent years
playing eccentric, accented, fantastical characters that were all seemingly just
“Johnny Depp in a Different Accent and Colorful Costume”. Despite what’s
obviously a pretty bang-up makeup job, I still felt distracted the entire film
that Depp's makeover, with his lighter skin and ice-blue contacts, was more a cool attempt
to disguise an actor than a really transformative event. If you see the film,
you be the judge.
What Works?
I’ll say that Whitey Bulger’s story is interesting and it
can get one riled about not wanting the cops/FBI to make the same mistake of
creating “alliances” with Bad Guys just so they can catch Really Bad Guys, but the real reason to see Black
Mass is its sprawling cast of recognizable actors. Depp is the just the tip
of the iceberg (and I wonder if it was the chance to work with him that drew in
all these other notable faces). This movie is loaded. Will any of them be making the rounds during the golden
weeks of awards season? We’ll just have to see.
Depp, who, it must be said, convincingly speaks the accent
and owns a couple of bravura scenes
in the second act in which he terrifies the crap out of the audience and the other
characters on screen just by talking quietly and gesturing, might be in the Best Actor conversation,
though I would argue the role isn’t quite showy enough (and the movie probably
came out a little too early for him to not be drowned in the tide of contenders in upcoming movies).
If Depp’s name remains in awards-consideration conversations long enough, his
chief co-star, Joel Edgerton, deserves to be in those conversations with him
(albeit for the Supporting Actor category). In what’s probably his best role to
date—and coming off his recent joint success directing and starring in the
heralded suspense thriller The Gift—Edgerton
perfectly plays the part-patriot, part-sleaze who’s blinded by “southie ties”
and, later, corrupted by fame and success. Edgerton is almost a co-lead, in
fact, and he’s terrific.
Recent Best Actor nominee Benedict Cumberbatch also has a
notable role as “the most powerful politician in the state”, Jimmy/Whitey’s
little brother Billy. Although he amazingly disguises his strong native British
tones for “southie” speak, the role is ultimately rather
thankless. You wonder if the popular, acclaimed actor was just really drawn to the script or the story or
the possibility of working with Depp, and thus accepted such a part.
The supporting cast is a who’s who of supporting actors from
TV, like Adam Scott (Parks & Rec),
Jesse Plemmons (Breaking Bad), and
Corey Stoll (House of Cards), and recognizable
lifetime supporting actors from movies like Kevin Bacon and Peter Sarsgaard. A few
others make strong impressions in just a handful of scenes, like Dexter-look-alike David Harbour as an
increasingly-conflicted FBI agent, and Dakota Johnson (50 Shades of Grey) and Julianne Nicholson as Whitey and Connolly’s
conflicted spouses, respectively. Finally, some praise should be handed to Juno Temple
Content
Black Mass isn’t
quite as bloody or shoot-em-up violent as you might think, given that one of
the reasons the movie is officially Rated R is “Brutal Violence”—in fact, the
main reason the movie is rated R is the F-word-every-sentence dialogue. That
said, the violence the film does contain is often gut-wrenching, including two
close-up violent murders (one of which compelled me to look away) and one particularly
disturbing scene in which we don’t see the murder directly, but we hear the
victim trying to struggle and scream as they’re slowly strangled to death. For a
“slow” or even “boring” movie, you might be surprised how tense you are during the latter stages of Black Mass.
Bottom Line
Black Mass has an
interesting story to tell about a real-life criminal—so interesting that the
end credit captions of what happened to the surviving major participants in the
film prove arguably the most interesting part of the entire two-hour affair. But,
as a movie-going experience, it’s not particularly entertaining. Anyone expecting
a full-on cops and robbers shoot-out will be disappointed. The movie also has
scant romance and only the merest touch of dark (dark!) humor. That said, Depp headlines a deep cast of recognizable
and solid actors which should prove intriguing to any real movie buffs out
there. It’s not a hugely-entertaining time in the theatre, but I won’t say you
won’t be affected.
Black Mass (2015)
Directed by Scott Cooper
Screenplay by Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth
Based on the book by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill
Rated R
Length: 122 minutes
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