Black Mass (I) (2015)

Black Mass (I) (2015)

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Director:

 Scott Cooper

Writers:

 Mark Mallouk (screenplay), Jez Butterworth(screenplay), 2 more credits »

Stars:

 Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota 

Storyline:

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. 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.Written by E Anderson and J. Breaux

User Reviews

Depp's turn as James "Whitey" Bulger anchors a film packed to the gills with star turns and real-life intrigue

5 September 2015 | by Sharath N (India) – See all my reviews

After years of irritating fans by hiding behind goofy wigs and mustaches and accents, Johnny Depp, Serious Actor, makes a welcome return in "Black Mass," a true story about infamous South Boston crime lord James "Whitey" Bulger. It's another role in which Depp can disappear into the prosthetics, yes, but this time he's not letting the contact lenses and the fake teeth do all the work. (Oddly enough, given the actor's ongoing fascination with Hunter S. Thompson, he does resemble the Thompson-influenced Uncle Duke character from "Doonesbury.") There are shades of 1970's Jack Nicholson and Robert DeNiro in the performance, but ultimately, this is Depp bringing his skills to the table as a man with a propensity for being both terrifying and charming, often switching between the two on a dim

There's more to the film than just Depp's standout work, however: director Scott Cooper ("Crazy Heart") — working from a script by Jess Butterworth ("Edge of Tomorrow") and Mark Mallouk, based on the book by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill — tells the larger story of how Bulger and FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) struck a devil's bargain, in which the bureau ignored Bulger's crimes in return for his help in bringing down his Italian rivals in the Boston underworld. It's the kind of story loaded with twists you wouldn't believe if they weren't true: in "Angels with Dirty Faces" fashion, Connolly and Bulger grew up together on the mean Southie streets, and their sense of loyalty to each other came to overwhelm their respective duties as Fed and criminal. (Lots of Bulger's associates wind up talking to the FBI in this movie, but they preface everything with "I'm no rat.") Meanwhile, Bulger's brother Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch) was a state senator wielding power in Massachusetts politics while Jimmy was running drugs and prostitutes.

Cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi (whose exemplary work is also on display in "Spotlight," another Venice Film Festival premiere) achieves a stripped-down look that doesn't try too hard to consciously ape the contemporary mob classics of Coppola or Scorsese. In Cooper's last crime saga, "Out of the Furnace," the photography overwhelmed everything else in the movie, but here it accentuates the storytelling without calling attention to itself. (The same can't be said for the .