Black Mass (2015) Movie Review

A Good Johnny Depp Movie After A Long Time

     Black Mass, a crime, drama biopic directed by Scott Cooper, it represents the true story of a 20^th century infamous crime lord, James “Whitey” Bulger, who also happens to be the brother of a state senator, and about his alliance with the FBI to become an informant in order to bring down a mafia which is affecting his business.

     Now the plot of this film isn’t that interesting, there is nothing really to hold on to in the entire film, but it’s the performance of these actors which makes you keep your eyes on the screen all the time.

     James “Whitey” Bulger portrayal by Johnny Depp is fantastic in this film, one of the Johnny Depp’s best performance in the recent years, after Alice in Wonderland, he kinda faded away after that movie for like five years or so; bad movie, one after another, looks like he is finally back.

     Joel Edgerton is great as John Connolly, an FBI agent, he and James Bulger grew up together, both are like a backbone to each other, and he has given some excellent performance in this movie. He was great in Warrior, even in Exodus, and in his directorial debut The Gift; he is one of the talented actors at present.

     Benedict Cumberbatch as William “Billy” Bulger, senator brother of James Bulger; he is really good with this amazing Boston accent; he doesn’t have much to do in the film but his performance was really great, and the audience always have his attention when he is on screen. He was the bold, top notch looking person in the whole movie, after all he is a senator, he has to look like that and he really nailed it.

     Jesse Plemons AKA Meth Damon; Todd from Breaking Bad is in this film as Kevin Weeks, an associate, as a right hand man to the kingpin Whitey Bulger; he is good too. He and Johnny Depp have some serious facial makeup throughout the movie.

       Kevin Bacon, another FBI agent, boss of Joel Edgerton, he is really good. Dakota Johnson is in this film, so is Peter Sarsgaard, and they are great, almost every actors in this film are really good, so enough of the characters and performance, let’s talk about the actual movie.

     The movie as a biopic is just  absolutely amazing; it has great cast, their performance is just crazy, great cinematography with great beautiful wide shots, but the thing is you don’t feel anything toward these characters, of course the acting, the performance is great, but you are not emotionally attached to these people; you don’t route for them, you don’t care, you don’t give a crap if they win or lose or die or whatever, you are just watching to know about this FBI-Mafia-Kingpin thing as it’s a true story and for the performance given by these actors; it’s not that it’s a negative thing, it’s just there is nothing that could be done to make the audience feel something about these people; it’s a biopic, if that’s how these people were, if Whitey Bulger was an actual dick to everyone he knows, then we just have to deal with it. If you try to add something off chart to this amazing biopic, to make it more “Interesting”, then it won’t be a biopic anymore; it will just be another bland crime drama thriller.

     Another issue with this film is that a person in it just right off disappears from the film; the character is nowhere shown in the movie later, I won’t spoil who it is, it’s just one of those tiny issue we happen to notice during the movie, you don’t know what happened to that person, where that person went, nothing; it just feels a little incomplete.

     There is also a slight problem with the pacing, even though the movie is a sub two hour movie, it feels like it’s a very big one, I literally thought that the cinema is gonna show an entire movie without the interval, and the ending kinda felt a little bit rushed; a five or ten minutes more could have done the justice.

     Now the verdict; the movie is really good, a great one time watch, with great performance and cinematography, along with a few issues here and there, which doesn’t really bother you very much, and a great biopic. Watch this movie for Johnny Depp’s comeback performance, as well as for the performance of the other actors. I am gonna give Black Mass a 7 out of 10 star rating.

     Watch this film with your buddies, or just alone, all by yourself. Do not watch his with your Parents or your partner, I just won’t recommend you to do that.

        

       Thank You for Reading J