Black Mass

Based on the true story, Johnny Depp stars as James “Whitey” Bulger – a notorious gangster straight out of Boston’s South Side. After being imprisoned in Alcatraz and Leavenworth, Whitey has returned to his Southie roots, and his battles against the North Side mafia have been getting ugly. This gives the FBI an idea.

Fellow Southie and FBI Agent on the rise John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) has returned to the south side to fight the mafia, and he wants Whitey to become an informant.

Whitey decides to use the situation to eliminate his enemies, while the FBI looks the other way in appreciation for his information.

As Whitey becomes the crime kingpin of Boston, how long can the FBI allow him to terrorize the streets?

Is Whitey giving the FBI anything they can use?

How deep into this is Connolly?

Whitey Bulger is the kind of character that can remind you how great of an actor Johnny Depp has been, and will always be.

Forget about his outings as Tonto or Mortdecai. Depp is back in form as the ruthless killer.

While you can’t say much about a killer, Depp adds so many amazing, marvel inducing layers to Bulger as we see his diabolical side, a tender side when it comes to his kid, the insanity burning in his eyes and the intimidation he employs to gain control of every situation. He makes Bulger evil, crazy and cunning all at the same time.

Edgerton should get some credit for his portrayal of the compromised lawman. While everyone in Black Mass finds themselves in Depp’s imposing shadow, Edgerton does a solid job showing the conflicting emotions and motivations Connolly faces, even when the story doesn’t make it clear enough.

A friend to both Bulger brothers and a fellow Southie, he feels some loyalty to the family.

As an FBI agent, he has a duty to stop crime.

As an ambitious man, we see what compromises he is willing to make as Edgerton shows Connolly becoming less and less honorable by the minute.

Storywise, director Scott Cooper does a wonderful job immersing the audience in this crime-filled world and adds a Scorsese-type atmosphere to the proceedings, but acting and incidents start to overpower the film. Bulger’s rise and the path of carnage left in its wake is shocking, but Cooper loses the timeline.

Without the characters changing very much and no other references to help us put a date or year to the events, the audience can’t appreciate how powerful Bulger was, or how long it took for anyone to take a hard look at what the FBI, and Connolly, was attempting to do (and at what cost).

Black Mass must be seen for Depp’s virtuoso performance. It’s one for the ages.

Black Mass is rated R for brutal violence, language throughout, some sexual references and brief drug use.