With the summer movie season coming to a close, it’s time to say goodbye to the highs of the summer like “Inside Out,” “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Jurassic World,” along with the crippling lows of films such as “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2” and “Fantastic Four.”
Luckily, we were able to leap right into the fall movie season and had a very strong start last weekend with “Everest” and “Black Mass.” While I was not able to watch “Everest”, I was able to see “Black Mass” and find out if Johny Depp was able to finally break his losing streak of films. It’s been an unbelievable amount of time since I’ve seen him in anything worth while, or even watchable for that matter. With critically panned movies such as “The Lone Ranger”, “Transcendence” and “Dark Shadows,” it’s been hard to imagine this was the same actor that brought Captain Jack Sparrow and Edward Scissorhands to life on screen. Even his last film “Mortdecai,” led Tim Holland from TV Guide’s Movie Guide to state “An abysmal would be comedy that sees the quickly falling star delivering a performance that’s as hammy and unfunny as it is dull and embarrassing.”
Thankfully enough, Depp finally ended the streak with his hypnotic take as the notorious gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, in his new film. He becomes completely lost in the role, not only with his accent and make up, but he has such an intimidating presence you constantly hold your breath in anticipation of his next move. Alonso Duralde from TheWrap stated in his review “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 dime.” I could not agree more with him. Other than Depp, “Black Mass” offers other great actors like Joel Edgerton, Kevin Bacon, Benedict Cumberbatch and several others to shine in their roles. All of this aidsthe gripping true life story that inspired the film.
What really added to the interest was Bulger’s real life issues with Depp and the film. In arecent article from Moviefone, Gina Carbone included the statement, which Bulger’s defense attorney gave to People magazine: “Johny Depp might as well have been playing the Mad Hatter all over again as far as James Bulger is concerned. Hollywood greed is behind the rush to portray my client, and the movie missed the real scourge created in my client’s case, the real Boston menace to Boston during that time and other mob cases around the country- the federal government’s complicity in each and every one of those murders with the top echelon informant program.”
This leaves it up to the audience to decide if Bulger is truly the monster showed on screen, or if all of the violent acts shown in the movie were made up in Hollywood, at Bulger’s expense. In my opinion, the controversy adds to the movie’s appeal, and makes the real life case all the more interesting.
Although I really enjoyed the movie, the only slight complaints I have are that some scenes seemed to drag on too long, making me feel like some could have been cut out for the sake of time.With all the good outweighing the bad, this is a solid recommendation and a great kick off to Oscar season. So if you’re a fan of Depp and are ready to see him return to his A game or if you’re just a fan of well made gangster movies, this is one to check out as soon as possible.
