Movie Review: Black Mass

[shadowfireflame]

I just saw the movie Black Mass, starring Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, and Benedict Cumberbatch, all of whom were excellent. The movie doesn’t cover much new ground but really showcases Johnny Depp’s amazing transformative abilities and star power; he has so much charisma that it was hard to take my eyes off him.

This was not your typical gangster movie but rather a relentlessly dark psychological portrait of James “Whitey” Bulger, a notorious South Boston criminal, and the way he successfully manipulates the FBI for years starting in 1975. Johnny Depp looks amazingly different (as always with Mr. Chameleon!), with the balding hair and these ridiculous light-blue contacts, and his looks really accentuate his ice-cold demeanor, which gets colder and more murderous as the movie goes on. But for all that I knew his character is evil, I really couldn’t help but be fascinated by him. The tension in some scenes is just off the charts because you never know if or when he will turn the tables on another character, and the stakes are so high. It reminded me more of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy than Goodfellas.

Benedict has a small but powerful role as Whitey’s younger brother, state senator Billy Bulger. While his character is quite subtle and understated with his JFK-like Bostonian 1970s accent, I liked the small moments of clever wickedness that shone through, where you can see some similarities between the brothers. It was intriguing watching how Benedict’s character manages to deliberately steer his life around having an older brother who’s quite literally a murdering psychopath kingpin. I'd have loved to see a movie just about the brothers' complex relationship. Benedict’s last scene with Joel Edgerton was one where the sparks really flew and you could see his quiet menace.

All in all: definitely recommended!

More reviews of BC's films here. :)

Comments

[splix.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the review! I'm seeing it on Saturday. Can you tell me - is there a lot of crazy personal violence in it? I think my tolerance for that is diminishing and it'd be nice to know how intense it gets.

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

I think it would depend on your personal tolerance. For example, I can't take watching torture or women and children getting hurt, so I found movies like Goodfellas very disturbing, and scenes like the ones in Unforgiven, Slumdog Millionaire, and even Master and Commander unforgettable and extremely distressing.

For Black Mass, with one exception, there are several deaths, but almost entirely they kill other gangsters by quickly shooting them in the head. The violence is for the most part psychological; the movie does not by any means glorify violence. No children are harmed, but there is the killing of one woman that you can hear but not see, and the movie makes it clear how tragic it is.

So for me personally, I found nothing particularly harrowing or distressing about the violence, and I don't think it's because I'm particularly cold or callous towards violence. It's more a movie of suspense, I would say. The mood is more similar to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, if that makes sense. Yes, there are deaths, but they're more seen as business transactions for running a mob.

[splix.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I needed to know! Thank you.

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

I'd love to hear what you thought after you've seen it!

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Oooh, you DID write a review - I wondering why I hadn't seen it, but you got it so far before us that I probably skipped this because I didn't want to spoil myself (it only started here last week) *g*

Yes to Depp, and I agree it wasn't "typical" (or rather since I don't see many gangster movies, was not what I expected it to be). I must admit I was intrigued by the whole having a psychopathic brother thing - for so many reasons, lol - but while I thought they were quite good individually, they never seemed to quite click as brothers for me. I mean, all the emotions seemed right, but maybe it was just physically, or *something*. I couldn't quite buy it. Not sure that could have been helped though!

I love your reviews - always so reliable ;)

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

You're definitely right that Johnny Depp and BC don't look like each other or like brothers! I had to suspend my disbelief there.

I have seen a lot of movies about "the mob" or the Mafia/yakuza/gangsters (this list is all right), and the thing I usually end up feeling is that while their outright message is that violence is bad and makes psychopaths of us all, the movies can't help but glorify it at least little bit just by the nature of showing it onscreen. Like they'll say, "These people are so corrupt; look at how violence is bad for communities!" but their title screens are all attractive people/women as props carrying guns provocatively. So..."violence is bad...but looks so cool!" ends up being a subtextual message.

Whereas in Black Mass I didn't end up feeling that. It was about the tenseness and emptiness of their lives and how devoid of humanity Johnny Depp's character is, but while he was fascinating, I never felt we were supposed to think of him as a hero. It was a movie of suspense instead of action. And it showed how the police/FBI can end up doing more harm than good, which is something we could stand to hear more as a country!

Anyway, I guess that's more what I meant by "not a typical gangster movie"!