It's been a good long while since I've been blown away by a Johnny Deep movie, or, for that matter, a Johnny Depp movie. It's been a long list of serious duds. Mortdecai, Transcendence, Dark Shadows, The Rum Diary, The Tourist and Alice in Wonderland are by no means good movies. In fact, most of them border awful. But, you gotta hand it to Depp... it doesn't look like he's picking movies based on the quality of the script. It looks like he's picking films where he knows he will have the most fun. I mean, if you have to work, you might as well have fun doing it. Who wouldn't want to be Depp's character in Tusk, The Lone Ranger, 21 Jump Street, Pirates, Sweeney Todd, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? For at least the last decade, Depp has been a household name, held to a standard that he doesn't necessarily meet. But, his characters are so damn quirky and likable that we still give Depp a pass. But beyond Jack Sparrow, there isn't a character he's played recently where we've been blown away... and even Sparrow has become a caricature of its former self. Well, Depp has ended that streak with an amazing, unrecognizable, Oscar-worthy performance of James "Whitey" Bulger in the chilling crime-drama, Black Mass.
Black Mass is not a feel-good movie. There are no relatable characters or, for that matter, really any likable characters. You're watching the rise of a bunch of evil, corrupt, and conscience-less individuals rising to power and falling HARD. Black Mass is the story of "Whitey" Bulger played to perfection by Johnny Depp. "Whitey" is a calculating evil genius. If he wasn't just trying to run the gangster racket around South Boston, dude could've been the supervillain in any other it's-time-to-take-over-the-world movie. He's calm, yet violent. He's smart, yet impulsive. He's loyal, yet selfish. He's a very complex character that's based on an actual human being, which makes the film even more terrifying. The film shows his rise to power and money and eventual insanity. He's given the opportunity of essentially running all the crime in South Boston by becoming a protected FBI informant. His confidante is John Connelly (Joel Edgerton), a newly instated FBI agent who also happened to grow up in the same neighborhood with "Whitey". He's got a sense of loyalty that's so strong it's to a definite fault. Then, there's "Whitey's" politician brother Billy Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch) who watches his brother with a strange combination of adoration and disdain. The way the story goes is once "Whitey" is ousted by the media as an informant, it began the road to his downfall which led him to going on the run for nearly two decades as one of the most wanted men in American history.
Depp plays Bulger with a terrifyingly quiet ferocity. Yes, there's a significant amount of crazy makeup hiding that pretty Depp underneath, but it's more than just makeup that makes Bulger's appearance horrifying. It's more than just a receding hairline, cold/dead blue eyes, filthy teeth, and bad skin that tells us to fear Bulger. He's a calm calculating maniac. He can kill you with a look right before he kills you with his bare hands. He has this honor code that he carries out without fault based on what he believes is right punishment for any sort of "betrayal" one might have caused him. If you even know more than you're supposed to know, and end up in a police station... whether you've ratted on Bulger or not... chances are... you don't make it. Hell, if you tell Bulger to 'fuck off' while drunk in a bar... you don't make it. He's an unflinching monster that was given free reign for years to do whatever he wanted in Boston because he had a deal with a corrupt FBI agent. It's insane how untouchable Bulger was due to the fact of how much of the crime in South Boston was attributed to him. The rest of the cast is great. Edgerton as Connelly is prefect as the little rat-faced FBI agent who has zero sense of self-worth and nothing but devotion for Bulger because "Bulger helped him out once as a kid and if you grew up in Southie you know what loyalty is." Kevin Bacon shows up as the FBI task leader on the Bulger case, and while he's great, could've done the role in his sleep. Cumberbatch is the only one that really sticks out like a sore thumb. His politician character is only used once in a while, isn't entirely fleshed out as someone who knew exactly what his brother was up to and turned the other cheek, or just didn't want to know. His accent is also pretty atrocious, but he gets a pass because he's still just a damn fine actor and presence in any film. Adam Scott is also in the movie too. His character hardly speaks, and does nothing of importance. It's weird.
As far as being a capable gangster film, I'd say that it's up there. The only problem is that most people are going to draw a LOT of parallels with The Departed, which is also the gold standard of gangster flicks and probably the best one (sorry Godfather, just because you're classic, doesn't mean you're still the best). But, the only reason is because a lot of the story and characters of The Departed were taken from the real life crimes of "Whitey" Bulger and his crew. So, when you tell the true story of Bulger it's not going to be able to hold up to the fictional story of someone based on Bulger's life. But, I believe it still holds its own and that Scorsese would be proud. It still employs a lot of the traditional tropes of a typical gangster film, but does it so in a way that it's fresh and just as terrifying. In the hands of capable director Scott Cooper (Out of the Furnace, Crazy Heart), he's able to show his love of the crime drama, while still honoring it with something new that we may or may not have already seen before, but still feels fresh. The movie itself is a solid 7, but Depp's performance elevates it to a higher echelon of film that should definitely be seen if you're a fan of the genre.
B+
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