[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”9665″ img_size=”900×500″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Black Mass came out in 2015 and told the tale of real-life Irish Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger. Johnny Depp played Whitey in a role that required a huge transformation, with hair, and make up a bit distracting at times. Despite a pretty impressive cast, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, Jesse Plemons, Peter Sarsgaard, Rory Cochrane, Adam Scott, Julianne Nicholson, Dakota Johnson, and Corey Stoll; Black Mass tried to contend with some other big name gangster movies and ultimately fell a little short.
While the film had all the ingredients to any gangster film, it fell a little stale. As bad as Whitey was, there was no oomph to the movie. There was nothing really to make Whitey appealing, as we had in such films as the Godfather, Casino, Good Fellas, and even Scarface. Black Mass is very integrated into the Boston culture of Irish versus Italian, but doesn’t have as much of an authentic feel like Fighter did.
There were some stark moments to the film, but you really found yourself rooting against Whitey and his co-conspirator, John Connolly (Edgerton). There were times in the movie that it was laughably obvious that Connolly was purposely steering the FBI, where he worked; in a different direction so they wouldn’t pin Whitey, who was essentially lining his pockets.
Probably one of the biggest mistakes was that the movie took the two most interesting characters, whose actors were giving us more than just a flat performance; and didn’t give them enough screen time. Peter Sarsgaard is a fantastic actor and his character was fun and was set-up as someone to really contend with, but his screen time barely amounted to 5 minutes. And when Corey Stoll came on screen, he was really to kick ass and I felt like finally there was a character who was giving us something, but it was so late in the film, it wasn’t enough time to save it.
The movie wraps almost anti-climatically and the end was so lackluster, it felt like the film drifted off instead of having an actual conclusion. This movie is based on a true story, so we did get some information on those involved in Whitey’s crew, but if I were to suggest a Johnny Depp movie, albeit he’s not anyone’s favorite right now; you should watch Blow, which is much more exciting and thrilling, as well as heartbreaking. I wouldn’t really suggest Black Mass for anyone looking for a gangster movie to watch.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
A girl with too many fandoms to count.
