Black Mass DVD review: “Depp is mesmerising”

Black Mass DVD review: A captivating and engrossing gangster movie, unmissable due to Depp’s powerhouse performance.

Black Mass is a return to form for Hollywood A-lister Johnny Depp, an actor caught in the wilderness following an Oscar-nominated turn in Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl in 2003, and its various sequels. His last few films, Transcendence, The Lone Ranger and the dire Mortdecai, have failed to set the box-office alight, and now more than ever, Depp is in need not only a hit, but a great character to display his unbelievable talent as an actor. With the role of James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, Depp has just that.

Black Mass tells the true story of Bulger, a notorious crime boss who ruled South Boston from the mid-1970s. The brother of a US senator, here played by Benedict Cumberbatch, Bulger was also a notorious FBI informant who formed an ‘alliance’ with the bureau to bring down his enemies, most notably the Italian mob, while at the same time furthering his own business interests. While Bulger ‘informed’ the bureau of his enemy’s dealings, the FBI, and agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) in particular, almost turned a blind-eye to the horrific criminal activities that he was undertaking, which included racketeering, money laundering, extortion, and multiple murders. The film takes place in the near two decades when Bulger was at the peak of his criminal career, and features a stellar all-star cast who fill the roles of the main players that contributed to his brutal reign.

As well as the powerhouse performance of Johnny Depp, and the superb support from Cumberbatch and Edgerton, director Scott Cooper has managed to assemble possibly one of the best ensemble casts in any movie we’ve seen this year. Breaking Bad alumni Jesse Plemons stars as Kevin Weeks, who acts as our guide through most of the picture. We also have the brilliant Rory Cochrane as Bulger’s right-hand man and fellow FBI informant Stevie Flemmi, a brief turn by Peter Saarsgard as the drug-fuelled accomplice Brian Halloran and, on the side of the FBI, Kevin Bacon as Charles McGuire, David Harbour as John Morris, the excellent Adam Scott as FBI Agent Robert Fitzpatrick, and a very good turn from Corey Stoll as Fred Wyshak, the guy that eventually brings the Winter Hill Gang down. There’s also a career-best turn from Dakota Johnson who finally gets to flex her acting muscles as Lindsey Cyr, the mother to Bulger’s son, and a brief glimpse of British rising star Juno Temple as the doomed Deborah Hussey.

This excellent cast is a delight to watch, but make no mistake, this is Depp’s film, and perhaps his best, and most convincing role for well over a decade. He is astonishing in this sure-to-be-nominated role. He gets under, and indeed into the skin of the notorious crime lord, sneering into the camera, his near whisper of a voice scaring the be-Jesus out of us in nearly every scene he’s in. A really disturbing turn.

Jez Butterworth and Mark Mallouk‘s script, adapted from the book by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill is solid, and well-paced, and in fact leaves you wanting more as it races to the final act. We can’t help but feel that there’s another film in there which covers the court-room showdown that followed, which involved both sides of the ‘alliance,’ and also the ultimate capturing of Bulger himself just a few years ago. If you’re in the market for that following catching Black Mass, catch the superb CNN documentary Whitey: The United States v James J. Bulger, which deals with his prosecution, along with other aspects of his reign of terror.

Scott Cooper brings a very engrossing, hugely watchable crime drama to the screen, and while at certain points you feel that you’re watching a paint-by-numbers affair overshadowed by the white-hot performance by Johnny Depp, you can’t help but be captivated by it. The film is very violent from the off; an unrelenting journey into the life of a very disturbed individual, who was perhaps one of the most violent gangsters of the late-20th Century. It’s actually baffling as to why this film was given the relatively liberal 15 certificate in the UK, while the British gangster film Legend was slapped with an 18. In my eyes, Black Mass is the more violent film.

See Black Mass for the mesmerising Depp performance, and magnificent support from the rest of this A-list cast. Cooper more than delivers the goods; an all-round solid American gangster film.

Black Mass review by Paul Heath, you can own it on DVD now.