Black Mass

Starring: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard, Dakota Johnson, Jesse Plemons, Rory Cochrane, David Harbour, Adam Scott, and Corey Stoll
Directed by: Scott Cooper
Screenplay by: Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth

     This is the true story of James "Whitey" Bulger and his unholy alliance with FBI agent John Connolly in order to take down their common enemy, the Angiulo family in Boston's Italian mafia.
     It's the mid-1970s in south Boston, and Jimmy Bulger (Johnny Depp) is in charge.  His brother, Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a powerful state senator from Boston.  Their friend from childhood, John Connolly (Joel Egerton) is an FBI agent in Boston.  They want to rid the city of the Angiulo family in order to clean up the streets and make Boston a safer city.  The problem is then there's Jimmy and his Winter Hill gang to contend with.  Connolly, willing to take risks with the bureau, decides to make an alliance with Jimmy in order to take out the Angiulos.  Jimmy gives the FBI information regarding the Angiulos with a few other restrictions, and in return the FBI basically lets them do whatever they want.  It's corruption at the highest level until a new federal prosecutor comes in in the mid 1980s, Fred Wyshack (Corey Stoll), starts asking questions that Connolly doesn't want answered.  Will the bureau eventually figure out what is really going on and take down Jimmy Bulger as well?  Also, the Angiulos keep showing up throughout the film, but only are touched upon.  Where in this film are they?  We don't see them even once, except in photos characters are showing to one another.  We don't know anything about them other than they're taking over the North End and causing trouble and Billy and the FBI want to get them out of Boston.
     Black Mass had the potential to be the next great American mobster film.  The story is dark and terrifying as it takes us through the ugly stuff that Jimmy has to do in order to maintain his power in Southy and the stuff that Connolly has to hid from the FBI in order to allow Jimmy to continue being an informant for them.  But here's the problem; there's a lot of stuff missing.
     Jimmy has a personal life when he's not a mobster.  He has a wife and son.  While we know what happens to his son (I don't want to spoil it), it's not clear what happens to his wife, Lindsey (Dakota Johnson).  She just stops showing up after what happens to their son.  Billy seems to have little importance to the story, except simply maintaining contact with John Connolly to make sure his older brother hasn't gotten too out of control.
     Something that makes the film interesting is that it is told entirely in flashback, with each of the characters telling one aspect of the story to an FBI interrogator.  There are some characters however that are not interrogated, so we do not see the story from their perspectives, but it is an interesting technique nonetheless.
     Black Mass won't be on the list of greatest American crime movies, like a film such as Goodfellas (1990) will.  The difference between Goodfellas and Black Mass, which is something that makes Goodfellas so great is that Martin Scorsese (the director) makes the mob life look cool.  He makes all of the characters have fun while being in the mob.  Henry Hill, the focal character of Goodfellas played by Ray Liotta, seems like the kind of guy that people might want to be; except for the murder and theft and various other crimes he commits.  Black Mass does not make Jimmy look like a good guy who does terrible things.  It makes him look like a bad guy who does some brutal things without any thoughts about them or feelings about them.  He's just conducting business.  There's no fun to be had at all, even when they are in that nightclub in Miami.
      Perhaps what makes this movie as good as it can be is Johnny Depp.  He is a fantastic actor, known for roles like Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Carribbean series, and if you've seen those films, you might not be able to see anybody else in the role of Jack Sparrow who can play it as well as Johnny Depp does.  He brings the same level of energy and devotion to the role of Whitey Bulger that he does with Jack Sparrow, only he does it better.  It's easy to forget that there is an actor on the screen in front of you when he is in the scene.  The makeup and hair on him also make it easy to forget that it's Johnny Depp playing this creepy looking character.
      Joel Edgerton brings an equally strong performance to the film.  They interact only a handful of times, and mainly over the phone.  But Edgerton is fantastic in this film as well.  I expect Oscar nods for both of them.  Except with Johnny Depp, give that man the Oscar already!  Benedict Cumberbatch should just stick to playing British roles.  He's far more natural there and the difficulty he has playing roles of Americans shows in Black Mass.  
      Overall, Black Mass is not quite the mobster film I had hoped it would be.  It tells the story of Whitey Bulger well enough to get the point across, but there are too many plot holes and too many characters disappearing without explanation to make it a great film.  However, this is one of those films where the power of the actor has a profound effect on the film.  If you want to see some of the finest acting of 2015, you won't want to miss this film.
      I give Black Mass a B+.