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Admirable film.

A different way of telling a story

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

James "Whitey" Bulger (Johnny Depp) and John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) played cops and robbers on the playground and grew up and played it as adults. Whitey became an informer for FBI agent Connolly in exchange for protection, an alliance which he exploited. Based on a true story, the film's action and drama was a cut below its fictional counterparts. While Depp gives us a great performance, the film moved in a slow gear. We learned that jai alai is crooked, which is common knowledge to just about everyone.The characters in the film were very stiff for South Boston. And while Depp and the film will be nominated for something, I found it to be over rated and no better than a TV docu-drama. Watch "The Town" instead.Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

The true story of Whitey Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, who became an FBI informant to take down a Mafia family invading his turf.A pretty good film concerning Mafia families - The Godfather, Serpico, or even Donnie Brasco would make a great feature to go with Black Mass.8/10

I had gotten my hopes up for Black Mass, perhaps too high, when I heard Johnny Depp would be playing the lead role as infamous Boston gangster Whitey Bulger. Combined with director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) it was reasonable to think that Black Mass could be a triumphant return to Donnie Brasco form for Johnny Depp, and a strong gangster picture in its own right. Upon seeing the film, I was disappointed. Depp's Whitey Bulger lives up to the hype, but the movie around his performance never got me hooked.Black Mass recalls a period of time in the mid 1970s when Irish Mob Boss Whitey Bulger began working with his brother, Billy Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch) and FBI informant John Connely (Joel Edgerton), in an effort to take down the rival Mob families of Boston. Sure, it is an interesting true story, and Whitey Bulger is an interesting real life character, but the movie doesn't do enough to warrant a full-fledged dramatic film. Black Mass plays like a documentary. It follows certain characters, and explains the inner workings of the Irish Mob and the FBI. But this isn't a documentary, it's a crime drama. In a documentary, the interest comes from seeing the actual historical evidence of the story. In a film, you have to do more, and I never felt that Black Mass had anything of its own to say about Whitey Bulger, the Mob, or the FBI. The drama in Black Mass is incidental. All I saw was a film that tells me what happened, but not what it meant for anyone involved.The reason Black Mass doesn't work is not because of the performances. Individually, there is some great acting on display. Edgerton and Cumberbatch are convincing as meaty Bostonians, and Kevin Bacon gives a performance reminiscent of his work in Mystic River. Depp, however, is the main attraction, and his Whitey Bulger is the first truly Oscar-worthy performance from him in years. His cold, blue eyes can stare at the screen and tell you more about his character than any amount of writing can. And that's a good thing, because Bulger is not much of a character on the page. According to the script, he's a bad, bad, guy. Depp does all the heavy lifting. He fleshes out Bulger as much as humanly possible, illustrating his fierce connection to his son, and his hair trigger temper, but it's still not enough to save the film.Black Mass is not a bad film, but it is a misguided one. There are good performances all around, and hints of strong filmmaking, but the movie never managed to grab me. Simply telling Whitey Bulger's story is not enough. With only an admirable Johnny Depp performance to differentiate it from the countless crime dramas that have come and gone in Hollywood, Black Mass is destined to be forgotten.43/100

I personally am not aware that much of the real life Whitey Bugler, so can't really vouch for the authenticity or how true it is to the actual story.As a movie buff, I liked the movie, though it had a strong hangover of Goodfellas, Departed and Donnie Brasco. The movie though not in the league of these gangster classics, is still pretty much a good effort. One of the prime reasons is Johnny Depp, in the main role. Personally, am a big fan of Depp, but of late most of his performances have not really required him to do much, except to wear masks, or wigs and act funny. After quite some time, good to see him in a role that does not require him to clown around( notwithstanding the fake looking prosthetics). As a vicious, pyscopathic gangster he is brilliant, radiating menace, with his presence, a flick of the eye, or his measured way of speaking. Apart from the fact that Bulger seems to care for his son, there is not much that is redeeming about him. He is selfish and opportunistic, he plays along with his friend John Conolly( Joel Edgerton) a Fed agent, promising to help him out, but in reality uses him for his own selfish ends. He is ruthless, and pyscopathic to a level, where he gets rid of people, at the slighest suspicion. Matter of fact, he is the guy who does not even trust his own shadow.The movie at one level runs as a morality play too, on the dangers of setting a thief to catch a thief. Conolly tries to use Whitey to get to the Mafia, by using him as an informant. However Whitey turns the tables on him, by providing him basically with junk information, and uses it as a cover to get his own with the rival Anguilo gang. In a sense, Conolly causes his own downfall, by getting too cozy with Bugler, maybe it could have been due to his childhood friendship with him. At one level, it could also have been a traditional Irish-Italian rivalry in 70's Boston. Was Conolly soft on Bugler, due to the Irish factor, as well as the community feeling? And what exactly was the relationship between the Irish mob and the IRA? This is where I feel, Black Mass falters somewhat, the performances are good, the scenes are well written, but director Scott Cooper, just tries to pack in everything, without really delving deep. The movie looks more like a montage of elements from earlier gangster movies, dinner table talks where hints are dropped, the brutal in your face violence, the liberal usage of the F-word, the protagonist going into a downward spiral and pulling others along. And the scenes are pretty good too, one particularly good one, where Bugler has a dinner talk with Conolly and his associate Morris, where he almost threatens Morris into fear and then does not. Or the scenes between Whitey and his brother Billy( Benedict Cumberbatch) a senator.But the rivalry between Bugler and the Anguilo brothers is treated in a pretty sketchy manner. This is an area where so much could have been explored, especially the Irish vs Italian angle, but director Cooper just gives it a very cursory glance. Again the link between Bugler and the IRA is not explored in depth, we really do not know what motivates him to help them out. And due to this, it just remains a middlingly good movie, instead of a classic.The performances are pretty good, apart from Depp, one more great turn is by Joel Edgerton, as the FBI agent who makes a pact with the Devil himself. Benedict Cumberbatch is however wasted in a role that really does not do much justice to his talent.