Black Mass- Movie Review

Rating: B

Johnny Depp returned to the big screen this weekend in Scott Cooper's new film, Black Mass. This has been one of my most anticipated films of the year. I love the gangster genre as a whole and this was a tale I wasn't too familiar with. The saga of Whitey Bulger is a dark and twisted one. And Black Mass captured that terrifically. 

Johnny Depp is remarkably fantastic in this movie. This may go down as my favorite performance of his. His portrayal of James "Whitey" Bulger was just so evil. His screen presence made me feel uneasy and uncomfortable. Depp just brought so much to this role and he did such a fantastic job. When watching this film, I didn't even realize it was Johnny Depp at any point. The man can play any character and truly become it. I'm so glad to see him in a role where he can strive and really impress people. He was by far the best part of this film.

The rest of this cast was also fantastic. Joel Edgerton is just killing it right now. Between this and The Gift, he's really starting to become one of my favorites to watch. Benedict Cumberbatch was also great. His character's battle between right and wrong was a fun thing to watch. Both of these men (Cumberbatch from England and Edgerton from Australia) also really pulled off the accents well. They didn't feel forced. The rest of the cast was also really good. This was a really big performance piece and everybody did held their own.

The way this film was shot was also great. The shot selection and dark tone of every frame was done brilliantly. Scott Cooper did a splendid job of capturing the darkness this wickedly dark tale of crime and corruption. At no moment was there a light tone in this movie. Cooper didn't glorify anybody's actions which I appreciated. This was an honest showcase of a truly terrible person and his rise and fall in the world of crime.

My only issue with this film was the emotional impact it lacked. Although a really good movie, it didn't have much emotional impact on the audience. I left loving the movie but felt as if it lacked a certain depth. I felt as if they were trying to really hit the audience hard but they somewhat missed. That's mainly because everybody in this film was justifiably a bad person. You didn't really feel bad for anybody when this story started to go against them. Despite that, Black Mass was an extremely entertaining film with some fantastic performances.