Scott Cooper
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Writer-director Scott Cooper is confident enough to reference Ford’s work — such as framing a doorway in a manner reminiscent of “The Searchers” (1956) — while delivering a tale of racism and redemption that stands on its own.
Grave and somber, Scott Cooper ’s “Hostiles” opens with a scene that recalls John Ford ’s “ The Searchers .”
It's an ambitious film that will remind its fans of John Ford's 1955 classic "The Searchers," and its critics of Michael Cimino's bloated 1980 box-office flop "Heaven's Gate."
With Takayanagi’s help, Cooper recalls the best of John Ford’s The Searchers , and with Bale’s help he rectifies its worst.
Working from an unpublished manuscript by the late Donald Stewart, the filmmaker echoes The Searchers – John Ford's 1956 classic starring John Wayne as a vengeful cowboy – in tackling the way racism and violence seem to be hardwired into the American character.
Dozens more will be butchered to appease the themes of director Scott Cooper’s script: the sin and apparent redemption of the American myth, complete with visual quotations from The Searchers .
Comparisons to the films of Martin Scorsese are inevitable (and apparently obligatory), but while Goodfellas and Casino evoke a time and a place through their characters and events Cooper’s latest evokes nothing more than a reminder that Depp is a fantastic actor when he wants to be.
Black Mass is more The Departed than Goodfellas — Jack Nicholson’s mobster in the former actually was inspired by Bulger.
Without revealing too much, let’s just say that his sinister, is-he-kidding-or-isn’t-he demeanor immediately recalls Joe Pesci in Goodfellas.
Based on Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill's book, Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance between the FBI and the Irish Mob, the film borrows heavily from Scorsese's Goodfellas and The Departed, though Scott Cooper's film definitely has its moments.
Trying to match up against Goodfellas , Casino or The Departed isn’t the smartest move if you can’t at least match those all-time classics and Black Mass comes up way short.
There is a sensuality in his evilness, like that of a vampire, and even a theatricality not unlike Joe Pesci’s gangster in “Goodfellas.”
It’s the type of exhaustive story that demands Martin Scorsese’s stylistic eye and William Monahan’s economical storytelling, but those two only paid spiritual homage to Bulger when they carved out 2006’s The Departed .
Black Mass is more The Departed than Goodfellas — Jack Nicholson’s mobster in the former actually was inspired by Bulger.
(He didn’t actually give them any real info and basically played them all for dopes; Jack Nicholson’s character in The Departed is inspired by Bulger, too.)
Bulger inspired Jack Nicholson’s gangster in “The Departed” (2006), so comparisons between “Black Mass” and Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winner are inevitable.
Based on the true story of James “Whitey” Bulger, the South Boston hood who inspired Jack Nicholson’s character in The Departed , it chronicles how Bulger (Johnny Depp) was able to stay out of prison because the FBI, led by Agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), uses him as an informant to help take down the Italian mafia out of North Boston.
Fictionalized depictions of murderous crime bosses have a little rope to play with; the distance from true-life means a filmmaker doesn’t have to be squirrelly about exploring the man inside the monster of a Michael Corleone or The Departed’s Frank Costello (reportedly inspired by Bulger).
Comparisons to the films of Martin Scorsese are inevitable (and apparently obligatory), but while Goodfellas and Casino evoke a time and a place through their characters and events Cooper’s latest evokes nothing more than a reminder that Depp is a fantastic actor when he wants to be.
Trying to match up against Goodfellas , Casino or The Departed isn’t the smartest move if you can’t at least match those all-time classics and Black Mass comes up way short.
It doesn’t help that Scott Cooper’s Black Mass must follow in the footsteps of more dynamic pictures like Brian De Palma’s Carlito’s Way ; Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas , Casino , and The Departed (in which Jack Nicholson played a character inspired by Bulger); and Mike Newell’s Donnie Brasco , which starred Depp as an undercover FBI agent.
It’s no small compliment when I tell you that I believe Scott Cooper’s Black Mass can run with Scorsese’s mob trilogy of Goodfellas, Casino and The Departed.
Screenwriters Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth concoct a strange film, because it’s tonally myopic rather than bringing you fun, or sadistic laughs like Goodfellas or Casino.
But Cooper might have benefited from borrowing some of the sheer sense of fun and shameless fascination del Toro brings to telling fantastical, frightening tales such as "Pan's Labyrinth" and "The Devil's Backbone."
We see a bit less of the wendigo than we’ve seen of some other creatures in del Toro films — you’ll likely remember him as a mess of horns moving through shadows, not in the detailed way one recalls the Faun or the Pale Man of Pan’s Labyrinth — and in important ways the beast is scariest before it sprouts those horns: Scott Haze, playing Lucas’ father before he has fully transformed, is monstrous and pathetic but still capable of commanding his son’s loyalty.
Films like The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth similarly used ghosts and fantastical creatures to examine concepts such as abandonment and war.
Well shot in dreary, small town muteness by Florian Hoffmeister ( A Quiet Passion , 2016) and just the right kind of brooding score from Javier Navarrete ( Pan’s Labyrinth , 2006) allow for a properly set stage, but ultimately both the title and so-so denouement make Antlers feel like something we would have seen in the “Masters of Horror” series from the mid-2000s (especially since John Landis had an entry in the series called “Deer Woman”).
Produced by monster fetishist Guillermo del Toro ( Pan’s Labyrinth , The Shape of Wate r) but directed by Scott Cooper ( Crazy Heart ), the mood is overly gloomy and lacking del Toro’s signature sparkle.
The Oscar-nominated Spanish composer who provided aural chills for Guillermo del Toro’s “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth” does it again, setting the mood for the dark thriller.
Cooper has a pleasant twang when he sings, projecting a melancholy, afternoon-y vibe that brings to mind Crazy Heart.
His past-his-prime alcoholic singer is channeling Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart for sure, which isn’t a bad thing.
I get the comparison, but a twenty years younger version of Jeff Bridgescharacter in Crazy Heart (while his career was still booming despite an approaching decline) is probably more apt.
(If you never saw “Crazy Heart,” or how forgot how good it is, catch up.
As in Crazy Heart, a similarly excellent movie starring Jeff Bridges, it starts with quiet menace lurking in the wings and ends in a display of humiliation so sharp you can’t help but cringe from it.
Cooper sings decently enough to be convincing, but his performance overall feels rather like a reboot of Jeff Bridges’ turn as Bad Blake in “Crazy Heart” (or even his Rooster Cogburn, to tell the truth).
Writer-director Scott Cooper ("Black Mass") based the concept on a manuscript by the late Donald Stewart, who wrote movies like "The Hunt For Red October" before his death in 1999.
He’s a man of few words, as per Bale’s masterful underplaying and Cooper’s lean adaptation of an unpublished manuscript by Donald Stewart, the screenwriter behind Missing and The Hunt for Red October.
Cooper’s screenplay, based on a manuscript given him by the widow of the late Donald Stewart ( Missing , The Hunt for Red October ), strives to make a statement about the American way of life, the genocide of the Native American people, the inescapable savagery of war, and the tenaciousness of trauma.
(Director Cooper based his screenplay on a “manuscript” by Donald E. Stewart, writer of such films as 1982’s Missing and The Hunt for Red October .
He can't manage the same with his attempt at a western, mostly because the script, based on a manuscript by deceased screenwriter Donald E. Stewart (Missing, The Hunt for Red October), is too awful to salvage.
The manuscript was originally written by the late Academy Award-winning screenwriter Donald E. Stewart, who wrote Missing and The Hunt for Red October , who died almost twenty years ago.
An inescapable itchiness starts to creep into virtually every scene around the second act, a restless sensation that cannot be alleviated by gnarly nods to genre classics like My Bloody Valentine (1981), The Thing (1982), and Hellraiser (1987).
The endangered children in “Antlers” will remind many of the sisters in Andy Muschietti’s 2013 entry “Mama,” another supernatural-based film produced by del Toro.
Similar in tone and nature to Andy Muschietti’s 2013 supernatural scarer Mama , another painting with the del Toro stroke, this film largely avoids cheap jump scares and flowing blood in favour of something more psychological; that’s not to say this doesn’t have its share of violent moments, it just doesn’t rely on them to maintain its horrific personality.
Song Sung Blue (2025)
Directed by Craig Brewer
influenced by Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Themes
…it’s not as simple as someone being a Bruce Springsteen fan and automatically adoring Scott Cooper’s Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere…
Unlike “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” (2025), audience members will not need any clues as to what they were supposed to take away from the film.
Oh, and there’s a lot of Walter Hill cooped up in there, as in his 1970s street-boxing tale, “Hard Times.”
A River Runs Through It (1992)
Directed by Robert Redford
influenced Out of the Furnace (2013)
Characters
He’s not as out there as Edward Norton in Rounders or Brad Pitt in A River Runs Through It where it’s like, come on, you’re just asking for trouble.
That food-coma-populated valley of early December, which combines post-holiday letdown with pre-holiday anxiety, seems as good a time as any to release “Out of the Furnace,” a stridently downbeat Rust Belt drama that can’t decide if it wants to be the first half of “The Deer Hunter” or the last half of “First Blood.”
The Cavalry escort includes Jesse Plemons (“The Post,” “Black Mirror”) as a West Point newbie, Timothée Chalamet (“Call Me by Your Name”) as a young French recruit, Rory Cochrane (“Dazed and Confused”) under heavy facial hair as Blocker’s guilt-consumed fellow soldier, and the fearsome Ben Foster (“Hell or High Water”) as a cunning, crazy racist in the mix.
They either come from a big time director like Quentin Tarantino with Django Unchained, are remade from classics like the Coens’ True Grit and James Mangold’s 3:10 to Yuma or strike at just the right time like David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Water.
“Hostiles” also underutilizes a talented supporting cast including “Hell or High Water” star Ben Foster as a derelict officer and 2018 Academy Award best actor nominee Timothée Chalamet as a private under Blocker’s command.
Fans of films like Unforgiven or Hell or High Water should find this movie interesting.
While most of the film consists of the posse riding snowmobiles through the drifts, there are two set pieces that incorporate the same kind of bloody mayhem that made many film critics rave over “Hell or High Water”.
A mediocre horror flick from some pretty capable sorts – it’s directed by Scott Cooper (“Crazy Heart,” “Black Mass”) and produced by Guillermo del Toro (“Pacific Rim,” “The Shape of Water”).
Also, Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro is credited as one of the film's producers (full-on producer, not executive producer), who won his Oscars for "The Shape of Water," another Searchlight title.
One of many 2020 titles that saw its original release delayed due to the pandemic, and one of the few that held its nerve and opted out of a streaming alternative, Antlers , from director Scott Cooper ( Crazy Heart , Black Mass ) and producer Guillermo del Toro ( Pan’s Labyrinth , The Shape of Water ), proves its bold mentality weaves alongside its narrative, tackling trauma, neglect, and abuse in the guise of a fantastical-leaning horror film.
But, then again, the film’s creature designed by Guy Davis (“The Shape of Water”) is the scariest screen wendigo thus far.
Del Toro, director of Oscar's Best Picture "The Shape of Water" and other beastly stories, may be a producer on the atmospheric folk tale "Antlers," but the directorial chores fall to Scott Cooper.
Also likely deserving of some credit is del Toro, the director of films that include the acclaimed 2006 work “Pan’s Labyrinth” and 2017 Academy Award winner “The Shape of Water.”
Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” was loosely based on Bulger, as was a key character in Ben Affleck’s “The Town.”
First came Martin Scorsese's Oscar-scooping epic The Departed, then Ben Affleck chipped in with The Town, both movies driven by their portrayal of tightly-knit groups of characters immovably rooted in their native Bostonian soil.
The Boston crime world has been such a fertile ground for Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” and Ben Affleck’s “The Town.”
Cooper has made three films – 2009's Crazy Heart and 2013's Out of the Furnace preceded this one – that touch on specific milieus in contemporary America, but Black Mass often only captures the Boston surface streaks already codified by the likes of The Departed and The Town .
If you don't count his vocal performance in "Rango" or his cameo in "21 Jump Street," you have to look all the way back to 2009's "Public Enemies" to find a credible performance from Johnny Depp, the actor having lost his way in his makeup and dress up toy chest.
Last Night in Soho (2021)
Directed by Edgar Wright
influenced by Crazy Heart (2009), Out of the Furnace (2013)
Themes
Like Soho , it comes from a director who isn’t exactly a Horror Guy: Scott Cooper has credits like Crazy Heart and Out of the Furnace , and here funnels hardscrabble men, the women who are concerned for them, crippling addictions, and beards into a creature feature with the Guillermo del Toro seal of approval.
Like Soho , it comes from a director who isn’t exactly a Horror Guy: Scott Cooper has credits like Crazy Heart and Out of the Furnace , and here funnels hardscrabble men, the women who are concerned for them, crippling addictions, and beards into a creature feature with the Guillermo del Toro seal of approval.
In effect, he is trying to prevent Blocker from turning into the quintessential jaded Hollywood hero – a timeworn prototype – like the one Tom Cruise immortalizes in Edward Zwick’s The Last Samurai.
Both he and Chalamet—and even Rylance, in his own bohemian way—reflect junkie redneck types, like they could be Woody Harrelson’s meth fiend henchmen from Out of the Furnace .