Black Mass (2015)
Directed by Scott Cooper
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.
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5 films that influenced Black Mass
What critics say influenced Black Mass
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.
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 .
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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.