Black Mass

If Hollywood continues to run out of original ideas for films, they have and still can rely on the biopic films, which has just about become its own genre, considering the number of them that have been produced. Just in the recent past we've seen "Hyde Park on the Hudson", "42", "Get On Up", "Capote", "Ray", "The King's Speech", "The Theory of Everything", "Unbroken", even the recent "Love & Mercy", just to mention a handful. So now we have in the offing yet another biopic called "Black Mass".

Introduced as a flashback with Jimmy 'Whitey' Bulger's henchman, Kevin Weeks (Jesse Plemons) being questioned by the FBI so as to negotiate a plea bargain, this is the story of John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) and Jimmy Bulger (Johnny Depp) as they grew up together on the streets of South Boston. Decades later, in the late 1970's, they would meet again. By then Connolly was a major figure in the FBI's Boston office and Jimmy had become Godfather of the Irish mob--a kingpin if you will. What happened between them--a dirty deal to trade secrets and the take down of Boston's Italian Mafia on the process--would spiral out of control, leading to murders, drug dealing, racketeering indictments, and, ultimately, to Bulger making the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. And with all this going down, Bulger's brother, Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a leading senator of the state of Massachusetts which make for sticky politics.

Others to round out the cast are Rory Cochrane as Steve Flemmi, Bulger's right hand man, David Harbour as John Morris, Connolly's associate, Kevin Bacon as Charles McGuire, the then FBI director, Dakota Johnson as Lindsey Cyr, Bulger's wife, Corey Stoll as Fred Wyshak, the recent FBI director, Julianne Nicholson as Marianne Connolly, John Connolly's wife, W. Earl Brown as John Martorano, Peter Sarsgaard as Brian Halloran, Bill Camp as John Callahan, Adam Scott as FBI agent Robert Fitzgerald and Juno Temple as Deborah Hussey.

This was incredibly directed by a virtual newcomer to the director's chair, however the few films he has directed were amazingly well crafted--the natural Scott Cooper ("Crazy Heart" '09, "Out of the Furnace" '13). As I said prior, few films, but look at those films! They were fascinating in their own right as this was as well. Obviously Depp is an amazingly under rated actor, but the nuances this director had to extract out of this actor to exude the character of this notorious gangster was simply brilliant. As I said, this guy is a natural. Please Hollywood give this director a lot more work. It was equally well written by Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth. Even though this is Mallouk's first screenplay, and his experience is predominantly producing, he still created solid work along with Butterworth--  Butterworth has quite the resume for writing screenplays. This collaboration was one made in heaven and would like to see these guys team up again. As one watches this film, it's evident that the supporting cast gave Depp center stage realizing this is clearly Depp's film. Depp has to be nominated come Oscar time as possibly Cooper and the writers. The delineation of this U.S. gangster was showcased impeccably through the eyes of these artists and makes it one of America's well crafted films of this decade.

Even if you're not into the mafia, gangster, violent deals type of film, the acting, directing and writing should certainly be enough to keep one interested from the first frame to the last. Usually, as I've progressed in age, if the film is 2+ hours long I get very fidgety, but this being 122 minutes running time, it moved right along quickly. Trust me, I'm not typically a great fan of gangster type films, but after viewing this, my opinion has improved.

Out of 4 Stars: 4                                     Rated: R                                      122mins.