Black Mass (2015)

[DollEyes]

 One of the most eagerly anticipated films of the fall is Black Mass, starring Johnny Depp as Boston mobster John "Whitey" Bulger, who also was a snitch for the FBI. The film also co-stars Joel Edgerton, Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard, Benedict Cumberbatch, Corey Stoll and Dakota Johnson. Hopefully, the Depp in this movie will be much closer to the one who was in Donnie Brasco than the one in The Lone Ranger.

[Bruinsfan]

Based on the trailers I won't be able to take this movie seriously because every time I look at Depp I'm going to be thinking of this:

[thuganomics85]

Just saw it.  Enjoyed it and thought it was good, but not quite great. Certainly thought it was one of Johnny Depp's better performances in quite some time.  Whitey Bulger might be a psycho, but at least he isn't an over-the-pirate whose schick has gotten dated, an over-the-top Mad Hatter, or a singing, pedophile wolf.

 

I did like that they mainly avoided making Whitey an "anti-hero", and basically seemed to show him as the murderous bastard that he is/was.  They did get a bit too close to "excuse" territory, by making it look like the deaths of his son and mom help make him worse, but he was already a killer before then, so I don't think that was the case at all.  The dude was just not a nice person.

 

I think I ended up almost disliking John as much as Whitey (although Joel Egerton was good.)  I'm not sure if he was suppose to that enamored with Whitey and truly believed him, or if he just thought the "ends justified the means", but I felt like he was almost (but not quite) as responsible for some of the stuff that happened, and I just as happy seeing his eventual downfall, as Whiteys.

 

They sure filled out the cast.  Of course, there was Benedict Cumberbatch as Billy (doing a decent Boston accent, I thought), Jesse Plemmons (looking really bloated), Kevin Bacon and Corey Stoll both showing up to bitch everyone out, and Dakota Johnson doing what she could with a thankless role, but I totally got a kick out of seeing even the smaller roles filled by David Harbour, W. Earl Brown, Julianne Nicholson, and Juno Temple.  Favorite though was probably Adam Scott, because I basically felt like his character acted the way Ben from Parks & Rec would have.  I kept waiting for him to look at the camera and be all "Can't you believe these idiots are falling for this?!"

 

I do want to read up more on the real events.  I'm especially curious to see how much Billy knew in real life, because the film kind of left that up to interpretation.  And I remember hearing that Whitey had loosing inspired the Jack Nicholson character in The Departed, and I can totally see that now.

[kassa]

Billy knew everything.  Or at least enough to use the spectre of his brother to intimidate people, and the power of his office to ruin people who tried to go after his brother.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I do want to read up more on the real events.  I'm especially curious to see how much Billy knew in real life, because the film kind of left that up to interpretation.  And I remember hearing that Whitey had loosing inspired the Jack Nicholson character in The Departed, and I can totally see that now.

If you want books on the subject, there's a biography called Whitey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss, written by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill. I got it from my library and just started it, so you might be able to find it at one of your branches where you live.

[Rick Kitchen]

I read somebody saying Cumberbatch should get an Oscar for Supporting Actor for this.  I don't see it, he didn't do anything extraordinary and isn't in it all that much.  Sounds more like fanwanking, to me.

 

Depp did a great job as creepy.  I enjoyed this movie, even though it made me uneasy.  The scene with the barbecue marinade was intense.

[tinaw]

Saw Black Mass last night. Amazing! Depp deserves an Oscar for his performance. You really saw the evil that is "Whitey". How scary he really was. Flemmi too.

Connolly and the FBI were just as Corrrupt in their own way.

The whole cast did a great.

[reggiejax]

I liked it, though it didn't quite hit the heights I was expecting. But I did find something that was unintentionally funny.

One of the subplots involves a scheme Bulger had where he was skimming money from, of all things, World Jai Alai. Bulger is concerned that the owner of WJA will ruin everything, so he has him murdered. All I could think about as this went down was "oh no, not Ho-Ho!". Ho-Ho was Pete Campbell's friend on Mad Men who was trying to turn Jai Alai into the new national pastime, and tasked Sterling Cooper with making it so.

[SeanC]

I wasn't sure about seeing this at first, because, despite the good reviews, I thought the trailers didn't look all that good.  But I guess I owe Johnny Depp an apology, because I thought his performance looked very gimmicky from the trailer, but he was actually quite good.

[Macbeth]

I hope you don't mind my responding.  I won't see the movie.  I have lived in the Boston area for almost 50 years.  I followed this story like everyone else here.  Read a couple of books etc...  

 

My only connection to the Bulgers is that Billy was the commencement speaker at my HS graduation.  

 

Billy is definitely the more interesting story.  Whitey was a complete sociopath.  

 

My favorite story - the best thing Mitt Romney ever did was get Billy to resign as President of UMass University.  Romney could appoint people to the trustee seats.  He planned to appoint Howie Carr, columnist, Alan Dershowitz, and a judge Billy screwed over.

 

All three enthusiastically agreed to serve as Trustees.  Carr would have columns for the next year.  

 

Billy resigned.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Billy is definitely the more interesting story.  Whitey was a complete sociopath.  

 

And I give Depp credit I normally wouldn't for playing Whitey as straight-up BSC. Unlike Ray Liotta in Goodfellas, Depp doesn't portray Bulger as anything but a man who is almost always a hair's breadth away from killing someone. Even when he was grieving for his son, there was a coldness to him, because the pain was mixed in with the crazy, and everyone who had the misfortune to get swept up in the tidal wave paid for it, including his brother.

[Macbeth]

And I give Depp credit I normally wouldn't for playing Whitey as straight-up BSC. Unlike Ray Liotta in Goodfellas,

 

Maybe I'll see it.  The problem with Goodfellas for me has always been it is from Henry Hill's point of view, and it is clear to me that he cleaned up his story for the feds.

 

Apparently the violence of Pesci's character was not ramped up for the movie.  The person his character was based on was that psychotic.  It appears he killed a mailman just because.  So if Henry is spending his days with him....

[NoWillToResist]

Well, this finally cemented my earlier suspicions that I have not, do not, and thus will likely never, give a single fuck about mob/mafia subject matter in my entertainment.

 

I literally hated everyone except Corey Stoll's character because he seemed to be the only person there who actually saw Bulger for who/what he was and had zero time for deals/leeway or the FBI dude's remarkably unsubtle attempts to ingratiate himself with him (offering him sweet seats to a sporting event? Good grief).

 

I had trouble looking at Depp's character, he was so visually off-putting. Depp's career seems to be an endless parade of dress-up/Hallowe'en and I think I'm done with it.

 

This reminded me a lot of the tv show Sons of Anarchy because, much like that show, I simply cannot fathom the appeal of the thug life. If these guys were living in luxury and whatnot, I could understand it. But these guys live small, shitty lives with apparently no financial boon, so why join that life?