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#639 - Black Mass
Scott Cooper, 2015
Based on the true story of James "Whitey" Bulger, a career criminal operating out of South Boston who agrees to co-operate with an FBI agent towards mutually beneficial goals.
Two major factors threatened to doom Black Mass for me before I got around to watching it. The most prominent factor was the fact that Johnny Depp had spent much of the last decade of his career devolving into a parody of himself, whether through his multiple lucrative appearances as Captain Jack Sparrow, his collaborations with fellow walking punchline Tim Burton, or quite simply his choice of roles that emphasised quirk over quality. Prior to Black Mass, the most recent Depp role I'd seen was his extended cameo as an Inspector Clouseau-like detective in Kevin Smith's Tusk. His broadly comical gurning was enough to make me think that, yes, this might just be the worst part of a movie where a man is surgically altered into a constantly-screaming half-human/half-walrus abomination. The other factor was the fact that I'd seen three other true-crime films where Depp played the lead and I honestly disliked all three of them. Undercover-cop tale Donnie Brasco was somewhat tolerable, but Dillinger biopic Public Enemies was a major disappointment and the less said about the drug-dealing drama of Blow, the better. At least Black Mass looked intriguing in its first teaser, which featured a near-unrecognisable Depp turning a casual dinner-table discussion about family recipes into a coldly menacing and suspenseful monologue. Of course, the question remained as to whether or not the rest of the film could live up to this hype...
Black Mass is based on the true story of James "Whitey" Bulger (Depp), a notorious gangster who dominated the South Boston area while preparing to make inroads in different parts of the United States so as to consolidate his criminal empire. His success is due not just to his reputation as an intimidating underworld figure but also to his willingness to co-operate with FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) in providing information that'll allow the FBI to crack down on Bulger's rivals while leaving Bulger himself free to operate within certain constraints (which he naturally ignores). From there, the film becomes a series of problems that either Bulger or Connolly have to solve, whether it's unreliable criminal associates (such as Peter Sarsgaard's drugged-up wild-card) or official threats to Connolly's left-field plan (as represented by various colleagues played by Kevin Bacon, Adam Scott, and Corey Stoll). Meanwhile, Bulger has to contend with various personal issues, whether it's his difficult relationship with the mother (Dakota Johnson) of his son or the problems that his criminal activities pose for his senator brother Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch).
To be fair, Depp does deserve at least some of the accolades he's earned for committing to a somewhat challenging role. A fair bit of the credit has to go to the make-up artists responsible for burying the distinctive-looking Depp under icy blue contact lenses and straw-like hair that is both slicked-back and receding. As other Depp roles can attest, make-up only goes so far and Depp is at least capable of delivering the goods from underneath his uncanny appearance. Even something as simple as watching Bulger do crunches during his downtime is made believable by the combination of competent make-up work and Depp's physical intensity. The rest of the cast assembles a collection of recognisable faces to pull off the story, though their capacity for doing so is pretty relative. As the film's deuteragonist, Edgerton arguably has a more difficult job than Depp as he plays the morally-conflicted straight-man Connolly, who is torn between his dedication to upholding the law and an admittedly immature concept of street-based loyalty that he thinks exists within the world of organised crime. For all his strengths, Edgerton doesn't sell that kind of conflict well from underneath an extremely nasal American accent (nor does Cumberbatch, whose own role is similar in terms of conflicting loyalties between both his office and his black-sheep brother). Being a true-crime movie, you don't get a lot of variations in terms of characterisation, with the actors doing their best to infuse fairly basic characters with any small degree of notability. Actors like Jesse Plemons and Rory Cochrane get somewhat thankless roles as Bulger's associates Kevin Weeks and Steve Flemmi respectively, while Stoll stands out as an incredibly flat character if only because his right-minded attorney isintroduced late in the film with no other characteristics other than his refusal to indulge Connolly's friendly compromise with Bulger.
While there is admittedly so much you can do when it comes to basing a film off a true story, Black Mass does go about it in a rather pedestrian manner. Much of the film is told in retrospect as various associates of Bulger's give testimony about his activities to an investigator. While this is theoretically a sound manner in which to frame the actual narrative (especially considering its shifting around from year to year), it does suck the tension out of some sequences in ways that the dramatic effect can't adequately compensate for (with the exception being one sequence in which Bulger and Flemmi must deal with a potential loose end). Pacing things out by jumping between separate eras doesn't quite work, nor does the attempt to cover so many different yet formative experiences in Bulger's life (such as his son falling prey to severe illness). The structuring of such a narrative tends to be defined by instances of violence or threats of such, whether it's Bulger personally disposing of disagreeable individuals or trying to figure out technically appropriate ways of avoiding conflict. Even moments that serve to humanise Bulger or Connolly are shrugged off in order to continue to the next sequence of visceral retribution or sterile bureaucracy respectively. This inability to frame the course of events in a satisfactory manner extends all the way into the denouement, where the revelations of what happened to all the films' major players lands with a dull thud more so than a sharp bang.
Though it may look like a tour-de-force crime drama set to re-establish Depp's status as a serious actor, Black Mass does fall apart due to its indulgence of far too many of the usual biopic trappings. In attempting to convey many of the smaller details of the story (especially on Connolly's side of the situation), it does veer into genuinely dull territory. The technical execution is straightforward but largely uninteresting, with the odd spot of decent camerawork or semi-solid soundtrack choice doing little to leave a generally favourable impression. The incredibly stolid progression through the narrative is salvaged somewhat by the performances; at the very least, I could suspend my disbelief and see Whitey Bulger stalk the screen with steely-eyed menace instead of Johnny Depp. Unfortunately, the problem with having such a distinctive character in the film is that every other character can't help but look bland in comparison and one must try to figure out whether that's intentional or simply a design flaw. As such, Black Mass is tolerable enough for the most part but it's still surprisingly empty and by-the-numbers underneath its chilly surface.
Scott Cooper, 2015
Based on the true story of James "Whitey" Bulger, a career criminal operating out of South Boston who agrees to co-operate with an FBI agent towards mutually beneficial goals.
Two major factors threatened to doom Black Mass for me before I got around to watching it. The most prominent factor was the fact that Johnny Depp had spent much of the last decade of his career devolving into a parody of himself, whether through his multiple lucrative appearances as Captain Jack Sparrow, his collaborations with fellow walking punchline Tim Burton, or quite simply his choice of roles that emphasised quirk over quality. Prior to Black Mass, the most recent Depp role I'd seen was his extended cameo as an Inspector Clouseau-like detective in Kevin Smith's Tusk. His broadly comical gurning was enough to make me think that, yes, this might just be the worst part of a movie where a man is surgically altered into a constantly-screaming half-human/half-walrus abomination. The other factor was the fact that I'd seen three other true-crime films where Depp played the lead and I honestly disliked all three of them. Undercover-cop tale Donnie Brasco was somewhat tolerable, but Dillinger biopic Public Enemies was a major disappointment and the less said about the drug-dealing drama of Blow, the better. At least Black Mass looked intriguing in its first teaser, which featured a near-unrecognisable Depp turning a casual dinner-table discussion about family recipes into a coldly menacing and suspenseful monologue. Of course, the question remained as to whether or not the rest of the film could live up to this hype...
Black Mass is based on the true story of James "Whitey" Bulger (Depp), a notorious gangster who dominated the South Boston area while preparing to make inroads in different parts of the United States so as to consolidate his criminal empire. His success is due not just to his reputation as an intimidating underworld figure but also to his willingness to co-operate with FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) in providing information that'll allow the FBI to crack down on Bulger's rivals while leaving Bulger himself free to operate within certain constraints (which he naturally ignores). From there, the film becomes a series of problems that either Bulger or Connolly have to solve, whether it's unreliable criminal associates (such as Peter Sarsgaard's drugged-up wild-card) or official threats to Connolly's left-field plan (as represented by various colleagues played by Kevin Bacon, Adam Scott, and Corey Stoll). Meanwhile, Bulger has to contend with various personal issues, whether it's his difficult relationship with the mother (Dakota Johnson) of his son or the problems that his criminal activities pose for his senator brother Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch).
To be fair, Depp does deserve at least some of the accolades he's earned for committing to a somewhat challenging role. A fair bit of the credit has to go to the make-up artists responsible for burying the distinctive-looking Depp under icy blue contact lenses and straw-like hair that is both slicked-back and receding. As other Depp roles can attest, make-up only goes so far and Depp is at least capable of delivering the goods from underneath his uncanny appearance. Even something as simple as watching Bulger do crunches during his downtime is made believable by the combination of competent make-up work and Depp's physical intensity. The rest of the cast assembles a collection of recognisable faces to pull off the story, though their capacity for doing so is pretty relative. As the film's deuteragonist, Edgerton arguably has a more difficult job than Depp as he plays the morally-conflicted straight-man Connolly, who is torn between his dedication to upholding the law and an admittedly immature concept of street-based loyalty that he thinks exists within the world of organised crime. For all his strengths, Edgerton doesn't sell that kind of conflict well from underneath an extremely nasal American accent (nor does Cumberbatch, whose own role is similar in terms of conflicting loyalties between both his office and his black-sheep brother). Being a true-crime movie, you don't get a lot of variations in terms of characterisation, with the actors doing their best to infuse fairly basic characters with any small degree of notability. Actors like Jesse Plemons and Rory Cochrane get somewhat thankless roles as Bulger's associates Kevin Weeks and Steve Flemmi respectively, while Stoll stands out as an incredibly flat character if only because his right-minded attorney isintroduced late in the film with no other characteristics other than his refusal to indulge Connolly's friendly compromise with Bulger.
While there is admittedly so much you can do when it comes to basing a film off a true story, Black Mass does go about it in a rather pedestrian manner. Much of the film is told in retrospect as various associates of Bulger's give testimony about his activities to an investigator. While this is theoretically a sound manner in which to frame the actual narrative (especially considering its shifting around from year to year), it does suck the tension out of some sequences in ways that the dramatic effect can't adequately compensate for (with the exception being one sequence in which Bulger and Flemmi must deal with a potential loose end). Pacing things out by jumping between separate eras doesn't quite work, nor does the attempt to cover so many different yet formative experiences in Bulger's life (such as his son falling prey to severe illness). The structuring of such a narrative tends to be defined by instances of violence or threats of such, whether it's Bulger personally disposing of disagreeable individuals or trying to figure out technically appropriate ways of avoiding conflict. Even moments that serve to humanise Bulger or Connolly are shrugged off in order to continue to the next sequence of visceral retribution or sterile bureaucracy respectively. This inability to frame the course of events in a satisfactory manner extends all the way into the denouement, where the revelations of what happened to all the films' major players lands with a dull thud more so than a sharp bang.
Though it may look like a tour-de-force crime drama set to re-establish Depp's status as a serious actor, Black Mass does fall apart due to its indulgence of far too many of the usual biopic trappings. In attempting to convey many of the smaller details of the story (especially on Connolly's side of the situation), it does veer into genuinely dull territory. The technical execution is straightforward but largely uninteresting, with the odd spot of decent camerawork or semi-solid soundtrack choice doing little to leave a generally favourable impression. The incredibly stolid progression through the narrative is salvaged somewhat by the performances; at the very least, I could suspend my disbelief and see Whitey Bulger stalk the screen with steely-eyed menace instead of Johnny Depp. Unfortunately, the problem with having such a distinctive character in the film is that every other character can't help but look bland in comparison and one must try to figure out whether that's intentional or simply a design flaw. As such, Black Mass is tolerable enough for the most part but it's still surprisingly empty and by-the-numbers underneath its chilly surface.