5 ideas about a movie: Black Mass

Hello!

Welcome to another short format movie review. I’m sorry that it took me such a long time to finally review this film, but better late than never (that’s literally my motto in life). Without further ado, let’s talk about Black Mass.

1. Black Mass is a story about Whitey Bulger – a crime boss in 1970s Boston, who was only arrested in 2011. Weirdly, this wasn’t the first film about a criminal(s) that I have watched this year. The other one was Legend and, sadly (or badly, for this movie at least), I did prefer the 1960s story of the London underworld to its US counterpart in a the following decade. While Black Mass was an interesting story and had amazing acting, it wasn’t as exciting and as complex as the story of the film Legend. While that film managed to turn criminals into characters that you could potentially sympathize with, Black Mass‘s characters were straight up villains with zero redeeming qualities.
2. When talking about Black Mass, you cannot not talk about Johnny Depp. He single-handedly was the star of the film and carried the whole plot forwards. I am so happy that Depp is back on track because he has played to many stereotypical characters in the past few years. Although, he is the one who created that stereotype for himself. Anyway, I was happy to see him doing something different. However, I was probably the only one, since he didn’t receive any nominations from SAG Awards and Golden Globes. At least he has lots of movies coming up – both originals and sequels (so he won’t fully forget that stereotype just yet).
3. The film had a great supporting cast as well. I especially liked the performance of the Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jesse Plemons and Dakota Johnson. 
4. The film’s plot was a bit hard to follow at times and the time jumps could have been done more neatly. I would call this type of a plot a plateau – it didn’t build up to anything but it also didn’t deteriorate. It was always on the same note. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the dialogue of the film – it was smart, witty and definitely worth listening attentively. The film was directed by Scott Cooper, with a screenplay by Jez Butterworth (who has worked on Spectre and Edge of Tomorrow) and Mark Mallouk.
5. Lastly, since this film was telling a true story, let’s briefly touch upon the real life events. To my mind, some of the criminals received way too short prison sentences. They all should have been imprisoned for life, despite the fact that they gave up useful info. But then again, the FBI had to be seen as the most humane part of the equation, since it has helped Bulger to rise to power. The credits, which showed real footage, were a nice way to end the film and tied everything together.

Rate: 3.75/5

Trailer: Black Mass trailer