I hear a lot of gangster flicks have been based off the actions of James “Whitey” Bulger. Heck I heard that Jack Nicholson was trying to imitate him in his incredible role in The Departed. All of this means that while Black Mass certainly tries to escape seeming very familiar in it’s genre it can’t escape feeling like Goodfellas, and the aforementioned The Departed. Those are two of the greatest films of all time. Now ask yourself this “If a movie per say feels like two of the greatest movies of all time then what’s wrong with that? NOTHING. Ok, yes there are scenes in Black Mass that seem very much like scenes in those other films. For example one at a dinner table scene that has Whitey messing around with his compatriots, but Black Mass is doing it’s own thing mainly due to its approach. While most gangster movies really do depend on dense plotting, and intrigue Black Mass kind of goes the other way. It’s a lean picture that is more focussed on actors, and you soon start to see their quirks. There are multiple scenes playing out in oxymoron ish fashion that draws all their suspense from the fact that you the audience has just noticed a slight change in the tone or mood in each of the characters in the scene, and that is terrifying. Most gangster movies would want to hide from you that a person is going to get killed to maybe make it more shocking, but Black Mass doesn’t play chicken. It knows Whitey Bulger was bad, and the effect of when you suddenly feel his mood change right before someone is killed is genuinely frightening. And you have to be good to sell that. You really do. If the actors would have been off then the scenes like these, and the leaner state of the story would’ve taken the entire film down. It almost does in the first 20 minutes or so when you are not used to the the characters yet. However it all becomes pretty damn apparent that the actors are awesome, and Johnny Depp’s first few minutes on screen are pretty memorable. Actually everything that he does is pretty damn memorable. He shoots back and forth from nice guy to psycho in style. He’s Johnny Depp (of course he does), and he’s pretty amazing. And everybody else is too. Joel Edgerton puts on a great performance as Whitey’s friend in the FBI, and Benedict Cumberbatch, though he has a small part, is excellent. Soon these actors, and the story that they are telling becomes something that you can sink into, and I think that’s why I liked Black Mass as much as I did. I sank into it, and lived with these men. It’s this engagement that also allows the audience to somewhat sympathize with Bulger, and his compatriots, if only a little, allowing the ending of the film to play out like a tragic event. This just bolstered any emotions that the film had given us allowing the events of the film to feel epic even while it’s scope is kind of small. Black Mass may seem like it wants to be every other gangster film out there, but it’s got the actors, and crazy nature of itself to differentiate it. This is one heck of a good gangster film, and I was completely satisfied. I give Black Mass a 9 out of 10. Reviewed by Stephen Tronicek
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |