It’s been a thin few weeks at movie theaters, that dead period between the end of summer blockbuster season and the beginning of fall, when we get the more substantial, meatier fare that typically draws critical acclaim, awards consideration and is generally taken more seriously.
So we’ve basically had a month since the movie summer ended with the releases of Straight Outta Compton and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Did you forget The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was even in theaters? Most did, judging by that movie’s $43 million domestic box office total.) Though fall officially begins on Sept. 23, the fall movie season starts with Black Mass, the Whitey Bulger biopic starring Johnny Depp.
Going into this movie, I had a couple of concerns about Black Mass. (Well, three if you count the title. “Black Mass” sounds like something that needs to be surgically removed. OK, it’s actually a “perversion of the Catholic mass” or a Satanic mass.)
First was Depp’s make-up job. I get that he had to change his appearance drastically to portray Bulger, at least wear a bald wig (with blond hair) if he wasn’t willing to shave his head. But the blue contacts he wore looked freaky in the trailers. His eyes had the same look that people get when they’re possessed by demons or controlled by aliens. He looked like Bill Bixby before turning into The Incredible Hulk. Even if Depp’s eyes are darker than Bulger’s, were the contact lenses really necessary? From the pictures I’ve seen of the real-life mobster, it’s not like his eyes were so piercingly, sparkling blue that it defined his look. He’s not Daniel Craig. (Maybe he is, up close.)
I feared that Depp’s make-up would be as distracting as I thought Steve Carell’s was in Foxcatcher. Again, I understand why Carell had to hide underneath those prosthetics, since he’s largely known for comedic roles. But his performance sometimes felt like it was obscured by the fake nose he wore to play John du Pont. Would the same apply to Depp and those blue contacts? Would they (along with the rest of the make-up job) be so distracting that it would be nearly impossible to accept Depp playing a character, one who’s a real-life figure?
My second concern was director Scott Cooper. I could be wrong, but he seems to be rather acclaimed as a filmmaker by critics and writers. It’s not that Cooper doesn’t deserve to be viewed that way. With Crazy Heart and Out of the Furnace, he’s off to a promising start in his career. But I do wonder if he’s a tad overrated to this point.
I enjoyed Crazy Heart, but it does not hold up to repeated viewings, the thin story and confounding character decisions more glaring each time. Jeff Bridges and the music (Ryan Bingham!) lifted that film significantly. (Additional credit to a good cameo appearance by Colin Farrell.) Out of the Furnace was surprisingly flat, nearly boring, despite a great cast (Christian Bale, Zoe Saldana, Casey Affleck and Woody Harrelson) and a revenge-driven story that should have been compelling, but felt droning. It wanted to be important and resonant, but was ultimately forgettable. (What I remember most is how many time characters scrape off their empty plates into the trash. Seriously, watch the film and count.)
Cooper seems to have gotten it right on his third try with Black Mass. Some might knock it for not being as grandiose as a Martin Scorsese film. This isn’t Goodfellas or The Departed (which is probably a suitable comparison, since Jack Nicholson’s Frank Costello was supposedly inspired by Bulger). I don’t think Cooper is going for that kind of movie anyway. This felt grittier, more like something William Friedkin or Don Siegel might have made in the 1970s.
Though the material is unquestionably grim and obviously meant to be taken seriously, Black Mass does have some dark comedy elements that were appreciated and maybe helped make the movie a bit more digestible. One scene (shown in an early trailer, so perhaps you’ve seen it) has Bulger telling his six-year-old son that it’s all right that he punched a kid in the face, and that the real problem wasn’t acting violently, but getting caught doing it. It’s a funny scene, if for no other reason than Depp is so charming in what makes for a tender moment in the life of Whitey Bulger.
As I was watching, I wondered if Black Mass could have used a bit more of this. Naturally, that would have made it an entirely different movie, and portraying Bulger’s many crimes and murders as comedic or screwball would have been offensive. But I do think Cooper found the right tone in how Bulger’s fearsomeness and temper put everyone on edge around him. You never knew what would set him off, and the consequences could be grisly, merciless and fatal. In that regard, Bulger is almost like a character in a horror film. When he comes, bad things are soon to follow and those around him just have to hope they emerge unscathed (and still alive).
Of course, this movie comes down to Depp. One of Hollywood’s most interesting actors through the 1990s and early 2000s, taking quirky roles that surely went against studios’ desire to take his looks and make him a Movie Star, he’s become a cartoon character on screen over the past 10 years. It’s not just cashing the paychecks that come every time he plays Captain Jack Sparrow in another Pirates of the Caribbean movie, it’s the bad choices he kept making. Tonto in The Lone Ranger has to be near the top of a list that includes the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, Barnabas Collins in Dark Shadows and Mortdecai. (To be fair, I haven’t seen Mortdecai and want to believe it can’t possibly be as bad as critics and bloggers have made it out to be.)
But Depp is legitimately great in Black Mass. He’s not just letting the make-up do the performance for him. (And perhaps the blue contacts were altered digitally, because they’re not as bright as in the trailers.) Bulger is a complex contradiction of a man, capable of kindness to those in his Southie neighborhood and callous savagery. He lives his life and runs his business by a strict code of ethics and rules, yet brazenly breaks the law without giving it a second thought. He’s cold and calculating, yet can also turn into a terrifying rage monster if events conspire against him. And Depp plays all of that seamlessly, toggling smoothly among Bulger’s various personality traits. As mentioned above, he’s utterly charming and composed, but can turn vicious and unhinged on a whim.
You’re going to read this plenty elsewhere, but I’m going to write it anyway: This is Depp’s best performance in years, and if he doesn’t get any award nomination love, then 2015 is one hell of a year for acting performances. If you wrote him off as an actor and figured he’s just settled for playing goofballs for the rest of his career, Black Mass reminds you that he’s capable of so much more.
Actually, the entire cast does a great job here. Though it’s not the headline or showy performance, the best work done in the movie might be from Joel Edgerton, who portrays John Connolly, the FBI agent who forms his shady alliance with Bulger to further his career and enjoy the kickbacks in the process. Edgerton goes from eager and ambitious to cocky and entitled. But as the walls begin closing in once Connolly’s bosses figure out that he’s not being truthful and Bulger has exploited his relationship with the FBI, he becomes desperate and fearful, a guy who thinks he’s in control, but has never been in control.
As the first “serious” movie of the fall and Oscar-bait season, Black Mass sets the bar pretty high. It’s as good as you might have hoped when viewing the trailers and commercials, and looking for something with a little more nutritional value than the empty calories summer movies provide. Depp doesn’t let us down, and Cooper shows that he’s a director worth the praise thrown his way during the past six or seven years.
