Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
The true story of Whitey Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, who became an FBI informant to take down a Mafia family invading his turf.
Black Mass is anchored by Johnny Depp's genuinely transformative and menacing performance as Whitey Bulger, which elevates the film considerably. The supporting cast (Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch) is also strong. However, the plot follows a fairly familiar rise-and-fall gangster biopic template without much structural innovation, and the film struggles to fully explore the moral complexity of the FBI-informant relationship it promises. Cinematography is competent and atmospheric but not particularly distinctive. Novelty is limited — this is well-trodden crime biopic territory. The ending feels rushed and anticlimactic, failing to deliver a satisfying dramatic payoff to Bulger's decades-long story.