Anna Bowman is a senior English and telecommunications major and writes 'Film Annalysis' for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. Write to Anna at aabowman@bsu.edu.
We’ve all been thinking it: “When is Johnny Depp going to make a good movie again?” Well, for those of you who have put your eggs in the "Black Mass" basket, prepare for your dreams to be shattered.
While the film is perfectly fine, it lacks the groundbreaking and sometimes controversial pizzazz that we’ve all come to expect from the great Mr. Depp.
"Black Mass" tells the true story of Jimmy “Whitey” Bulger, an infamous Boston crime boss in the 1970s through the 1990s, focusing on the many alliances he made in his years of lawlessness. Because the film is less about the plot and more about the man, it puts a lot of pressure on Depp to be convincing. Unfortunately, there comes a point when casting big names is not always the right choice, especially in the case of this film.
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The main problem with "Black Mass" is its utterly manufactured feel. For one thing, you can put ten tons of prosthetics on Johnny Depp and it won’t change a thing. He’s still Johnny Depp, and we all know it. The biggest mistake this film made was the casting. It can be seen that Depp was cast for bringing fame to the film, not for fitting the part. I’m not saying Depp didn’t give a brilliant performance – he always does – but he kept me detached from the movie because I couldn’t stop trying to figure out what they did to his face to make him look like that.
Furthermore, it doesn’t matter how seamless his portrayal was, with Benedict Cumberbatch playing Jimmy's brother Billy Bulger. A Benedict Cumberbatch by any other accent is still a Benedict Cumberbatch. When you think you can have such an innate British person play such a complete Bostonian, you’re doing something wrong. Even the writers couldn’t resist alluding to Cumberbatch’s British persona by throwing in a Sherlock reference. Let me know if you find this Easter egg. Also, who’s going to believe Benedict Cumberbatch is related to Johnny Depp? No one.
To get away from the cast for a moment, there are some redeeming qualities to be found in the movie, starting with the cinematography. Most gangster films opt for a simplistic, run-of-the-mill film style, because, after all, it’s about the story, not the aesthetic. However, "Black Mass" works around this Hollywood rule and through the establishing shots presents an unusual amount of creativity in both framing and color.
Another saving grace in the film is its careful balance between criminal and human behavior. It’s easy to portray Bulger as a monster, but it’s far more interesting to see his soft side. Details like Bulger’s card shark of a mother and the parental advice he gives to his son are what save this movie from being completely forgettable.
The term “black mass” refers to the blasphemous worship of Satan – but I think we can all agree that the movie Black Mass refers to the blasphemous worship of Johnny Depp.
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