Starring: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Kevin Bacon, Dakota Johnson, Corey Stoll

Directed by: Scott Cooper

So I decided to hit the mail today to see the Whitey Bulger biopic, “Black Mass” starring Johnny Depp and here is my review.

Plot/Synopsis: John Connolly and James “Whitey” Bulger grew up together on the streets of South Boston. Decades later, in the late 1970s, they would meet again. By then, Connolly was a major figure in the FBI’s Boston office and Whitey had become godfather of the Irish Mob. What happened between them – a dirty deal to trade secrets and take down Boston’s Italian Mafia in the process – would spiral out of control, leading to murders, drug dealing, racketeering indictments, and, ultimately, to Bulger making the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List.

So far, I think this is one of the best films of this year. Another film I was pretty impressed with. This film seemed pretty accurate on the Whitey Bulger story. Honestly, I never knew who Whitey Bulger was until he was caught and finally arrested back in 2011. It was all over the news so I decided to research the guy to learn more about him. Read some stuff about him on the internet and saw a few documentaries on TV. The Whitey Bulger story is interesting and if you compare Johnny Depp to the real Whitey Bulger, you can see the resemblance. They look almost exactly like each other so Johnny Depp is obviously the perfect choice for the role. Johnny killed it with his acting in this role like he always does but I thought this was Johnny’s best role in a long while.

The rest of the casting was great. Everybody else did a great job in their acting too. Remember Corey Stoll from the first season of “House of Cards”? There was another former TV star who had a role in this movie, Jesse Plemons who is famous for his role in the hit TV show, “Friday Night Lights”. Kevin Bacon rules as always.

The movie was fun and entertaining all the way through. I wasn’t bored one bit. The movie can get pretty violent and gritty at times but that’s what makes the movie works. In real life, Whitey Bulger was a man with a violent temper so the movie had to be that way to show who Whitey was. Whitey didn’t kill people at random, though. He only killed people who talked too much about what he does and who he is ’cause he tries his best to keep his crimes off the public and off the media. That’s how he got away with what he did for so long.

The Whitey Bulger story is interesting though and some of you may or may not know that I have a huge interest in mob stories whether they’re fiction or nonfiction. I love mob movies and mob TV shows. It’s just interesting stuff to me. I try to see all the mob movies as much as I can ’cause I love ’em. I’d say “Black Mass” was one of the best mob movies I’ve seen in over a decade. The writing was really good too plus the musical score? O man… the music score is what made the movie work.

Could this movie land Johnny Depp an Oscar nomination? I don’t know… the Oscars have never been that friendly with violent movies over the years but I think Depp deserves a nomination ’cause that was some damn good acting.

“Black Mass” was absolutely amazing. Definitely check this one out!

Score for “Black Mass” = **** 4 stars as in “excellent”

Kev