Black Mass

This review may contain spoilers!

The American version of Legend, right down to the terrible plot and style. I would give Black Mass a 4/10.

I think the plot for this film is intriguing, there's some really dark presentation of the criminal world here as well as the corrupt element of law enforcement. I think the best part of the film is the score and soundtrack; it's all extremely gritty and dark; setting the tone perfectly for some of the major scenes of the film.

Johnny Depp, who played James 'Whitey' Bulger, is a complete maniac in this film and I love it; his performance is wild and unpredictable to the extent that you don't know whether he's about to be violent or humourous. Joel Edgerton, who played John Connolly, shows off how you do character development in his performance; he begins the film as a rising star with a lot of power and is reduced to Bulger's flunky who is completely subservient by the end of the film. Benedict Cumberbatch, who played Billy Bulger, is incredibly charismatic in this film; he has a lot of chemistry with the rest of the cast because that is what his senatorial role demands of him. Kevin Bacon, who played Charles McGuire, is such a good figure of authority in this film; he plays really well against Edgerton and you can see his alliances constantly shift and change through Bacon's performance. David Harbour, who played John Morris, is by far one of the stand out performances within this film; I like how he plays against others and how his moment of morality comes about.

However the best performance came from Corey Stoll, who played Fred Wyshak. Stoll is in this film for little more than twenty minutes but he immediately stands apart as one of the best performances due to his presence alone. Stoll embodies this straight by the books law enforcement agent with no time for anything but the job completely. He almost has no chemistry with anyone intentionally because you see him throw walls up against other actors. His extreme ability to go from calm to confronting makes for some of the best scenes of the film.

This film could have had a lot to say but it chooses to ignore this opportunity for scenes that just elaborate upon the character of Bulger and Connolly; while this is an interesting aspect what should be far more interesting is the theme of corruption and the political implications of the film. The pacing for this film is slow, you are presented scene after scene of Bulger's crimes with some of these scenes not doing a thing to advance the story. The cinematography is incredibly simple; there's not a lot special in how the camera is utilised. The editing is another weak factor, there's no cutting to create a better sense of pacing or action it's all just quite basic.

Dakota Johnson, who played Lindsey Cyr, gives a performance that is all over the show; she smiles when she's actively trying to go against Bulger so that when she has her final scene you feel like her character isn't very clear. Jesse Plemons, who played Kevin Weeks, was important for the first ten minutes; after that Plemons was shunted to the background and had next to no screen presence. Rory Cochrane, who played Steve Flemmi, lived in Depp's shadow for most of the film and never really stood out in a scene; you started to feel like Depp's role was the only active criminal of the film. Adam Scott, who played FBI Agent Robert Fitzpatrick, had very little reason to be in this film as he had very little to do in this film; whenever he had a major scene his performance was absolutely dwarfed by others. Julianne Nicholson, who played Marianne Connolly, gave a very stoic weak performance; she didn't display very much in terms of an emotional response to the scenes she was in. Lonnie Farmer, who played DEA Agent Eric Olsen, embodied my least favourite aspect of the film which was the interrogation/narration aspect that was integrated into the film; it was a really weak way to cram in as much exposition as possible without letting the scenes speak for themselves.