Director Ridley Scott disappointed more than just his own fans when Prometheus was released in 2012. As it happened, Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) had been crafting an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s groundbreaking horror novella, At the Mountains of Madness, that apparently bore more than a passing similarity to Prometheus’ tale of humanity’s ancient alien creators and their unknowable, sometimes horrific motives.
On the one hand, there is certainly room in the world for both films, especially when considering del Toro’s still-unbroken hot streak and how limp and incomprehensible Prometheus turned out. On the other, imagine how frustrated we’d all be if del Toro followed through with his film as initially conceived, only to have audiences reject it for being too similar to a movie they didn’t like.
One has to wonder, then, why The Departed—Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning tale inspired by the evolution and exploitation of a deal struck between notorious Boston criminal Whitey Bulger and the FBI—didn’t lead to the scrapping of the not-altogether- bad-but-certainly-redundant Black Mass. Scorsese’s film left a mark on the film world and spearheaded the current boom in Boston movies by depicting not only the scary swagger and frightening charisma of a Bulger-esque figure, but for painting a clear picture of the city’s systemic problems and how this criminal was in fact cut from the same cloth as the so-called good guys. Meanwhile, though Black Mass boasts some impressive, immersive performances and occasionally inspired dialogue, director Scott Cooper’s cinematic detachment makes the proceedings feel like a re-enacted Wikipedia article in comparison.
Told through a series of interrogations once the Winter Hill-FBI alliance goes south and Bulger has fled Boston, Black Mass shines when it remains focused on the allure of a life in organized crime while not shying away from its brutality. Bulger, as depicted by Johnny Depp, is not just a monster, though he certainly is that. He attempts to instill parental wisdom in his child, even if that wisdom is warped and ultimately damaging. His manner is both charming and terrifying; even if he likes you, he might still kill you thanks to his Stalin- esque paranoia.
Bulger’s brother Billy (Benedict Cumberbatch), who is at the beginning of a long, fruitful and trailblazing political career in Massachusetts politics, is approached by a fellow Southie kid-cum-FBI agent John Connolly, who’s out to strike a deal with Whitey’s Irish gang to take down the Italian mob. Though the supporting cast—including Rory Cochrane, Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard and Kevin Bacon—is excellent, at the emotional core of Black Mass is the way in which South Boston was able to produce a psychopath, an honorable public servant and a crooked man of the law, all of whom have the same sense of loyalty.
But that’s only when the movie works. Most of the time, Cooper is content to recycle the same type of scenario over and over again, with no apparent goal for the movie beyond placing the camera in front of actors who have clearly done their homework. Depp’s performance works despite—not because of—the mountains of makeup. Edgerton puts the most energy into his role; Connolly may be a caricature of young Southie men, but spend enough time in Boston and you will come to know at least one person exactly like him. But the episodic structure (including musical swells into fade outs, à la TV dramas) and lack of cohesion make Black Mass a repetitive, forgettable exercise, despite its best qualities.
Playing this week
Captive
Everest
Grandma
Inside Out
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
Mission Impossible:Rogue Nation
The Perfect Guy
Straight Outta Compton
The Visit
A Walk in the Woods
War Room
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
244-3213
