Synopsis
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.
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Cast
- Johnny DeppJames 'Whitey' Bulger
- Joel EdgertonJohn Connolly
- Julianne NicholsonMarianne Connolly
- Dakota JohnsonLindsey Cyr
- Kevin BaconFBI Agent Charles McGuire
- Benedict CumberbatchBilly Bulger
- Peter SarsgaardBrian Halloran
- Juno TempleDeborah Hussey
- Jesse PlemonsKevin Weeks
- David HarbourJohn Morris
Recommendations
- 90
Variety
If Johnny Depp’s mesmerizing performance — a bracing return to form for the star after a series of critical and commercial misfires — is the chief selling point of Black Mass, there is much else to recommend this sober, sprawling, deeply engrossing evocation of Bulger’s South Boston fiefdom and his complex relationship with the FBI agent John Connolly, played with equally impressive skill by Joel Edgerton. - 88
TheWrap
This is Depp’s show all the way, featuring his best dramatic performance since another organized-crime movie, 1997’s “Donnie Brasco.” - 80
The Guardian
Scott Cooper’s Black Mass is a big, brash, horribly watchable gangster picture taken from an extraordinary true story and conceived on familiar generic lines. - 80
Screen Daily
Johnny Depp’s broodingly psychotic turn as convicted Boston crime lord James ‘Whitey’ Bulger is not the only tasty thing about Scott Cooper’s tale of the unholy alliance between a South Boston Irish mobster and the FBI. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Depp's instinct for observing, underlaying and keeping things in, then letting it all out when required, pays big dividends here in a performance far more convincing than his previous big gangster role, John Dillinger in Michael Mann's Public Enemies; it's unexpected, very welcome at this point in his career, and one of his best. - 67
The Playlist
There is nothing underneath the glossy surface and no real insight into what made this man tick — and despite how creepy he looks here, Bulger was a man, not a devil. - 67
IndieWire
As a movie, Black Mass often drowns its dramatic potential in a dreary atmosphere and grisly violence used to dubious effect. Depp, however, operates on another level. - 60
CineVue
Black Mass is ultimately a decent film with some great parts, but unfortunately it falls short of the canon to which it aspires.
