Black Mass

(Dir. Scott Cooper) (2015)

Johnny Depp is good when he is serious (“Dead Man“, “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape”, “Finding Neverland”, “Donnie Brasco”) and terrible when he is being silly (“Mortdecai”).  TVC suspects that he is good in this very serious would-be “Goodfellas“.  But it’s hard to say because the pale contact lenses and the weird comb-over skullcap which have been inflicted on him are too silly to allow the viewer to be sure of anything.  Similarly, Joel Edgerton’s brow keeps disappearing under his off-centre werewolf widow’s peak and Jesse Plemons (a plumped-up Todd from “Breaking Bad”) is hidden underneath a wild-man clown fright wig.  The script, based on books about the real-life James “Whitey” Bulger and his  Winter Hill Gang of Boston, is similarly burdened with  piles of angry tirades and gangster-set-pieces.  Unlike other productions which are good enough to escape the transcendental distraction of bad wigs and make-up, Black Mass leaves the viewer confused and bemused.

[P agrees and adds: what is it with Joel Edgerton?  In The Great Gatsby, he talks like Ron Burgundy and in Black Mass, he looks like Ron Burgundy…]