‎Black Mass (2015) directed by Scott Cooper • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Black Mass

2015 Directed by Scott Cooper

Keep your enemies close.

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.

Johnny Depp Joel Edgerton Benedict Cumberbatch Dakota Johnson Kevin Bacon Peter Sarsgaard Jesse Plemons David Harbour Adam Scott Corey Stoll Julianne Nicholson W. Earl Brown Bill Camp Juno Temple Mark Mahoney Brad Carter Scott G. Anderson Lonnie Farmer Mary Klug Erica McDermott Luke Ryan Owen Burke Lewis D. Wheeler Billy Meleady Jamie Donnelly David De Beck Gary Galone Rory Cochrane James Russo Show All…

Alternative Titles

Pacto Criminal, Black Mass - Das Syndikat, 极黑势力, Pacto criminal

crime drama

122 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by matt lynch ★★½ 4

Scott Cooper is evidently very good at letting famous actors do whatever they want in classy but largely generic films. Here Johnny Depp gives yet another idiosyncratic, physical performance as a charismatic psycho, and who the fuck cares?
Review by SilentDawn ★★½ 8

45/100
Black Mass, even in spite of its flourishing mediocrity and uneventful storyline, is worth seeing just to witness Johnny Depp transform himself into a dizzying vampire of vicious brutality and horrifying EEEEEVILLLNESSSSSS. His cackling persona of devious stares and violent outbursts can only be described as Joe Pesci with all the humor sucked out of his detailed mannerisms. It works in a strangely unique way, and Depp's demonic presence is the glue holding this entire kindergarten Gangster project together.
Montages, slow-motion, assorted pop tunes, and operatic showcases of violence all are within Black Mass, as well as the sly Boston-Accent bickering and "FUCK YOU!" "NO, FUCK YOUUUU!" arguments of typical Gangster ventures. Usually, tropes like this weave perfectly into…
Review by ghostdinosaur ½ 9

Early on in the film a bunch of gangsters are hanging out in a car and one of them starts to tell a story about how he heard porn stars in Los Angeles eat a bunch of celery right before they perform. He gets interrupted and never explains why they do this. I was more interested in hearing the end of that story than anything that happened over the next 100 minutes of movie.
Review by Gonzo ★★★★ 5

▶ 2015 Movie Rankings
"Strictly criminal."
Welcome back, Mr. Depp.
We missed ya. We fucking missed ya.
Johnny Depp comes out of retirement and shoots straight to the front of the Oscar race with one of his most impressive performances yet.
That Whitey Bulger is one interesting individual. A complex criminal that's both charismatic ("Oh, look, he likes helping the elderly." "Aw, he loves his kid and his family.") and downright terrifying. ("Oh no, he's giving that dude the talk. Bang. Dead." "Fuck, he's doing it again. Headshot. Dead." "Oh shit, he... Yup, he just strangled that girl. Dead.") A no-good, scheming, distrustful, trigger-happy, psychopathic son of a bitch.
Ensemble cast is pretty strong across the board. Out of the…
Review by Evan ★★★½ 7

Johnny Depp might still be covered in make-up for this role, but at least he's not running around like a babbling idiot. Instead he plays a very dark, heartless, and brutal man and he knocks it out of the park. Black Mass is filled with fantastic performances, Johnny Depp and Joel Edgerton being the standouts.
My biggest issue with this film is that it's a bit hollow and slow moving. While, I was always interested in what was going on, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't bored some of the time.
Review by Branson Reese

Went into this just going off the poster. Thought it would be a Hunter S. Thompson thing. What are you gonna do?

Recent reviews

Review by Branson Reese

Went into this just going off the poster. Thought it would be a Hunter S. Thompson thing. What are you gonna do?
Review by Katyfromhere ★★½

Johnny Depp is great in this movie, but else it's kind of long and boring after a while.. even with all the amazing actors. It's just an okay movie. Okay¿
I'm tooo tired..so maybe that's why
Review by Blepyrus ★★½

Johnny Depp is great
Review by corentinchrst ★★½

le film récent transcrit un certain charme des années 70.
Le fait que ce soit une histoire réel rajoute un peu de crédit et de sincérité.
Depp livre une bonne prestation pour ce rôle à la fois mystérieux et terrifiant. Véritable psychopathe paranoïaque, Bulger est intéressant dans son développement.
La narration est centrée sur ce lien entre la mafia et la police de Boston, et on se détache un peu de ce qu'on peut voir habituellement dans un film de mafia, c'est la une force. La réalisation est soignée, et la photographie également.
Cependant le segment de la mafia est compliquée à appréhender, difficile donc pour ce film de se faire une place qui n'arbore aucune originalité nette...
Review by G.S. Pallas

Blahck Mass
Black Mass is a technically solid historical movie almost every which way you look at it, well acted, directed, paced, and written for the most part. The problem is that it feels so much like a movie, from the very first shot we get of Johnny Depp made up to look like Whitey Bulger, which for me at least elicited undesired thoughts of, “That’s the guy from the trailer! Something’s going down, is he gonna die – no, it’s a medium shot…” And that’s exactly what happened. Jimmy Bulger, obviously enough from legend, isn’t a very nice guy, and he remains that way through the whole movie, so whenever he loses his cool and shoots one of his…
Review by Mikha-eel Fester ★½

A slim caricature of a gangster flick that is fragmented, poorly written and well-acted. Even Johnny Depp manages to deliver a pretty solid performance, managing to the suspend the disbelief of himself playing an over-the-top character just long enough for you to actually believe in the character himself. Unfortunately, Johnny's effort is wasted on this mess of a movie.
Review by Andrew Moore ★★★

London Film Festival, Odeon Leicester Square
Review by Cham ★★★½

Definitely worth watching if you’re interested in real life monsters like Whitey Bulger, but it does kind of go through the usual motions of these types of films. Johnny Depp is what really makes this entertainment, maybe the last great performance we’ve gotten from him. One of his best.
Review by Robert ★★★½

The main reason why I absolutely like it its the chemistry and efficiency of the actors, such a tremendous work they all do together, besides that I don't found nothing extraordinary about his one.