In the 1970s, James 'Whitey' Bulger was one of the most powerful and dangerous mobsters in America. He controlled almost all organised crime in South Boston and, in an attempt to eliminate competition from the Italian mob, became an informant for an old friend, John Connolly, who was working for the FBI. This forms the central crux of Black Mass, a gritty, brutal crime drama directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Out Of The Furnace) and starring Johnny Depp as Bulger.
Depp has, for a long time, played very broad characters or even caricatures, hidden under tics and quirks. His performance as Bulger is a very different beast altogether. Bulger is a controlling, vicious, violent psychopath, utterly ruthless and not afraid to get his hands dirty. He barely raises his voice above a gravelly rumble but is utterly in control. There's a scene at a dinner table where Bulger goes from convivial to utterly sinister and then back to cheerful bonhomie, to the shock and discomfort of everyone else round the table. It's one of Depp's strongest performances of the last decade.
Joel Edgerton plays FBI agent Connolly, a Southie boy done good. Initially an honest man, his own morals become compromised in his dealings with Bulger. In some ways, it's reminiscent of Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed and Connolly becomes more and more frantic to keep things from falling apart and to keep his boss (a steely Kevin Bacon) from pulling the plug. It's a decent performance by Edgerton, albeit lacking something of the spark that Depp has.
Benedict Cumberbatch pulls off a convincing Boston accent to play Senator William 'Billy' Bulger, Whitey's brother and old friend of Connolly. The senator turns a blind eye to his brother's criminal ways and keeps his two worlds separate. David Harbour and Corey Stoll impress as a corrupt FBI agent and a bulldog US attorney respectively, with Stoll only introduced late in the day as the net starts to close on Bulger.
As you can imagine, this is a vividly macho film with the female characters getting particularly short-changed; Dakota Johnson makes an early appearance as the mother of Bulger's son, but soon gets sidelined, while Julianne Nicholson has a few potent scenes as Connolly's wife Marianne, managing to imbue what could have just been a cardboard cut-out nagging wife with a bit of life. Juno Temple's screen time is pretty short and only seems included to show just how ruthless Bulger could be. This is very much a man's world.
It's an unrelentingly violent film too, with brains being splattered against windshields and unfortunate snitches garrotted left, right and centre. There's no glamour to the gore, it's not beautifully or artistically shot (the same can be said for the whole film actually; it's a gritty, downlow kind of film). It's a fact of the lives that Bulger and his associates lead.
It's a truly engrossing film, which grabs you from the get-go. It's a long film as well (over 2 hours) but doesn't feel like it. A gripping and absorbing crime thriller.
Black Mass is on general release from 25th November.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Tez
Ant-Man is the twelfth movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and brings Phase Two to a close.
If Captain America: The Winter Soldier could be loosely termed a political thriller and Guardians Of The Galaxy a space opera, the best description for Ant-Man would be a heist movie.
Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is released from prison and wants to set his life on the right path, to provide for his daughter Cassie, but finds his past history makes that difficult. On a tip from his friend Luis (Michael Pena), Scott burgles a house and finds a strange suit. The suit has the amazing ability to shrink the wearer to the size of an insect. Scott is then recruited by the suit's creator, Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), to help with an audacious heist that might just help save the world.
It's a very good-natured romp, ably led by a winning performance by Paul Rudd. Scott Lang is a different type of hero. He isn't a scientist or a soldier or a tech millionaire or a god. He's a criminal, a cat burglar, albeit a principled one. He doesn't use violence and is quick to correct people on that point. He's fundamentally a good man who did the wrong thing for the right reason and paid the price for it. There are shades of Chris Pratt's Star-Lord here: Lang is goofy at times, serious at others and is a general winning presence.
Other performances are similarly strong, particularly Evangeline Lilly as Pym's estranged daughter Hope Van Dyne. Lilly gives a great performance as the tough, strong Hope and her scenes with Michael Douglas as father and daughter negotiate the heist and their own personal relationships are some of the best in the film. Douglas is on top form as Pym, playing the mentor role well. He foregoes the usual mentor cliches and there's a nice dry wit to some of his lines.
That's not to say all performances are great. I had some issues with a few of them. Michael Pena is a good comic foil as the motormouth Luis but he's overused in places and the comic notes don't always work. Similarly, whilst Corey Stoll makes for an engaging villain as Darren Cross, he comes across as a bit one-dimensional in places and reverts quite quickly to swivel-eyed loon whereas other Marvel villains have been a bit more subtle.
Peyton Reed's direction is pretty slick. There's some great scenes when Lang is shrunk and those worlds look great, particularly parts of the final showdown between Ant-Man and Yellowjacket. The fight scenes where Lang changes size in between blows are well choreographed and read well on film- there was always the danger that it might look a bit silly.
There was always the risk that, after the release of Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Ant-Man would have just been a bit of a damb squib and a bit inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. That is not the case. Ant-Man is very much linked to the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe, not just in some throwaway lines but in one particular sequence where Lang has to retrieve an item from an old SHIELD facility which is now being used as an Avengers base. The mid-credits and end-credits scenes both hint towards bigger things within the shared Marvel Cinematic Universe as well.
Considering its troubled production history, there was a real chance that Ant-Man could have been a disaster of Catwoman-like proportions. Luckily, the film seems relatively unscathed from the behind-the-scenes drama and is engaging and charming. It might not be up there with Marvel's best; however, it is far from the worst they've ever done.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Tez
