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
We all know the story of Sleeping Beauty, right? Beautiful princess cursed by evil fairy to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and sleep til true love's kiss awakens her. But what about that evil fairy? What's her story? And it could it be that the truth, as we know it, is not the truth at all? This is the premise behind Disney's Maleficent. It tells the untold story of the evil fairy and why she did what she did. Basically, Maleficent does for Sleeping Beauty what Wicked did for The Wizard Of Oz.
Angelina Jolie really sinks her teeth into the central role, and you can tell she's really enjoying herself. The performance is high camp in places, but it's not played for laughs or played broadly or like something you'd find in the local amateur dramatics society annual pantomime. The scene where she gatecrashes the christening is just sublime- Jolie looks fantastic (the costume team have done a brilliant job) and relishes her waspish dialogue. It's a thoroughly committed performance throughout and the most important thing is that you actually sympathise (or empathise) with her- she's driven to do what she does after she's comprehensively shafted by Stefan.
The adult Stefan is played by District 9's Sharlto Copley who gives a decent enough performance, even if his sink into obsession and paranoia occasionally brushes into the melodramatic. Elle Fanning plays the teenage Aurora, a naive, sweet girl who veers to the side of saccharine occasionally but isn't merely a simpering, whimpering child (which is good). There's comic relief in the form of Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville and Juno Temple as the trio of good fairies charged to look after Aurora and keep her away from Maleficent's evil. I also particularly enjoyed the performance by Sam Riley as Maleficent's henchman Diaval, occasionally acting as her conscience and advisor.
So performance-wise, it's all pretty good. The script by Linda Woolverton (inspired by Disney's 1959 version and the original Perrault and Grimm fairytales) is pretty solid. There's exposition a-plenty on how Maleficent becomes seen as evil and nothing feels rushed, despite a relatively short screentime of 97 minutes. The main theme is one of female emancipation and empowerment, which is very refreshing to see. It's just a poor matter of timing that Frozen is still laround (and which contains a very similar theme). I'm not judging Maleficent too strongly on that because, as we have previously seen, twin films come along quite often.
However, there are a few flies in the ointment. Whilst director Robert Stromberg has a good eye for an epic shot, the action sequences are dreadfully shot, with muddy and shaky camerawork which really undermines what's going on. The CGI on some of the faerie creatures leaves a bit to be desired (looking like rejects from Harry Potter). Unfortunately, fantasy has been done many times since The Lord Of The Rings and has been done better. It's perfectly fine but there's nothing particularly innovative in the effects (and, as usual, 3D doesn't add much apart from a bit of depth of field).
I will be honest, I didn't go into Maleficent with the highest of expectation. Disappointing films like Snow White And The Huntsman and Oz: The Great And Powerful have meant I've lowered my expectations for revisionist fantasy tales but I was pleasantly surprised to find Maleficent was better than I expected. It's a thoroughly decent film with a strong central performance by Jolie.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Tez
Iconic director William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) reunites with playwright Tracy Letts- after working together on the film version of Letts' play Bug (2006)- for the film version of Letts' 1993 play Killer Joe.
Drug dealer Chris (Emile Hirsch) needs money to pay a debt. Realising his mother Adele has a large life insurance policy which will pay out to his sister Dottie (Juno Temple), Chris, his father Ansel (Thomas Haden Church) and stepmother Sharla (Gina Gershon) conspire to have Adele killed and collect on the money. Into the frame comes Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a police officer with a sideline in contract killing. He will do the job- for a price. When Chris can't come up with the fee upfront, Joe agrees to a retainer- Dottie...
It's a molasses black comedy-drama which will virtually guarantee you never look at southern fried chicken in quite the same light again.
Performances are strong across the board. Perhaps surprisingly given past form (he didn't get the nickname Mahogany for nothing), Matthew McConaughey gives a (mostly) subtle, reptilian performance as the titular killer, only descending into a raging lunatic at the film's climax in which- to be fair- subtlety flies straight out of the window. Temple is outstanding as Dottie, a seemingly simple-minded girl who may not be as innocent as she first appears. Hirsch is as reliable as ever as Chris whilst Church and Gershon make for an entertaining double-act as a pair of trailer-trash rednecks.
There are a few decent plot twists which keep things interesting as the cast of grotesques cross and double-cross one another on the way to the orgy of violence and bloodshed which marks the film's final twenty minutes. It initially received the dreaded NC-17 rating in America (before surrendering that rating in October 2012 and thus becoming unrated) and an 18 certificate in the UK, and believe me, it's well deserved. There are protracted scenes of bloody violence and a sadistic streak a mile wide. Friedkin has stated "Cutting would not have made it mass appeal... To get an R rating, I would have had to destroy it in order to save it and I wasn't interested in doing that."
Lurid, dark and twisted, this slice of Southern Gothic won't be to everyone's tastes. I enjoyed it for the most part, even if the end does take us into WTF territory. You might need a strong stomach to get through it but there's a few guilty thrills to be had on the way.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Tez
