Black Mass (2015)

BLACK MASS  (2015)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Scott Cooper
    Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch,
    Dakota Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard,
    Julianne Nicholson, Rory Cochrane, Corey Stoll
Johnny Depp and Captain Jack Sparrow disappear completely in the cold-eyed stare of James "Whitey" Bulger, a murderous hood who became an FBI informant and then used his government connections to neutralize his criminal competitors, namely Boston's Italian mob. Watching this, you can't help thinking about "The Departed" and "Mystic River". Besides the Boston connection and the casting of Kevin Bacon in two of them, all three movies have a similar brass-knuckles vibe and a similar sense of foreboding and doom. Joel Edgerton plays John Connally, Bulger's enabler at the Bureau, and there's a flickering moment of recognition between Benedict Cumberbatch and Julianne Nicholson at a dinner party that recalls their work together in "August: Osage County". Depp's lethally contained performance is the key through it all. He might be a pussycat losing at gin to his sweet old mother, but when he fixes you with those cold, dead eyes and smiles, you might want to find someplace else to be, real quick.