Black Mass comes out on dvd and blu-ray this Tuesday and I had planned to do a review of the movie for today, but just couldn’t figure out how to write it. I tried, but every attempt just didn’t make sense. The movie is based on the true life events surrounding Whitey Bulger, who is considered the most infamous criminal in the history of South Boston. I thought that instead of trying to recap the movie I would instead talk about the reactions I had to a number of actors within the movie, some of whom I had no clue were even in it.

Johnny Depp in his portrayal of Whitey Bulger had his appearance greatly altered and while I knew he was given thinning light colored hair, I hadn’t realized he was also wearing colored contacts. I know this is super minor, but somehow seeing Depp with blue eyes kept freaking me out a little bit. His eyes just didn’t look real, sort of like in sci-fi movies when people get like special bionic eyes. The pupils just looked too small and I kept thinking his eyes were fake. I know it’s just contacts, but still. Depp did a great job in the role. His Boston accent was on point and even though the eyes distracted me he was very convincing in his role as Bulger.

I knew Benedict Cumberbatch was in this movie, but I didn’t know who he was playing. I was surprised to find he was playing Bulger’s brother, the senator. Thinking of them as related was a little weird, the two just don’t look like they would be part of the same family, but I honestly didn’t look up pictures of the senator to compare the real man to Cumberbatch. The British to Boston accent shift isn’t exactly right all the time, but that just seems like a really difficult transition so I’m not faulting him. Sometimes he sounds a little Irish, sometimes his real accent sneaks in, and sometimes I thought he sounded a bit like Jimmy Stewart. He probably sounded nothing like him, but he sometime spoke in a sort of nasal tone that was really slowed down and in my mind I got Stewart. He also held his mouth like he was talking out of the corner of it sometimes, which again for some reason reminded me of Jimmy Stewart.

Now remember how I mentioned that there were actors I didn’t know were in this movie who surprised me? Well the first one to show up was Adam Scott. I mean he shows up in like every indie movie Netflix recommends for me so I’ve gotten used to seeing him everywhere, but I really wasn’t expecting him here, and with a little mustache no less. Scott plays an FBI agent who assists Kevin Bacon’s character in trying to take Bulger out. He has a bit of an accent, but he doesn’t speak a lot. The other actor was Corey Stoll, most notably from Ant-Man and The Strain, as the prosecutor who led the charge to arrest Bulger. He showed up randomly and I honestly just thought what are you doing here?

 

The acting is cool to watch, but I don’t know if I can really rate this movie. I was more interested in what the actors were doing than in the events themselves. If you are a fan of crime, especially organized crime, movies or television shows I think you should give this movie a watch. When you do be sure to watch all the info about the real life people. The screen goes black for a second, but the movie isn’t over, they are just transitioning from what happened to everyone involved with Bulger to Whitey Bulger himself.

Want to share your thoughts on Black Mass? You can comment below or tweet at us, @thenerdygirlexp. You can also tweet at me, @kleffnotes, and find me on my blog, kleffnotes.wordpress.com, and on my kleffnotes YouTube channel. You can also find me on The Nerdy Girl Express Snapchat, thenerdygirlexp.