Anyway, enjoy these rushed reviews!
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Black Mass
Gangster Drama/Biopic, 2015
2 hours, 2 minutes
Written by Jez Butterworth, Mark Mallouk
Directed by Scott Cooper
Rated R for "brutal violence, language throughout, some sexual references and brief drug use"
Starring
Johnny Depp
Joel Edgerton
Rory Cochrane
David Harbour
Benedict Cumberbatch
W. Earl Brown
Dakota Johnson
Jesse Plemons
Peter Sarsgaard
Julianne Nicholson
"You said to me this was a family secret. And you gave it up to me, boom. Just like that."
Johnny Depp is no stranger to prosthetics and makeup. The dude is barely recognizable in most of his movies. However, his performances are almost always outstanding, even when he barely looks human. Or sane. Depp's latest role comes in the form of one of the most notorious gangsters in American history: James "Whitey" Bulger. Unfortunately, the results are mixed.
The film chronicles Bulger's life as a gangster from the mid 70s through the 80s. With his small crew, he runs the Winter Hill Gang in Boston. John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) is an FBI agent who grew up with Bulger as a kid. In a nutshell, Connolly gets Bulger to be an informant for the bureau, which has its consequences. Connolly gets a little too friendly with the Winter Hill Gang, which obviously has its consequences. Consequences everywhere. So Things kind of... happen. It's a biopic, so they're supposed to happen, I guess. That's storytelling in a nutshell. Things happen.
I say "things happen" so nonchalantly because the movie is a little unorganized. All of the above is set up early on and then it just kind of... goes. Bulger and his men kill people and do illegal things, some of which are more shocking than others. I mean, it's pretty much every other gangster movie. Other than Depp's performance, there's no real hook. Some things that happen are more compelling than others. Stylistically, there's nothing that special going on. Depp is given a ton of great set-piece moments. Give the guy more than twenty seconds to say anything and it's both chilling and compelling. That's all I really have to say about his performance. Oh man, I'm saying a ton of things all at once. This review is too unorganized. Fuck it.
Although Black Mass is a subpar gangster film, it's compelling nonetheless. Unlike other gangster films, such as The Godfather: Part II, it's easy to follow. At no point did I say, "wait, what's going on right now?" On top of that, the cast is really outstanding. Like, too outstanding. The movie cost $53 million to make and it's obvious that at least half of that was to pay salaries. Aside from a couple of relative unknowns, larger stars come in to fill the gaps. Adam Scott, known for his hilarious role on Parks and Recreation, shows up as the guy whose entire job is to say "what the fuck are you doing" to Edgerton's FBI character. He has nothing else going on for him. You can look the cast up yourself and be impressed with the amount of stars they have. Even if they're not A-listers like Depp, they are certainly recognizable.
Here's the real issue with the film: Bulger is called the most notorious gangster in history, right? So why the hell don't we see that as much? Yeah, he kills a few people, sells some drugs, does bad shit, whatever. He got away with a bunch of stuff and he's really menacing. But nothing in the film quite suggests that he deserved to be so high on the FBI's most wanted list for so long. Joe Pesci in Goodfellas deserves it. Not so much Whitey Bulger. Much of the film is spent in the FBI offices with Connolly trying to cover his tracks and keep Bulger on the streets without compromising himself. I genuinely wonder who has more screen time...
Black Mass may be a little too run-of-the-mill for a gangster flick, and it certainly does not live up to the hype of its first trailer. But when all is said and done, it's a fun movie that is worth seeing at least once. Depp's performance is absolutely worth the price of admission, but isn't it always? I just don't think I'll remember much about the film years down the line.
Oh, and if the rest of the review didn't sell you on it, Benedict Cumberbatch plays Bulger's brother, so he's got a thick Boston accent instead of his usual terrifying British one.
7/10
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Pawn Sacrifice
Drama/Biopic, 2015
1 hours, 56 minutes
Written by Steven Knight
Directed by Edward Zwick
Rated PG-13 for "brief strong language, some sexual content and historical smoking"
Starring
Tobey Maguire
Liev Schreiber
Michael Stuhlbarg
Peter Sarsgaard
"Bobby won't crack. He will explode."
Ever wanted to see Spider-Man and Sabretooth fight in a superhero movie? Well, this is probably the closest we'll get. Starring Tobey Maguire (Sam Riami's Spider-Man) and Liev Schreiber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Pawn Sacrifice is the story about a crazy guy playing chess with a Russian. Let's get into it, shall we?
Open in Brooklyn, some year in the past. Early Cold War era, is what Wikipedia tells me. Anyway, our hero is a young Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire), a chess prodigy who wants to do literally nothing but play the game. He's too good. He beats everyone... Except the Russians. One, in particular, named Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber) who is literally the greatest chess player in the world. He's proven it. Bobby has some serious issues, paranoia, schizophrenia type stuff. And now he wants to do all of this and play the greatest chess master in the world? Yeah, he's going for it.
The performances are a mixed bag. Well, most of them are actually great. A couple stand out as being so awful, like the kid who plays a teenaged Fischer. He sounds like a kid with a natural Brooklyn accent trying to do a really good Brooklyn accent. Normally, I wouldn't care, but it really did pull me out of the film for a few moments. The scene in particular didn't help much either. He yells at his mother for having sex in the next room with some guy and he wants her to be quiet, so he asks her to get the fuck out of his house. He literally says something along those lines. It's weird, it doesn't fit, and even if it did happen, there are better ways to present the conflict with his mother, even though it only lasts for a few minutes. There are also a few moments of incredibly awkward humor that comes out of left field, and it makes the actors look silly, as though they know what they're saying is weak. But I guess that's bad writing.
Maguire is as good as anyone expects him to be. I am personally not a huge fan of his, but I have to admit he did a pretty good job. But the real star of the show is Schreiber, who barely says a word throughout most of the film. Most of his dialogue, which comes toward the end, is in Russian. He has a powerful presence, from the first moment he is on camera to the final games of chess. Other great performances come from Peter Sarsgaard and Michael Stuhlbarg, both of whom I had no idea were in the movie. So that was a nice surprise.
Overall, Pawn Sacrifice is, like Black Mass, a movie worth seeing even if you won't remember it down the road. It's enjoyable for the most part, but stumbles along the way. The final twenty minutes or so, when he actually faces off against Spassky, is unbelievably cinematic for a chess game. And it all really happened! In real life! So maybe that's worth seeing it, I guess.
7.5/10
