“Black Mass” tells the true story of Whitey Bulger, the unsafe South Boston mob boss responsible for the deaths of at least 19 people. Unintentionally, perhaps, Depp appears to be channeling Ray Liotta, and his tics and mannerisms feel more derivative than original and complex.
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For an actor who has always delighted in head-to-toe transformation, playing the part of the rebounding superstar is not one that appeals. The couple had been sentenced to a year in prison because their marriage was deemed a violation of the anti-miscegenation statute in Virginia, which was eventually invalidated by the United States Supreme Court. In a joint interview with Cooper, the director of “Crazy Heart” and “Out of the Furnace“, the two discussed the challenges of portraying a folk-hero criminal who has, as Cooper said, “left a real emotional scar on the city of Boston”.
The only performer I couldn’t wholly buy is Depp. “Good on him”.
And as violent as he was, Bulger wasn’t a one-dimensional villain, the actor adds. Surrounded by a cadre of distinguished character actors (including Kevin Bacon, Benedict Cumberbatch, and a jittery-even-for-him Peter Sarsgaard), all relishing the chance to pahk their cahs in the Bahston yahd, this Gruesome Twosome is magnetic, even when their story only goes through the motions. I just don’t believe that exists.
Depp calls the first time he emerged from make-up during the Boston shoot and walked to set as “a frozen moment”.
The 52-year-old actor said Bulger – a member of the Boston mob known as the Winter Hill Gang – declined to meet him in person. Individuals have their humankind, all that they’ve conveyed with them since they were youngsters.
Jack Nicholson’s beantown psycho from Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” is a man of savage, insatiable tastes who’s as likely to push a prostitute face first into a mountain of coke as he is to wave around a severed hand just to make a point. Plus, while Carney couldn’t tell him everything about his client, he was helpful in finding snippets of character, Depp says. On Tuesday, Depp touched base in Brookline, Massachusetts, for private screening of the film.
Stylistically, there isn’t much to distinguish “Black Mass” from any of a hundred other mobster movies, particularly Martin Scorsese’s genre-defining “GoodFellas” (1990), but the film packs a punch.
Though Depp would have wanted to play Bulger 10 years ago, he says he wouldn’t have been ready.
“We’re grateful for this opportunity to once again shine a light on how the film and TV industry supports jobs and economic growth, especially as audiences prepare to see what promises to be a thrilling and entertaining movie”. “But only these men know the truth”. Still, Depp paints an exceptionally scary portrait of a serial killer, a walking moral abyss wearing a gold chain and a cheap jacket.
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“The Mad Hatter is the Mad Hatter”.
