Black Mass
Warner Bros. | Release Date: September 18, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
11
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneSep 21, 2015
The movie is often absorbing, and skillfully played, but, along with its snarling hero, it doesn’t have much time for ordinary folk. By the end, like Marianne, we are left gasping for air. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierSep 17, 2015
The movie itself is an intriguing but ultimately unspecial Feds-vs.-hoods drama. But as the sinister, snakelike South Boston criminal Whitey Bulger, Depp delivers. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 4, 2015
Black Mass is ultimately a decent film with some great parts, but unfortunately it falls short of the canon to which it aspires. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 4, 2015
It’s hard to shake the suspicion that Depp is playing a type – almost as if he’s trying to replicate the kind of performance Nicholson might have given in the same role. You long for him to roll his sleeves up and grasp the character’s shape and soul himself, ideally without the aid of those distracting prosthetics. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonDave CalhounSep 4, 2015
It’s Bulger whose grim appearance and even grimmer behaviour ‘Black Mass’ indulges. But it’s the quieter, more complicated Connolly who offers the film’s subtler pleasures. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 18, 2015
Johnny Depp makes a valiant stab at the part, but even with his hair thinned and lightened and his face hardened, Depp remains Depp: I never forgot I was watching a big star doing an impersonation. It’s as if the spirit of a psychopath like Bulger resists the camera. Or maybe the movie isn’t imaginative enough to penetrate his shell. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallSep 17, 2015
By all accounts, Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger was a monster. That's exactly how Johnny Depp plays him in Black Mass, a dark blob of underworld cliches and bad contact lenses. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 17, 2015
Even filmmakers and actors as fine as these haven’t managed to solve one of cinema’s most enduring challenges — making criminals interesting without exalting them. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezSep 17, 2015
Depp isn’t doing anything different here than he did in "Dark Shadows" or "Alice in Wonderland" or the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. Once again, he’s unrecognizable under elaborate makeup and prosthetics, and he speaks with a peculiar voice (this time a thick South Boston accent). Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 17, 2015
Mr. Cooper’s direction is skillful, if overly reliant on borrowed Scorseseisms (especially when it comes to music), and the cast is first-rate, but the film is a muddle of secondhand attitudes and half-baked ideas. It feels more like a costume party than a costume drama. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChristopher GraySep 16, 2015
Like any crime saga without a more potent thematic hook, the film's relentlessly insular script dwells on themes of loyalty and fraternity. Read full review
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