He’s my favorite pirate, the maddest hatter, the most mysterious chocolate factory owner. He is truly a chameleon. Every role I see him play is starkly different, but what they have in common is they are all bizarre, and his latest appearance in Black Mass (directed by Scott Cooper) as a gang member, drug dealer, serial killer  wasn’t any more normal. Johnny Depp has once again fit perfectly into his role and made another movie worth seeing.

I am a sucker for cop movies and murder mysteries; in fact, Dateline is my best friend. Black Mass made any other crime movie I’ve seen look like a joke. It haunted me for days, because the movie was based on the true story of James Bulger, known by fellow gang members as “Whitey,” and his rise to become one of the biggest mobsters Boston has ever witnessed.  

James Bulger, played by Johnny Depp, is a real person with a very haunting and real story including love, murder, drugs, extortion, as well as the less than ethical alliance between the FBI and James Bulger, Irish mob king of the Winter Hill Gang in 1975., the movie is actually based on the book Black Mass, written by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neil, with Benedict Cumberbatch, playing the brother of James Bulger and Kevin Bacon as Charles McGuire, as well as Johnny Depp.

Black Mass is without a doubt the movie to see this fall. However, I warn you now, this movie is not for everyone, and movie is rated R for a reason. There is a copious amount of explicit language as well as drug and sex scenes and references throughout the movie. This, along with graphic murder scenes makes the movie, while amazing made, ethically hard to sit through. Then again, that feeling that made me want to leave the theater is part of what makes it so great. It was extremely powerful.

To conclude: Johnny Depp is amazing in his role and the movie is phenomenally filmed. However, if you cannot handle violence, drugs, and language, this is not the movie for you.