Black Mass

"Keep your enemies close."

2015 2h 3m EN

👍

6.5

SOLID

🍅

74%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

6.8

IMDB

★6.5TMDB · 3,699🍅74%Rotten Tomatoes●68Metacritic★6.8IMDB · 200,554

DramaCrimeHistory

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

The true story of Whitey Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, who became an FBI informant to take down a Mafia family invading his turf.

“Keep your enemies close.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Johnny Depp
James 'Whitey' Bulger
Joel Edgerton
John Connolly
Julianne Nicholson
Marianne Connolly
Dakota Johnson
Lindsey Cyr
Kevin Bacon
FBI Agent Charles McGuire
Benedict Cumberbatch
Billy Bulger
Peter Sarsgaard
Brian Halloran
Juno Temple
Deborah Hussey

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Scott Cooper
Writers: Jez Butterworth, Mark Mallouk
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $53M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 11 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

231+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Scott Cooper, shot by Masanobu Takayanagi. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Tom Holkenborg. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor David Rosenbloom shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Johnny Depp and Joel Edgerton and Julianne Nicholson carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Scott Cooper directs. Masanobu Takayanagi behind the camera. Tom Holkenborg scores. David Rosenbloom cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Mid-budget at $53M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
2Released 11 years ago.
3International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
4231+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Scott Cooper, shot by Masanobu Takayanagi. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Tom Holkenborg. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor David Rosenbloom shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Johnny Depp and Joel Edgerton and Julianne Nicholson carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Keep your enemies close.".
10IMDB entry: tt1355683 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 17 themes, including "prostitute", "corruption", "boston, massachusetts", "gangster".
12Released under 10 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Masanobu Takayanagi
Original score: Tom Holkenborg
Editing: David Rosenbloom
Production design: Stefania Cella
Costume design: Kasia Walicka Maimone
Makeup / hair: Gloria Pasqua Casny
VFX supervisor: Paul Linden
Sound: Chris Jenkins
Stunt coordinator: Chuck Jeffreys
Runtime: 123 min · 2h 3m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $53,000,000
Box office: $99,975,678
Return: 189% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Black Mass (2015)
Rotten Tomatoes: 74% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 68/100
IMDB rating: 6.8/10 · 200,554 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

6 wins & 24 nominations total

Also by

Scott Cooper

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2019-09-14
★ 6/10
Bulger's playing us, making a fool of the Bureau. We're in too deep, and he knows it! God help us all. Black Mass is the story of Whitey Bulger (Johnny Depp), who was the brother of a state senator and the infamous violent leader of South Boston's Winter Hill Gang. It charts his criminal activities and his subsequent dealings with the FBI. Directed by Scott Cooper, Black Mass is one of those instances where a great lead performance deserves a better over all film. Depp literally inhabits the role of Bulger in a fully formed perf that reminds us of what a fine actor he can be. Unfortunately the edgy material to hand never really ignites in filmic form. Maybe we were spoilt by the offerings of Coppola and Scorsese previously? For this comes off as a cheap imitation of far greater films, with the crafters of the pic giving us something of a caricature piece. Although compelling as a lead character study, much of the narrative is rendered as playing it safe, putting emotive heart where it doesn't belong. Most of the support characters, and key to the story, are under developed, while the pace is decidedly attention sapping and not adroitly understated. Nevertheless, we do get good acting perfs to support Depp, notably Joel Edgerton as corrupt FBI agent John Connolly, while Masanobu Takayanagi's (Hostiles) cinematography is delicate of moody hues. There's a fascinating story trying to get out of this, but the 15 year wait to get it to screen hasn't been worth it. There's some truly electric scenes, but they are few and far between, which gives us ultimately just a compact and safe piece of gangster film making. 5/10
JPV8522024-08-18
★ 7/10
Second time watching this and honestly outside a couple of scenes, I barely remembered anything. Thought the acting was fine, as was the direction but considering the cast that included Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon and others, thought what an epic crime-thriller could've been instead was a solid enough film but not much more than that. Also, the make-up job done on Depp was distracting more than anything. 3.5/5
Hadam10Rose2025-03-09
Not as bad as Depps other true life stories, but nothing great that you'll want to explore more then once. If you're watching for Cumberbatch, he's barely in it. I get they were using him in the marketing and on talk shows. But the clips shown on chat shows and shots in trailers are every scene he's in. Once again the US government and the people who work for it are corrupt. Big surprise.