There’s nothing Johnny Depp loves more than hiding inside a costume. Depp also knows that people are starting to side-eye his usual M.O., so he’d like to remind us that he’s still a damn fine actor. Maybe. In Black Mass, Depp combines his costume compulsion with an Oscar-bait role as crime kingpin Whitey Bulger. Depp, who has never won an Academy Award, could resurrect his fledgling career with a little gold buddy. He’d deliver the mumbliest speech ever, and then his new friend would sit, undisturbed, in a far corner of his scarf closet.
Whitey is a dream role for Depp, who occasionally enjoys switching up his Disney stuff with tales of true crime figures. Plus, this film presents room for accent work, creepy intimidation, and the all-important biopic angle. This trailer delivers more gun-wielding action and steely nods than the horrifying dinner-conversation and child-intimidation trailers we’ve seen so far.
This preview kicks off with a full-face shot of Jesse “Meth Damon” Plemons and quickly spirals into crying Dakota Johnson territory (who may have realized she starred in Fifty Shades of Grey). We see more of the Benedict Cumberbatch character (Whitey’s senator brother, Bill), and the Batch’s Bawston accent isn’t half bad. Depp empties a gun and — horror of horrors — performs creepy, intense stomach crunches. Meanwhile, no one understands why Whitey keeps getting away with murder. Blame the abs of steel.
