Realism and tragedy in Boston scenarios – RTP

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Johnny Depp is back with a remarkable interpretation of gangster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger – “foul play” by Scott Cooper, reflects the classical alliance between . the tradition of the film “noir” and journalistic research

Johnny Depp and Joel Edgerton – revealing a perverse system of power

Trailer / Poster / Synopsis:

Black Mass – Foul Play In Boston, in the 70s, FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) convinces the gangster Irish Jimmy Bulger (Johnny Depp) to collaborate with the FBI, in order to eliminate their common enemy: the Italian mafia. But this unlikely alliance takes unexpected proportions and an unpredictable twist, allows Whitey circumvent the authority to consolidate his power and become one of the …

 Scott Cooper, actor, screenwriter and filmmaker, will not be one of the big names of the current American production. Anyway, his two previous titles as a director – “Crazy Heart” (2009) and “Beyond the Ashes” (2013) – involving an attitude which should be emphasized. In addition to the stories, through them , he is someone who supports decisively the work of actors, valuing them in a very special way – remember that the main role of “Crazy Heart” ( a disenchanted singer “country”) won an Oscar Jeff Bridges.
 
 

Hence worth “fix” a certain brand image that has arisen around “foul play” (original title: “Black Mass”), an intimate and disturbing portrait of James’ Whitey ‘Bulger, gangster that rocked the city of Boston in the years 70/80. In fact, Johnny Depp composition in the figure of Bulger, although reflecting the remarkable ability of transfiguration of the actor, is not an end in itself. In true classic way, this is a film that is built upon the density of a network of characters in which the dominant presence is as important as the remotest secondary figure.

 
 

 Therefore, worth underlining that, in addition to Depp (trying to recover the artistic and financial disaster of “The Eccentric Mortdecai”), “foul play” has an unusual cast that also includes, among others, Joel Edgerton (” The Great Gatsby “), Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Kevin Bacon and Peter Sarsgaard.
 

 
 

To the mixture of realism and tragedy that pervades at all times of “foul play” is not strange, of course, the fact that this is a movie based on a book with important journalistic components (already exists Portuguese edition with seal of Editorial Presence). In fact, Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill of research work is a key base for the intensity of the details (psychological, scenography, symbolic) of the film itself.

 
 

From this perspective, we can also say that mise en scène Cooper asserts itself as the legitimate heir of an entire narrative heritage of Hollywood founded on an alliance between a certain research literature and developing the film noir . Exemplary symbol of that heritage can be “In Cold Blood” (1967), Richard Brooks, based on the homonymous book by Truman Capote – it is, after all, to expose more hidden mechanisms of the most perverse forms of power.

     

John Lopes Critical

published 15:16 – October 9 ’15