After a decade or so of playing to the cheap seats with big, broad, increasingly unbearable comic performances in the Jack Sparrow mold, and perhaps more crucially, in films like “Dark Shadows,” “The Lone Ranger” and “Mortdecai” that died with audiences, it seems like Johnny Depp is back.
The actor stars in Scott Cooper’s “Black Mass,” a crime drama in which Depp, under heavy-make up, plays Boston mobster Whitey Bulger, and with the film currently making the festival rounds at Venice, Telluride and TIFF ahead of its release next week, even the more mixed reviews, like our own, suggest that Depp is firmly on the comeback trail, and a good bet for a Best Actor Oscar nod.
The film goes on release next week, and as such, Warner Bros are ramping up their marketing efforts, with eight clips from the film (plus ten minutes of B-roll footage) just landing. The footage showcases Depp’s chilling Bulger, but also the film’s star-studded supporting cast, including Benedict Cumberbatch as his politician brother, and Joel Edgerton, Corey Stoll and Kevin Bacon as the FBI team who are alternately aiding him and trying to bring him down.
Take a look below, re-read our review for the verdict, and you can see “Black Mass” in theaters from next Friday, September 18th.
