Netflix just added Johnny Depp’s controversial gangster movie with high Rotten Tomatoes score

Johnny Depp fans, rejoice! Netflix recently added the actor’s controversial ganger movie, Black Mass, to its platform, and it’s more than worth giving a watch.

While the streaming service continues to pump out original content like The Deliverance and Rebel Ridge, Netflix has added a bunch of older projects to its catalogue during the month of September.

One of those movies happens to be Black Mass, a biographical crime drama starring Johnny Depp, David Harbour, and Benedict Cumberbatch which chronicled the controversial end of mobster Whitey Bulger’s life of crime.

Although the movie received mixed reviews from both critics and audiences, Black Mass currently sits at the certified fresh score of 73% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Black Mass isn’t a typical biopic as the movie focuses more on Bulger’s adult life as a hardened gangster instead of showing his childhood and journey to adulthood.

Bulger was the leader of the Winter Hill Gang, an Irish Mob group that operated in the neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts.

The movie follows Bulger as he becomes an FBI informant in an attempt to take down the Angiulo Brothers, a gang associated with New England Mafia family and the Winter Hill Gang’s main rivals.

Black Mass deals with a lot of political corruption, violent mafia rivalries, and the reality of being a lifelong criminal, which ultimately split audiences down the middle when it came to reviewing it.

As one critic explained, “It’s frustratingly half-assed, and it should have been able to harness the weird charisma of Whitey Bulger. His story is so odd, grand and compelling. With a subject like that, someone is going to eventually get it right.”

However, on the more positive side, some viewers couldn’t get enough of Depp’s portrayal of Bulger. One fan commented, “Overall, Black Mass is an engaging, nail-biting thriller with [Johnny] Depp’s best performance in years.”

Even though viewers couldn’t come to one agreed upon opinion about Depp’s biopic, Black Mass still managed to rake in some big bucks at the box office, as the film made $99.8 million against a production budget of $53 million.

For more, check out the new movies to watch in September along with our guide to the best movies of 2024 so far.