Color me shocked, but Depp is really working for me here. That’s a rarity these days.

Depp is acting his ass off here, but he’s doing it really well. The makeup and prosthetics they’ve got on him are really beautiful, and they’ve blued his eyes with contacts and/or CGI. Contacts tend to look really bright and flat, so I’d say the eyes look more like CGI to me. However they did it, the effect is tremendous and chilling.

Black Mass tells the story of Whitey Bulger, the Boston crime lord who inspired Nicholson’s character in The Departed. The film is directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace) and also stars Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, Jesse Plemons, Peter Sarsgaard, Dakota Johnson, and Corey Stoll. See it in US cinemas on September 18.