Chat with the stars: Julianne Nicholson and Dakota Johnson of “Black Mass”

Now that summer movies are behind us, one of the first big movies of the fall season hits theaters today.

It’s hard to say if I ever truly accepted Depp’s “look”- the balding blond hairline, those oddly unsettling blue contact lenses, the aviator sunglasses. And what you don’t see, spur your imagination. It’s best you’re not involved.

Thankfully, it seems as though the man’s talents were apparently just resting for a little while. Take the money. The film opens as longtime Bulger confidant Kevin Weeks (Jesse Plemons and his presumably prosthetic bulbousness) spills the beans to the authorities.

KENNETH TURAN, BYLINE: Good morning. If you’ve read anything about the production, you know Sienna Miller was completely cut out of the film. Jimmy Bulger, as he liked to be called, was an extremely charismatic person.

Without a compelling perspective or any real insight into Bulger’s sociopathic personality, it’s left to Depp to carry the load. So Johnny Depp‘s charisma really works here.

But this, too, is Depp: Starring roles in one flop (“Mortdecai” this year), after another (“Transcendence” in 2014), after another (playing Tonto in 2013’s “The Lone Ranger“).

Covering the events between 1975 and 1992, Black Mass is essentially about FBI’s arrangement with Bulger that was only used by the latter to further his criminal run. His storied career may have suffered from some critical and commercial flops but the upcoming film is said to be one of his best break out films yet. “I always wanted to try to be a character actor more than the poster boy they tried to make me”.

As Bulger, Depp bears a striking resemblance to James Cagney, the cinema’s most iconic Irish-American gangster.

I recommend watching the 60 Minutes piece on the actual capture of Whitey Bulger, which is barely mentioned in this movie, but is much more entertaining and informative than the whole of this film. These guys go way back. The former foot soldiers turned cooperating witnesses that Cooper uses as a framing device fail to illuminate their boss’ twisted psyche. That’d be the fantastic Joel Edgerton as Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and Bulger co-conspirator John Connolly. The deal Connolly’s made with Bulger is this: Whitey will be an informant in exchange for immunity. And you could help me. Yes, poor Whitey Bulger was just a victim and greedy Hollywood and government officials are the real villains.

MONTAGNE: So worth checking out.

True-life crime stories are very much in fashion this autumn.

We’ve been delivered a dramatic story up to this point, full of power plays, betrayals and long, dark nights of the soul. Nevertheless, other than Depp’s performance, the most remarkable thing is that so many talented people were able to make a fascinating story this tiresome . But it is not a happy film. According to Tulsaworld.com, the scene in the movie was shot at a country club in Concord, Mass.