Set in the late 1970s to 80s, Black Mass explores how a deal between ruthless gangster Whitey Bulger and FBI Agent John Connolly enabled Bulger to expand his criminal empire in South Boston with complete impunity, as Connolly shielded him from investigation, ignoring the rising body count.

As nauseatingly long in screen time as it is, Black Mass is an excellent meditation on what happens when institutional feebleness and red tape lets criminality reign free in exchange for insider information.

This tale of 122 garrulous minutes is saved by two things: the excellent acting of the ensemble supporting cast (Rory Cochrane’s Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi often shines as the group’s ordinary, decent criminal whose scruples show at inopportune times) and Johnny Depp’s characteristic deep immersion into his role as the Boston-drawling gangster–Bulger’s snakelike, mesmerizing eyes that flicker like twin voids of inhumanity are a far cry from his previous weirdo roles, mostly iterations taken from the same toolbox.

Depp’s performance is hypnotic and tantalizing–some of the most powerful scenes here is Whitey performing domestic, familial chores that contrast greatly with his business persona–no doubt, but the fault here lies with the overblown, hideously verbose, sprawling script that has too many people you won’t remember being executed (how were they a threat to Whitey’s gang, again?) from mildly brutal, to grossly violent, and downright sadistic ways.

They could’ve left 30 to 35 minutes on the cutting room floor easy, without exposition in some of the killings. So, watch it for the newest Depp caricature. Watch it if you’re fascinated by gangsters. Watch it if you like your action films with an arty, Le Carre, noir-ish vibe.

Here’s some advice for running your own criminal enterprise, culled from the lessons of Whitey Bulger.

8. GET A 1,000 YARD STARE ASAP

Pro tip: don’t try staring him down.

7. KEEP YOUR BABY MAMAS IN LINE

Another aspect of the gangster “family” is the one you choose, depicted in the relationships between Whitey and his former girlfriend, Lindsey Cyr (Dakota Johnson), and Connolly and his wife, Marianne (Julianne Nicholson).

“Lindsey and Marianne bring an emotional quality to the story that would be missing without them,” director Scott Cooper remarks. “It is only through their eyes that we see this facet of Whitey Bulger and John Connolly, respectively.”

6. IT’S NOT INFORMING IF IT’S WITH YOUR KABABATA

WHITEY: You know what I do to rats, John?
FBI AGENT CONNOLLY: It ain’t rattin’, Jimmy. It’s an alliance.
WHITEY: An alliance? Between me and the FBI.
CONNOLLY: No, no. Between you and me…An alliance like this doesn’t weaken you, Jimmy. It makes you stronger.

5. LET THE FEDS ELIMINATE YOUR COMPETITION

At the time of Agent Connolly’s entrance into the FBI, the Italian Mafia, centered in the North End of Boston, are the real power players. Bulger and his Irish-American Winter Hill Gang are small-time racketeers and loan sharks with maybe the occasional murder, but it’s Gennaro Angiulo and his soldiers who are running organized crime in the city. When Connolly moves back up to Boston, he understands that in order to rise to the top ranks of the FBI’s Boston office, he needs to bring down the Cosa Nostra. And to do that, he needs Whitey Bulger.

4. RESPECT OMERTA, EXCEPT IF YOU’RE THE BOSS

WHITEY: There’s informing and then there’s informing. It’s a business opportunity.
You spill your family’s “secret” recipe today, you’re ratting out your criminal compadres the next.

3. HAVE A BRO IN THE SENATE

As Whitey’s younger brother, Billy Bulger’s game was politics. College-educated, his career trajectory was the polar opposite of his criminal brother’s, taking him all the way to the presidency of the Massachusetts State Senate. “Billy Bulger was a very powerful political figure for many years in the State Senate,” says Benedict Cumberbatch. “He is an extraordinary human being who personifies an old-school, hard-edged, Irish-American political era. He’s a fiercely intelligent and erudite man who’s imbued with a lot of power, but he’s struggling to exist between a rock and a hard place. You see his love for his brother as well as his duties as a civil servant. And then, on the other hand, that brother is Whitey Bulger; so he’s fatefully entwined with quite possibly the most infamous criminal of the 20th century.”

2. MURDERS WILL KEEP THE PEACE

For more than a decade—until his capture in 2011—Boston’s most infamous crime lord, James “Whitey” Bulger, was hunted by the FBI, surpassed only by Osama Bin Laden at the top of the Bureau’s Most Wanted List. But the ironic fact is that Bulger might never have risen to the level of power he achieved were it not for the aid and abetment of the FBI. He ruled South Boston’s Winter Hill Gang like a true gangster, eliminating anyone with even the slightest hint of disloyalty, preferably with a shotgun.

1. BECOME THE EVIL

“{Boston’s] Southie was and is a very close knit neighborhood and they were very loyal to Jimmy,” says Johnny Depp. “Many people grew up kind of idolizing him; many wanted to be him because he did things his own way and, for the most part, he won. But he was also a very charismatic man. He had this draw that made people want to get close to him. They wanted to understand him. They wanted to know him. I found James Bulger to be a fascinating character and was interested in what drove him.”

“Black Mass” is Rated R-16 and is now screening in Metro Manila theaters.

All photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures