YOUR GUIDE TO THIS WEEK'S NEW CINEMA RELEASES

Just three new cinema releases this week…

TOP PICK TO SEE

BLACK MASS is the true story of Whitey Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, who became an FBI informant to take down a Mafia family invading his turf. If you like gangster movies, then this one will be for you. Johnny Depp stars as Bulger and is excellent in the role.  The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy highlights Depp's instinct for observing, underlaying and keeping things in, then letting it all out when required, [which] pays big dividends here in a performance far more convincing than his previous big gangster role, John Dillinger in Michael Mann's Public Enemies; it's unexpected, very welcome at this point in his career, and one of his best. I’ll be posting my review shortly.

MAYBE/MAYBE NOT

Two movies in the maybe/maybe not category this week. First is LEARNING TO DRIVE. As her marriage dissolves, a Manhattan writer takes driving lessons from a Sikh instructor with marriage troubles of his own. In each other's company they find the courage to get back on the road and the strength to take the wheel. It’s a comedy drama romance which The A.V. Club’s Tasha Robinson describes as …harmless sweetness, [with] many revealing speeches about life, and a Kingsley performance that shades strongly into a “Robin Williams as a straight-faced foreigner” routine.

Finally, Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette team up for MISS YOU ALREADY about the friendship between two life-long girlfriends. Their friendship is put to the test when one starts a family and the other falls ill. The critics don’t like this one but general viewers are averaging around three stars. The Playlist says that, Worse than offering no especially fresh angles on its cliched material, [there] are the trite characterizations of the two lead female characters.

That's it for this week. See you at the movies!

*NOTE* Movie summaries are adaptations of movie summary on IMDB. Opinions are mine unless credited. These updates are written from an Australian perspective so openings of the movies in cinemas may vary in other parts of the world.