REVIEW: “The Outfit” (2022)

March 18, 2022 by Keith Garlington

(CLICK HERE for my full review in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

“The Outfit” brandishes a double-edged title with the most obvious reference being to a suit of clothes. But it’s also a reference to a mob network from the Al Capone era, connecting gangs from around the country. It’s a coveted yet mysterious fraternity that many crime families aspire to be a part of. First time director Graham Moore uses the title’s dual meanings in a number of entertaining ways as his gangster chamber piece moves from slight simmer to a violent boil.

Who better to play a mild-mannered and self-effacing English tailor than the gentle and affable Mark Rylance? His character, Leonard Burling, learned his craft on central London’s famed Savile Row. But after a devastating personal tragedy he came to Gangland Chicago with nothing but his beloved sheers. Now he quietly runs his shop, making suits for gentlemen and unsavory types alike. “If we only allowed angels to be customers soon we’d have no customers at all,” he rationalizes to his receptionist Mable (Zoey Deutch), a dreamer with hopes of leaving Chicago behind and traveling the world.

But outside a neighborhood gang war is steadily intensifying. Throughout the day a number of serious looking men in well-tailored suits and fedoras walk into Leonard’s shop. Without uttering a word they head to the back room, drop small packages into a lockbox mounted on the wall, and are quickly on their way. At the end of the day, Richie Boyle (Dylan O’Brien), the hot-headed son of a local mob boss Roy Boyle (Simon Russell Beale), enters the shop with his right-hand heavy Francis (Johnny Flynn) to collect the packages. Meanwhile the unassuming Leonard goes about his business, never asking questions and keeping his nose clean.

But late one night, the turf war spills into Leonard’s world after a gut-shot Richie and a gun-waving Francis burst into his shop following a run-in with the rival LaFontaine gang. It would be a disservice to reveal much more, but lets just say the rest of the story uncoils over the course of one long night as Leonard tries to outwit all the various underworld players who factor into the film’s mazelike story. Along the way we learn there’s a rat in the Boyle family’s ranks. There’s also a tape containing damning information that could take the Boyles down if it falls into the wrong hands. And what of the Outfit? How do they fit into all of this?

There are several touches Moore brings that can make his film quite attractive. For example, there’s an exquisite early montage showing Leonard crafting a suit from scratch. It’s well edited, well shot, and accompanied by a well-oiled voice-over from Rylance. There’s also the way two-time Oscar winner Alexandre Desplat’s score pulls us into the period during some scenes while effectively ramping up the tension in others.

Yet even with top-notch production design from veteran Gemma Jackson and great interior work from DP Dick Pope, “The Outfit” is far more theatrical than cinematic. In fact, throw in a printed program and an intermission and you would swear you were watching a stage play. That’s not a bad thing especially when the knotty story really kicks into gear. But there are moments when the staginess sticks out and certain limitations become more apparent. Still, a good script can overcome such constraints, and that’s mostly the case here.

But much of the movie’s success rides on the back of the poker-faced Rylance. His character is a man of few words, but the actor and the screenplay (written by Moore and Johnathan McClain) deftly keeps us fixated on everything he says. We learn there’s more to Leonard than meets the eye, but Rylance never tips his hand. I also have to give props to Nikki Amuka-Bird who has a small but riveting role as Violet, the boss of the LaFontaine gang. She has charisma to spare, and I could watch an entire movie dedicated just to her.

“The Outfit” may be a movie with noticeable limitations, but it mostly overcomes them and in many ways utilizes them to the benefit of its story. Wily first-time director Graham Moore weaves a nostalgic and gnarly web with enough twists and turns to keep his audience engaged. And it helps to have a seasoned and steady actor like Rylance who always seems perfectly in tune with the characters he plays. Here he’s a good anchor and is handed a role custom fit for his strengths. “The Outfit” hits theaters today (March 16th).

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

First Glance: “Memory”

March 17, 2022 by Keith Garlington

After last month’s bland and thrill-free “Blacklight”, it’s not a stretch to wonder if the Liam Neeson action thriller era has finally reached its end. But not so fast. The first trailer for his new film “Memory” just dropped and it gives a little hope that the great Irish actor still has a few good movies left in them. Directed by Martin Campbell, “Memory” teams Neeson with Monica Bellucci and the often underappreciated Guy Pearce.

In some ways, “Memory” has a lot of the same flavor as every other Neeson flick. But this one has an interesting twist. This remake of a 2003 Belgian film sees Neeson playing a hitman-for-hire who is suddenly targeted after refusing to carry out a job involving a kid. The catch is Neeson’s aged assassin, though still lethal, is showing signs of early dementia. This adds an intriguing wrinkle and both Pearce and Bellucci have some interesting roles to play. How will it all turn out? I have no idea. But I’m genuinely curious about this one.

“Memory” is set to hit theaters April 29th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

REVIEW: “Deep Water” (2022)

March 16, 2022 by Keith Garlington

At first look you would expect a movie like “Deep Water” to be getting a lot more attention. After all, it’s led by A-lister Ben Affleck and rising star Ana de Armas. It’s an erotic psychological thriller directed by Adrian Lyne, the guy behind 1987’s not-so-great but wildly popular “Fatal Atrraction” and it’s shoddy (but profitable) siblings, 1993’s “Indecent Proposal” and 2002’s “Indecent Proposal”. Surprisingly, this is Lyne’s first film in twenty years.

Originally set for release in November 2020 by 20th Century Studios, the film was hit with several delays during the pandemic before being pulled from Disney’s theatrical release schedule. With little in terms of promotion, the movie debuts this weekend as a Hulu streaming exclusive . After seeing it, you can kinda get why it has been shuffled around so much. At the same time there are some interesting (and admittedly unexpected) strokes that grab your attention.

Vic and Melinda Van Allen (Affleck and de Armas) are an unhappily married couple who have lost whatever spark originally brought them together. Vic made a fortune designing a computer chip for military drones. Now retired, he spends his time riding his mountain bike and raising snails down in the garage (yep….snails). Melinda loves drinking and gratuitously ‘flirting’ at parties with a number of male ‘friends’, often right in front her husband. Vic is rightfully incensed, but he’s no angel. To him Melinda is a possession, and his anger isn’t flowing from a broken heart.

Despite having lots of money, a big social circle, and a lovely young daughter Trixie (Grace Jenkins), Vic and Melinda’s marriage seems doomed from the first moment we first lay eyes on them. It only sours from there. And it’s more than just sleeping in separate rooms or volleying insults at each other. Their relationship is toxic. Vic’s best friends (Lil Rel Howery and Dash Mihok) know that Melinda’s into more that just innocent frolicking, but Vic brushes off their warnings. And as things slowly fester, the couple’s depraved mind-games soon turn deadly.

Based on Patricia Highsmith’s best-selling novel, “Deep Water” (written for the screen by Zach Helm and Sam Levinson) puts us in the company of two truly awful people and leaves us there to observe as their relationship goes south. Truthfully, the movie is more trashy than erotic and more psychopathic than psychological. At times it seems to be perfectly content with being just that. Other times you get the sense that Lyne might be after something else.

Perhaps what’s most surprising is how straightforward the story turns out to be. I was expecting a movie plump with twists, turns and surprises, but there really aren’t many. Melinda is the biggest enigma and reading her is next to impossible. Is she licentious or psychotic? Some of both? The film doesn’t offer much clarity although it leaves you with a vague sense of who she may be. To be honest, the camera often seems more interested in her looks than the script. More emphasis is put into admiring de Armas’ beauty than really giving Melinda some much needed depth.

Affleck gets a little more to work with as the film is focused on and mostly seen from Vic’s perspective. Affleck is both cryptic and thoroughly convincing. And he and de Armas have a striking chemistry (an actual off-screen romance developed during the shooting but has sense ended). Tracy Letts isn’t so lucky. He plays the couple’s friend (I think) Don, who doesn’t trust Vic from the start. He’s a woefully underwritten character with actions and motivations that make no sense whatsoever. He’s even more of a head-scratcher in the bonkers final act where things really get ridiculous.

After reading all that, “Deep Water” probably sounds like a mess, and it kinda is. There is an alluring quality to its trashy story, and I loved the unexpected bites of pitch black humor which caught me off guard every time. But its lack of compelling twists (or really any twists whatsoever) zaps the movie of some needed energy. And while the wonky final 15 minutes tries to compensate, it ends on a head-scratching note – one that doesn’t do the already shaky movie any favors. “Deep Water” premieres this Friday (March 18th) on Hulu.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS

First Glance: ” Sonic the Hedgehog 2″

March 15, 2022 by Keith Garlington

I have to admit, back in 2020 my expectations for a “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie were pretty low. And while Jeff Fowler’s zany action-adventure comedy was far from perfect, I was surprised at how entertaining it managed to be. Fowler returns with the inevitable sequel that brings back the anthropomorphic hedgehog with lightning fast speed. And this time Sonic brings along a few new faces from is long running video game mythology.

The new action-heavy trailer sees Sonic (once again voiced by Ben Schwartz) duking it out with a evil mustachioed Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik (Jim Carrey), a mad scientist with serious world domination ambitions. This time Robotnik has brought some muscle – a red echidna named Knuckles (voiced by none other than Idris Elba). So Sonic teams with an orange fox named Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) to stop the villains and save earth. Meanwhile James Marsden returns as the straight man to Sonic’s nuttiness. I’m not sure what to think about this one. The effects look pretty great, but it also could be a case of overkill. Hopefully not.

“Sonic the Hedgehog” races into theaters April 8th. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.

REVIEW: “Restless” (2022)

March 15, 2022 by Keith Garlington

Régis Blondeau directs Netflix’s new French thriller “Restless”, a remake of a 2014 South Korean film. In it Franck Gastambide plays Thomas, a crooked lieutenant with the local police’s crime division who finds himself neck-deep after an attempted cover up. The movie is a strange one that often feels at odds with itself. One minute it seems to be going for a grittier crime thriller vibe, but then you wonder if it’s really a dark comedy. I’m still not sure.

Gastambide’s Thomas is already trouble the moment we meet him. Word is out that several in the precinct are taking bribes from criminals to look the other way. Now Internal Affairs has opened up an investigation and are on their way for a surprise visit. Thomas’ captain (Serge Hazanavicius) gets wind of it and scrambles to make sure there’s no trail for the investigators to follow. Thomas’ friend and fellow officer Marc (Michaël Abiteboul) and an idealistic rookie Naomi (Tracy Gotoas) also work (although begrudgingly) to get rid of any incriminating evidence around the station.

Meanwhile Thomas is out trying to tie up some shady loose ends. But he also has a personal crisis. His mother has died and his sister Agathe (Jemima West) is waiting for him at the hospital for final arrangements. Thomas also has a little girl named Louise (Victoire Zenner) who stays with Agathe and wonders why her father is never home.

After getting word the IA is on their way, Thomas rushes to the station. But on the way he doesn’t see a man step out of the night and in front of his car. He hits the man killing him. But rather than reporting the death, Thomas throws the body in his trunk, apparently feeling the attention would draw unwanted attention to his list of dirty vices. It leads to a snowball effect of problems as Thomas spends the rest of the movie trying to cover his tracks.

Despite its best efforts, “Restless” never quite hits the marks it seems to be shooting for. Nearly the entire first half of the movie is filled with these borderline wacky moments as Thomas tries to dispose of the body. Some of the scenes are so absurd that you swear the movie is meant to be a straight comedy. Yet they’re not convincing enough for us to say whether the humor is intentional or not. The movie seems to take them seriously, but I was never sure whether I was supposed to.

Then you get to the second half where any hint of humor evaporates, and the movie ratchets down on the grittier crime element. We get a couple of fight scenes and a twist or two, neither of which are as gnarly or interesting as they need to be. The insertion of a shady mystery man (a palpably threatening Simon Abkarian) adds a little suspense, but he comes along a little too late to make much of a difference.

“Restless” bounces around, seemingly unsure of what kind of movie it wants to be. Or maybe it does know, but it can’t quite bring those elements together in a satisfying way. It’s competently made and it’s shot with a good understanding of how to frame a scene. The performances are solid and the cast does what it can with the material. But it’s hard to stay connected with the story which never gets a firm footing and lacks the originality to make it stand out. “Restless” is now streaming on Netflix.

VERDICT – 2 STARS

REVIEW: “Against the Ice” (2022)

March 14, 2022 by Keith Garlington

The new film “Against the Ice” is based on the remarkable true story of Danish explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen and his 1909 polar expedition across the frozen tundra of Northeastern Greenland. This man-versus-nature survival thriller from director Peter Flinth is inspiring but also quite harrowing, putting just as much emphasis on the psychological toll as it does the physical. And while it may lack the overall tension you might expect from a movie like this, the film still does a good job immersing you in its story and setting.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who penned the script alongside Joe Derrick) plays Ejnar Mikkelsen, the captain of a crew long into their search for a missing arctic expedition. During a recent venture into the icy wild, Ejnar discovers a diary containing a map. The map reveals the location of a cairn where Captain Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen of the lost expedition hid his final records of Northeast Greenland. Denmark had hopes of reaching the uncharted territory before the Americans, but the loss of Mylius-Erichsen and his team had them second guessing their investment in Greenland. That made Mikkelsen’s expedition all the more important.

Desperate to reach the cairn and retrieve Mylius-Erichsen’s records, Ejnar asks for a volunteer to accompany him on a second and more arduous sledge journey, this time further across the treacherous ice cap. His tired and homesick crewman know the dangers and aren’t eager to risk their lives, especially so close to their time to sail home. A wide-eyed mechanic named Iver Iverson (Joe Cole) is the only one to step up and soon the two head off on their perilous adventure to the northern edge if Greenland.

A fairly big chunk of the movie follows Ejnar and Iver as they battle nature and the elements with two teams of sled dogs and limited supplies. Cinematographer Torben Forsberg shoots the landscapes as sparse and forbidding. He thrusts the characters and us into a harsh, jagged, and ice cold setting that truly tests the bounds of survival. But then in the second half there’s an interesting transition to the psychological as cabin fever becomes as dangerous as the environment. It’s an unexpected turn but a compelling one.

Yet strangely through it all we only get a couple of scenes of true edge-of-your-seat peril. That doesn’t mean the movie is a slog, but its an odd choice for a survival story in this mold. There’s also painfully little told about the two main characters. Ejnar wears a locket of a woman he left back home, but she’s little more than an vague image. The sketch we get of Iver is even thinner. We’re told even less about him, his background, etc. These things aren’t deal-breakers, but it’s a lot easier to invest in characters when you there’s something personal to latch onto.

Still “Against the Ice” does what it sets out to do, and it tells this incredible story by pulling us into the brutal setting with its characters. Coster-Waldau gives yet another rock-solid performance – grizzled, stoic, and sturdy. Cole is a good compliment and both actors turn it up a notch in the headier second half. And while it make lack the grittier edge that would have made the movie great, cinema is made for stories like this and Flinth’s movie is a good grab for Netflix. “Against the Ice” is now streaming.