
Cut from a Different Cloth: The Outfit’s One-Room Thriller
The Outfit (2022)
Directed Graham Moore
Starring Zoey Deutch, Mark Rylance, Dylan O’Brien, and Johnny Flynn
It’s the 1950s, and we’re in Chicago. And you know what? I believed it—despite spending an hour and forty-five minutes stuck in a tailor shop. Much like classic films such as Rope (1948) and Lifeboat (1944), director Graham Moore limits himself to one location. Hitchcock popularized this style, but more recent films like Buried (2010), A24’s sleeper Locke (2013), and Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire (2016) come to mind. As Orson Welles said, “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.” So, with fewer enemies, could Graham Moore deliver a classic—or just another mediocre modern film?
Mark Rylance plays Leonard, who owns the shop. But whatever you do, don’t call him a tailor—he’s a cutter. A cutter with an English accent, in a cast full of characters speaking with Windy City dialects. Young Mable, played by Zoey Deutch, works in the shop, and a couple of unsavory fellas—Dylan O’Brien and Johnny Flynn—come and go as they please. Once this is all established in the first act, the real mystery begins.
The film works well as a period piece—I felt transported to a time when the seedy underbelly of an American city was just behind a random shop door. The cinematography and editing are subtle, never trying too hard to be noticed, which is great because at its core, The Outfit feels like a stage play. The actors’ performances are what truly shine here. All of them excel, but Rylance is the standout. His quiet, calculating expressions speak volumes, even as the drama intensifies with the bravado and shouting from the other male characters. Zoey Deutch’s Mable offers a nice balance to Leonard’s reserved nature. Her zest for life comes through in the opening scenes, and her desire for more excitement slowly gets fulfilled as the film unfolds.
Is The Outfit another one-location classic like Hitchcock’s Lifeboat or Rope, which were basically warm-ups for Rear Window (1954)? No. But it’s as good, if not a little better, than more recent films that attempted this single-setting formula. If Rear Window is an A+, and Buried (2010), Locke (2013), and Free Fire (2016) are B-range, then The Outfit sits comfortably in that company.