The Outfit Movie Review: A Taunt, Self Contained Thriller

Despite seeing the trailers a few times played in front of other movies, The Outfit has unfortunately been so flying under my own radar to the point that I almost forgot this film was even coming out this past weekend. The trailer looked solid though and featured a great cast headlined by the great Mark Rylance. I'm also very much a sucker for these type of low budget, self-contained thrillers that take place all in one night and mostly just one location. And while this isn't a groundbreaking film by any means, it is most certainly a taunt, engaging and expertly crafted thriller that is also one of the better films of the year so far.

Mark Rylance has always been one of our finer actors around and he gives an especially excellent lead performance here that I'd even go as far to say is one of his very best. He oozes such an equal amount of charisma and warmth to his role that makes him such an easy protagonist to get behind. Luckily, the supporting cast surrounding him is so strong though too. The always lovely Zoey Deutch is also quite charming here and has a great camaraderie with Rylance. Dylan O'Brien had less screentime than I was anticipating, but still does great work. And I've never really seen much of Johnny Flynn in other projects before, but I was also really impressed with him and I must say he gives off some great Michael Shannon vibes in this too.

This marks the directorial debut of Oscar winning screenwriter Graham Moore (writer of such films as 2014's The Imitation Game) and it's a quite a good start for his directing career. The tension throughout is palpable and even a bit Hitchcockian, always kept me on the edge of my seat. It's a straightforward premise, but there's plenty of twist and turns a few of which genuinely caught me off guard. Just when I thought I had figured everything out, the film certainly has a few more reveals up its sleeves. The script may be nothing exceptional, but the well-crafted direction and consistent suspense always keeps the film engaging. At barely 100 minutes, it's also tightly paced.

It isn't without a few flaws though. Despite how well paced and short the film does feel, I do think it runs about 5-10 minutes too long at least. I was really digging this film's ending, but the last few scenes just feel so tacked on and honestly unnecessary. You can say it makes the ending a bit more exciting, but everything before that was just so strong that the last sequence here kind of made me roll my eyes. There's also so many twists within this film and I think it's a bit too many. Almost every scene has a new reveal to the point where it can get a bit convoluted to follow.

With all that being said, I did have quite a good time with The Outfit. It's one of the more tense and smarter thrillers to come out in quite some time with some terrific performances to boot. I'm not sure how much of an impact it will leave on the year of 2022 for films per say, but if you're looking for a simple yet twisty and old-fashioned crime thriller then this one is well worth your investment at the movies.

Final Grade: B