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Starring: Mark Rylance, Zoey Deutch, Dylan O’Brien, Johnny Flynn, Simon Russell Beale, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Alan Mehdizadeh
OUR RATING: ★★★★☆
Story:
Crime drama directed and co-written by Graham Moore. The Outfit (2022) centers on Leonard (Mark Rylance), an English tailor who used to craft suits on London’s world-famous Savile Row. But after a personal tragedy, he finds himself in Chicago, operating a small tailor shop in a rough part of town where he makes beautiful clothes for the only people around who can afford them, a family of vicious gangsters. We follow Leonard, who must outwit a dangerous group of mobsters in order to survive a fateful night.
Our Favorite Quotes:
'At the finish, you must reconcile yourself to failure. It's not perfect. You have to make your peace with that. How? Well, you sit at your board, you lay out your tools, and you start again.' - Leonard (The Outfit) Click To Tweet
Best Quotes
Leonard: To the naked eye, a suit appears to consist of two parts, a jacket and trousers. But those two seemingly solid parts are composed of four different fabrics. Cotton, silk, mohair, and wool. And those four fabrics are cut into thirty-eight separate pieces. The process of sizing, forming, conjoining those pieces requires no fewer than two hundred and twenty-eight steps.
Leonard: So the first step is measurement. But measurement doesn’t mean just reaching for your tape, “So many inches here, so many inches there.” No, no, no. You cannot make something good until you understand who you’re making it for. All clothing says something. I’ve had gentlemen walk into my shop and boast, “Oh, I don’t care about what I wear.” And assuming that’s true, doesn’t that say something too?
Leonard: So, who is your customer? And what are you trying to say about him? A man walks through your door, what about him can you observe? Is he timid, hunched over like a midday clock? Or does he stand with confidence, spine at six and twelve? Is this a man of springtime pastel, clamoring to be noticed? Or is this a man of gray and brown, blending into the hurried crowd? Is this a man comfortable in his station? Or does he pine for grander things? And who would this man like to be? And who is he underneath? Take your measure, and when you understand who he is, then you’re ready to begin.
Richie: You’re making those fine threads for somebody else? Who?
Leonard: Master Richie, you know I can’t talk about my gentlemen.
Richie: Huh. Is that what we are? Your gentlemen. Woh, get a load of English. Keeping his lips shut tight.
Leonard: [as Mable gives him a snow globe of the Big Ben] I feel at home again.
Mable: Isn’t it beautiful?
Leonard: It’s a clock.
Mable: Unlike some of us, I’ve never seen it in person.
Leonard: In person, it’s still a clock.
Mable: On the banks of the Thames.
Leonard: You’ve seen clocks in Chicago?
Mable: Yes, of course, but…
Leonard: They look startlingly similar in London.
Mable: You’ve been all over the world. You could have a shop anywhere you like. And yet, you’re here.
Leonard: What’s wrong with here?
Mable: I can think of a few things.
Leonard: Some things one finds everywhere, dear. So it doesn’t terribly much matter where I am. I have my shears.
Mable: What else does a man need besides his shears?
Leonard: And I have you.
Mable: Not forever.
Leonard: Ah, yes. Ben awaits.
Mable: One way or another, I’m getting out of here.
Leonard: Speak of the devils.
Richie: What’s that now?
Leonard: Just an expression, sirs. Excuse me. I meant no offense.
Leonard: Those men may be customers, but they are not gentlemen.
Mable: Could’ve fooled me in those nice clothes you make for them.
Leonard: If we only allowed angels to be customers, soon we’d have no customers at all.
Mable: I’ve spent my entire life around animals like Richie Boyle. You want to get him to back off, you look him dead in the eyes, and you pretend you’re one of them.
Leonard: You don’t need me worrying after you.
Mable: That’s right.
Leonard: You can take care of yourself. You’re not my, you know.
Mable: I don’t want your life.
Leonard: You’re entitled to your own.
Mable: I am.
Leonard: You’re a smart young woman who’s going to take herself far away from here.
Mable: I will. And when I go, I just don’t want you to be all alone.
Leonard: I don’t need you looking after me either. After all, you’re not my, you know.
Mable: Fair enough.
Leonard: Step two is drawing. And for some, this can be the most purely enjoyable step. You’re only just exploring. But I will caution you to heed your patterns. They’re there for a reason. This isn’t art. This is a craft. We can talk about shocking originality later. The point now is skill. Your patterns, your proven forms, they aren’t your enemies. They’re the only friends you have.
Francis: It hurts because there’s a hole in your stomach. Do you remember why there’s a hole in your stomach? There’s a hole in your stomach because back there, when it was time for you to pull the trigger, you froze.
Richie: F*** you!
Francis: Yeah, f*** me later. Right now, shut up.
'It's at the finishings that you must come to terms with the idea that perfection is a necessary goal, precisely because it is unattainable. If you don't aim for perfection, you cannot make anything great.' - Leonard (The Outfit) Click To Tweet
Francis: [referring to the suitcase] English, I need you to listen carefully. There are a thousand blue boys out there hunting for this, and if they find it, I start shooting. You follow? Making matters worse, there are a thousand racket boys out there hunting for it too. And if they find it, they start shooting. You follow?
Richie: I think he f***ing gets it.
Leonard: [referring to Richie’s bullet wound] The wound needs to be sealed.
Francis: Oh, are you a doctor now too?
Leonard: I was in the war.
Francis: At your age?
Leonard: The other war.
Francis: [referring to Richie] Sew him up.
Leonard: What?
Francis: You got a needle and thread around here someplace.
Leonard: Not that kind.
Francis: Sew him up.
Leonard: I can’t. I don’t know how. Sewing skin is not the same.
Francis: [points his gun at Leonard] Sew him up.
Leonard: You’ve been loyal customers. I depend upon you. Not once, not once have I ever asked about your business. I don’t judge. I just don’t want to be involved in whatever it is you do.
Francis: English, you know exactly what it is that we do.
Leonard: I’m useless to you. I’m a liability. I only just want to be left alone.
Francis: But you’re not alone, English. Like it or not, now you’re part of the family.
Richie: [referring to his father, Roy] You know that he taught me how to tie a tie for the first time when I was four.
Leonard: No. Four?
Richie: What was he always saying? “A well-tied tie is the first serious step in life, kid.” Some s**t like that.
Leonard: Wilde.
Richie: F***ing crazy, right?
Leonard: No, that’s a quote. Oscar Wilde.
Leonard: So, who do you think it is?
Richie: Who do I think is who?
Leonard: This Judas who’s betrayed your family.
Richie: I don’t know.
Leonard: I’ll wager a clever young man like yourself must have some suspicions. Someone close to the family, perhaps, but not family.
Leonard: I’m the rat. I’ve been selling information to your enemies. And I let the Federal Bureau of Investigation plant their bug here.
Richie: [pauses, then laughs] Holy s**t, you had me. You f***ing had me. I almost f***ing shot you.
Leonard: I felt it. I made you laugh.
Richie: It’s a hell of a thing to joke about.
Leonard: Well, it’s the best medicine, you know. It is.
Richie: Can you imagine, huh? You, the rat?
Richie: You couldn’t be the rat.
Leonard: I absolutely could be the rat.
Richie: Not a chance.
Leonard: Why not?
Richie: Why? Because look at you.
Leonard: What about me?
Richie: No, uh-uh. You’re just a f***ing tailor.
Leonard: I’m not a tailor. I’m a cutter.
'This isn't art. This is a craft. We can talk about shocking originality later. The point now is skill. Your patterns, your proven forms, they aren't your enemies. They're the only friends you have.' - Leonard (The Outfit) Click To Tweet
Leonard: A tailor sews on buttons and hems trousers. Anyone with a needle, and thread, and fifteen minutes can be a tailor. I studied for decades to be a cutter. I used to cut on the Row.
Richie: F*** is “the Row”?
Leonard: Savile Row.
Richie: Where’s that, North Addison?
Leonard: It’s in London.
Richie: Why did you come here, then?
Leonard: The war.
Richie: What, Krauts bomb your place?
Leonard: Worse. They’re called blue jeans.
Richie: Well, times change, pal. Blue jeans are the fashion now.
Leonard: This James Dean of yours makes one picture, and blue jeans are the fashion. Soon he’ll make another, something else will become popular. These fashionable things, they don’t last. The things I make, like that suit of yours, it’s timeless.
Richie: So you thought that a bunch of fancy-pants in England couldn’t appreciate the finer things, so you came to Chicago? Wow. You must f***ing love Red Hots.
Leonard: I came to a place that isn’t weighed down with bitter history. And, yes, Red Hots are delicious.
Leonard: [to Richie] If I was the rat, and try as I might, I can’t seem to convince you that I am, well, I’d want to burn that thing straightaway. So, you see, you’ve nothing to fear from your friend Francis. He’s family. Well, almost.
Francis: How you feeling?
Richie: Oh, I’m just peachy. Yeah. How you feeling?
Francis: I didn’t get shot in the stomach earlier. So, you know, not bad.
Richie: Lucky, isn’t it? All those bullets flying around, but the La Fontaines, they didn’t land a single one on you, hmm?
Francis: Not luck, Richie. It’s skill.
'When a mistake has been made, I've always found it best to simply be up-front about it.' - Leonard (The Outfit) Click To Tweet
Richie: Where’s the tape, Francis?
Francis: You must be out of your mind to point that gun at me.
Leonard: Gentlemen.
Francis: Stop playing games, Richie. Where did you put the tape?
Richie: What was your plan?
Francis: Did you hide it to try and trick me into confessing something? Because that is somehow the dumbest thing you’ve done all day.
Richie: From the second I first laid eyes on you, I said, “Who the f*** is this son of a b**ch?” He ain’t family.
Francis: No, I’m the guy who took six marbles to save your father’s life because family wasn’t there.
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