The two films today boast of everyday situations brought into sharp focus via great ensemble acting and/or strong plot development. One is a 1956 Chicago period piece, while the second takes place over one night in a London restaurant.
The Outfit (Video On Demand) Director Graham Moore is the author of the labyrinthine thriller The Sherlockian and wrote the screenplay for Imitation Game, and this is his directing debut. When critics call a film stagey, it’s often used in a pejorative manner, highlighting the artifice or reliance on set pieces to develop the drama. While it could call this film stagey, I do so in a positive manner, as it’s the very verisimilitude to a theater play that makes this mob drama such a winner. The plot development, as you would expect from Moore, is a constant avenue of revelations and surprises. It’s an intelligent film that works as a mystery thriller, while focusing on personality and character arcs. Simply put, you’ll have to pay close attention, and you’ll be rewarded.
Mark Rylance plays the central character, a British cutter (he takes pains to explain he’s not a tailor), who has set shop in the Chicago of 1956. His bespoke salon is used by the local mob boss as a drop box for his son and his henchmen. There’s a shop assistant played by the always delightful Zoey Deutch (younger daughter of Back To the Future’s Lea Thompson), and from the outset, we’re given hints that there is more to these characters than meet the eye. The mob boss’ right hand man basically babysits the son, and the unguarded tension that exists between the two is also a harbinger of future disaster. When things go off the rails, it’s done in a wonderful way, with one twist following the next in rapid succession. It’s all tightly wound, and you’ll appreciate how evolved this storyline is. A roaring success, even if on a small scale.
Boiling Point (Video On Demand) - This English film generated a lot of interest late last year, and got several BAFTA nominations. While there is the gimmicky aspect that it’s done in one take, it’s also been lauded for being a very real look into an everyday night in the life of a well-regarded restaurant. The chef (Stephen Graham) operates as the main character, but it’s essentially ensemble acting that feels real and almost like a documentary. So kudos to director Philip Barantini for achieving this while playing the ‘one take’ game. At its core, it’s one disaster piling on top of each other, while all hands are trying to make the restaurant work on a busy Christmas holiday night. The situations are real, and the magic of the film is watching people react to them.
From the kitchen staff, to the front of house, to the clients and patrons of the eating establishment, and the food critics who have decided to descend on the restaurant, there’s a lot going on here - but it does take up the challenge of whether you’ll find the going-oh’s in a restaurant of sufficient interest. One of the first scenes has to do with a Health Inspector downgrading the restaurant from a 5 to a 3; and it’s enlightening to hear the reasons for the downgrade, and how our chef responds to this. He basically blow up, and it’s brought on partly by the pressures he’s facing in his private life. You’ll discover on one table a party of four, a family, and how one family member is your classic customer from Hell, and racist to boot. There’s so much going on, I can only venture to say that it’s grittiness may turn some audiences off, as they’re so used to the glossy patina of restaurants that we see more often in movie depictions....