“ Kilig much?” Kelay asks the romantically pessimistic Kenneth. (READ: She’s Dating the Gangster earns P15 million on its first day) And though the film is crippled by an unbearable number of soap opera style twists, it at least delivers on its sugar-drenched romantic promise.

Its characters are blinded by juvenile naivet é and are undeterred by the prospect of heartbreak. But whether two of everything is better than one of anything is still a matter of debate.ĭespite its lofty romantic themes, She’s Dating the Gangster still beats like a teenager’s heart.

It’s twice the love team with twice the story. The novelty here is that both couples are played by Bernardo and Padilla. As we unravel the love story between Athena and Kenji, so do we bear witness to the love story of Kenneth and Kelay. But when Athena and Kenji’s feelings cross the line from make-believe to reality, the conspiracy becomes predictably complicated.īut the new spin to the familiar formula is that the story is enframed by Kenneth and Kelay, two modern day teens searching for Kenneth’s father. “The Outfit” opens in US theaters March 18.Kenji recruits Athena to be his pseudo-girlfriend in an effort to spark jealousy in his former girlfriend Abby (Sofia Andres). So many elements seem like they’re in place - Dick Pope’s winter-interior cinematography, Sophie O’Neill’s period threads, and of course, Rylance, biding his time - but it’s little more than a costume movie. The overall effect of “The Outfit” is something performed, rather than lived out, as if Moore were trying on a coat made for John Huston, and last altered by David Mamet. And as a climactic ingredient in the showdown, Nikki Amuka-Bird (“Old”) has a wonderfully regal air of menace, but it’s too little, too late. Flynn is a solidly volatile, live-wire presence, but even the great Simon Russell Beale, making a stakes-raising appearance as the Boyle patriarch, is something of a wash. Deutch struggles with an awkwardly tinny accent and a weakly written part, while O’Brien - saddled with the screenplay’s clunkiest tough-guy outbursts - barely registers. ‘Buffaloed’ Film Review: Zoey Deutch Tears Through Uneven Indie Comedy About Debt CollectionĪnother problem is the uneven cast orbiting around Rylance, frequently wrenching us out of the verisimilitude he effortlessly creates. Where the confining of events to the shop might have been a fun writing exercise, it smacks of the first draft of a play rather than a credibly sustained piece of tension. With an air of duplicitousness telegraphed early on, and a handful of scenes coming off like information dumps instead of natural exchanges, many of the story mechanics strain for believability. As Richie and Francis regroup, with the tailor violently pressured into assistance - the next best thing to a doctor when sewing things up is a Leonard - Moore and McClain proceed to introduce a MacGuffin (an incriminating audiotape), a target (an unknown rat), the likelihood of more bloodshed, and more twists.īut what “The Outfit” doesn’t generate much of is organic suspense. What kicks off the film’s narrative eventfulness is an offscreen ambush by a rival clan of the Boyles, the consequences of which come bleeding into the tailor’s workshop in the middle of the night when Leonard is working late. Taylor Swift-Directed Short Film ‘All Too Well’ Has Dylan O’Brien Seeing Red Francis, it turns out, might well be scheming for more power if, as rumor has it, the nationwide organization The Outfit is thinking of folding the Boyles into their syndicate. Boyle, meanwhile, has suspicions about ambitious tough guy Francis (Johnny Flynn, “Emma.”), who once took a chamber of lead to save his boss. But he’s also protective toward his assistant Mable (Zoey Deutch), a neighborhood gal with dreams who’s wary of falling in with the likes of brash, handsome mob scion Richie Boyle (Dylan O’Brien). This WWII survivor of the blitz may look the other way when brusque, well-dressed gangsters for the Boyle crime family parade in and out, picking up stuffed envelopes from a slitted box. The year is 1956, but the functional, tucked-away vibe of this Englishman’s modest workspace has a timeless feel (thanks to veteran production designer Gemma Jackson), and as we watch Leonard start his day measuring and cutting, Rylance’s softly authoritative baritone narrates a tailor’s philosophy of sorts - the key points being that the job requires reading people well (what they need versus what they want), and that a two-piece suit may present as a simple whole, but is in fact made up of many intricate parts and hidden skills. Mark Rylance Golf Comedy ‘The Phantom of the Open’ Lands at Sony Pictures Classics

I am gangster movie review