CHICAGO — Graham Moore is 40, a relatively new husband (married in 2019), an even newer father (son born in 2021), an Academy Award winner (for his screenplay “The Imitation Game”) and a Chicago-raised resident of L.A.'s Silver Lake neighborhood. He’s half a novelist, half a screenwriter, though already the math has gone flooey: Moore’s movie life now includes a co-writer/director credit for his feature directorial debut, currently in theaters.
“The Outfit,” an eccentric and rewarding addition to Chicago underworld mythology, stars Oscar winner Mark Rylance as a British “cutter” of exquisite handmade suits. Mistaken frequently for a common tailor, this man, Leonard Burling, has relocated for shadowy reasons to Chicago, where his shop’s clientele includes mob kingpins and their associates.
Set in the 1950s, “The Outfit” unfolds over a single, twisty, bloody night of suspicion, surveillance, impromptu surgery and a plot best left to real-time discovery. The question guiding the writing, Moore told me in an interview recently, was simple for Moore and his collaborator, Johnathan McClain, the latter best known locally for his solo performance showcase “Like It Is.”
