The Outfit is a scintillating cat and mouse game from the brilliant mind of writer, producer, and now director Graham Moore. Moore won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2015 for The Imitation Game. In The Outfit Moore brings us another excellent film that draws his audience into a dangerous and spellbinding situation.

The Outfit takes place inside a tailor shop in Chicago in the 1950s. Mark Rylance plays a world class tailor named Leonard who calls himself a “cutter” and is a man of few words. Leonard has an assistant, Mable, played by Zoey Deutch. Leonard’s shop is where the local gangsters get their suits made and one night two of the mobsters, Richie and Francis, played by Dylan O’Brien and Johnny Flynn, come to Leonard for help identifying a rat in the organization. During a harrowing night in the tailor shop, Leonard and Mable—and possibly Richie and Francis—face grave danger as Leonard tries to figure out how to safeguard them.

The Outfit a mysterious film where no one has all the pieces to the puzzle of who the rat may be, and there are unexpected twists. Mark Rylance’s quiet character is perfectly suited for his role as Leonard, and director Graham Moore really helps his actors play to their strengths.

I loved The Outfit. Despite being filmed entirely inside one location, it is just pure adrenaline. The solitude of Leonard, the crazy mob situation in the tailor shop, and the unexpected disasters all lead to a mesmerizing experience. It is a true classic from the mind of Moore. Four stars for The Outfit.

From director Ti West comes a film, X, that combines the horror and adult film genres. X manages to surpass the limits of graphic killings and slashings of Wes Craven’s Saw franchise, while also including a lot of sexual content. Fair warning—this is a film that may be more than some moviegoers can handle. But it is well done and I actually loved it.

X takes place in in 1979 in rural Texas. A group of filmmakers rent out a property to make an adult film. The porn gang includes Maxine, Lorraine, Bobby-Lynne, Jackson, RJ, and Wayne, played by Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow, Kid Cudi, Owen Campbell, and Martin Henderson, respectively. The film starts with laughter, a lot of sex, and the gang partying down like there’s no tomorrow. But the fun starts to go downhill when landlord Howard, played by Stephen Ure, realizes what they are doing on his property. Then the porn stars must fight for their life from this insane landlord, as he stalks them in the woods where alligators lurk and traps await them.

All slasher thrillers have some obvious commonalities, and X is similar to some other slasher films I love, like Vacancy(2007), both versions of The Last House on the Left (1972 and 2009), Sinister(2012). Besides the gore, horror films always leave the audience wondering how the good guys could possibly make it out alive when the killer is around every corner. In X the good guys have more places to hide, but that means there are also more places for the crazy landlord to hide. Plus, the land itself is dangerous with the alligators and other traps lurking.

X was filmed on a Sony Cinealta Venice camera, which greatly enhances its cinematography quotient, and the overall enjoyment of the film. No camera captures natural light and vivid colors like the Venice.

There aren’t many slasher thrillers that can shock fans of this genre, but X does manage to shock at times, and it’s just different enough to make it not your typical brand of horror. It really is a knockout work of art. Three and a half stars for X.

Director Shawn Levy makes futuristic sci-fi fantasy movies with a humor twist. Some of the humor in his previous flicks could be sarcastic or raunchy, but not so with his newest, The Adam Project. It’s a fun and heartfelt movie, and one that the whole family can enjoy.

The Adam Project starts in the year 2050 and then transitions to 2022, with a stop in 2018 for good measure. The film introduces us to young Adam, played by Walker Scobell. 2022 Adam is just a boy living with his single mom, played by Jennifer Garner. Adam’s father has died, and Adam is isolated and sad. But his life suddenly changes when a man falls into his world and asks for his help. This man is also Adam, and the special surprise for young Adam is that this is actual him, but all grown up. Big Adam, played by Ryan Reynolds, has time traveled from 2050 to 2022. Together, they pair up to try and rescue the future.

Ryan Reynolds’ performance in The Adam Project is stellar (no pun intended). He goes from a video-game character in Free Guy (2021) to playing a time traveler partnering with his younger self in this film. Reynolds is perfect because he has a unique acting style and he has a knack for giving us unexpected laughs. I also loved the chemistry between Reynolds and Scobell. Especially poignant is when the Adams travel back to 2018 and find their father Louis, played by Mark Ruffalo.

The future orientation of The Adam Projectreally drew me in, and the transitions between years is interesting and well done. The film is simply a treat. Well worth a watch on Netflix. And again, it’s a movie that the family can watch together. Three and a half stars for The Adam Project.