Outcome Review (Apple TV)
Somewhere out there, there’s a version of Outcome that I thought I’d enjoy, because it positions itself early on with quite messy, interesting topics to delve into, and for a while, the film convinces you it might actually go there. It sets up the right ideas, throws in some industry cynicism, and even hints at something else beneath the surface. However, as the movie continues, it just never really lands.
One of the main reasons it fails is that it feels like it has minimal confidence in the intelligence of its audience. The same points are made, emphasised, then emphasised again in case you somehow missed them on the previous two goes. It’s a movie about a celebrity who is more concerned with popularity than morality, and Jonah Hill, as the director of the film, makes that incredibly clear, with numerous shots of Reef Hawk (Keanu Reeves) googling himself as the film progresses. This doesn’t work for me because instead of spending time building up authentic connections to the characters, we’re instead shown numerous times what the film thinks we want to see. In the end, all this does is create a repetitive cycle of obvious inauthentic statements that suck out all attempts at impact from the film.
There are some moments when it could have been an entirely different, more successful movie. Plotlines get brought up only to get limited screen time before anything substantial can happen. Some central relationships should have been given more meaning (such as Cameron Diaz and Matt Bomer as Reef Hawk’s long-term friends), but unfortunately, they just don’t seem believable at all. The style of the movie even begins to grate on you after a while. For some reason, it’s oversaturated in a way that gives an unnatural glow to everything. It’s possible that was meant to be the case, but it just seems distracting rather than adding anything. It does succeed on its absurdist premise, and its delivery that sincerity is nothing but a PR trick, but that’s as far as the list really goes.
There are a bunch of fun cameos, such as Martin Scorsese as a Bowling Instructor and Reef Hawk’s first agent, but it’s still a little unclear what they’re trying to achieve. Keanu Reeves does his best as an awkward man in the middle, but he doesn’t have much to work with. It feels like there’s some attempt from him to go beyond what is usually expected from him, but it doesn’t really work out. It feels a little like when Dwayne Johnson did The Smashing Machine, only with less of the over-the-top press tour. The script doesn’t help this, with it often feeling not quite funny enough to be a true comedy and not quite serious enough to be truly dramatic.
On the surface level, Outcome understands that the contemporary world of celebrity is all about performance. Apologies are staged, redemptions are carefully orchestrated, and it is all done in a way that fits within the particular context of the film. However, that’s as deep as it gets, and in the end, it instead feels like Jonah Hill’s attempt at a Christmas Carol, only with none of the believability in the life lessons it tries to portray.
★★
On Apple TV from April 10th / Keanu Reeves, Jonah Hill, Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer / Dir: Jonah Hill / Apple TV / 15
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