A few weeks ago, a friend told me, “Don’t trust anyone except Keanu Reeves.” It’s a statement I thought a lot about while watching Outcome, the latest directorial effort from Jonah Hill. Reeves has a reputation for being one of the most down-to-earth and likable stars in the business, and, after a series of direct-to-Redbox movies and box-office bombs, he thankfully found his way back to A-list status with the John Wick films.
Hill, on the other hand, has a more complicated reputation. After gaining stardom from his roles in comedies like <em>Superbad</em> and <em>21 Jump Street</em>, he became one of the biggest names in comedy. He even gained success outside the comedy realm, earning two Academy Award nominations for his roles in Moneyball and The Wolf of Wall Street. But he has also come under fire several times throughout his career for his behavior in his personal life. This normally wouldn’t be something I’d note in a movie review, but it is worth discussing here, as it is abundantly clear that it’s an idea Hill is grappling with in his latest movie as a director.
Outcome is a dark comedy that finds Hill back behind the camera seven years after making his directorial debut with the criminally underrated Mid90s. On paper, the film could have come across as your standard industry-set comedy, but that’s clearly not what Hill was interested in making. Instead, Outcome is a fascinating mess that rides the line between sincerity and crassness.
What Is ‘Outcome’ About?
Reef Hawk (Reeves) is one of the most celebrated actors in Hollywood. After getting his start as a child star at the age of six, he has gone on to lead several blockbuster franchises, winning two Oscars, and has an unbeatable public image. For the last five years, he has stepped away from the public eye, privately battling a heroin addiction that burned many bridges. The only two people who have stood by his side through thick and thin are his high school best friends, Kyle (Cameron Diaz) and Xander (Matt Bomer).
Now sober, Reef is ready to step in front of the camera again. That is, until he receives a call from his crisis lawyer, Ira Slitz (Hill), who informs him that someone is blackmailing him with a video that could end his entire career. Reef knows what he has to do and travels across Hollywood on a quiet apology tour, trying to make amends with everyone he has wronged over the years. There’s his former agent, Red Rodriguez (Martin Scorsese), his reality-star mom, Dinah Hawk (Susan Lucci), and his ex, Savannah (Welker White).
Outcome doesn’t reveal what’s actually in the video until the very end, and the mystery behind who could have sent it is not the focus of the story. This movie also isn’t an anti-woke screed on cancel culture. Outcome is a strange dramedy about reputation and redemption.
‘Outcome’ Doesn’t Quite Know What It Wants To Be
Outcome is built entirely around Reeves’ Reef Hawk. It’s a character study that is structured around numerous monologues by various recognizable celebrity cameos. Reeves gives such a restrained performance that in the moments where his character snaps, it’s unnatural. It’s not his fault; we’ve seen Reeves effortlessly pull off being a badass, and we’ve seen him be a goofball. The character of Reef is simply written as bland without much personality. In turn, it’s difficult to get emotionally invested in a story that is clearly designed to make you feel a certain way. The movie is short, with a runtime of exactly 80 minutes, but the rushed pacing comes at the cost of never fully getting to know much about any of the characters.
The pacing also affects the tone, which abruptly shifts between earnestness and satire. Between the overwhelming amount of f-bombs, the movie attempts to poke fun at victimhood, cancel culture, and Hollywood’s hypocritical nature, only to expect us to have sympathy for the characters minutes later. The movie isn’t offensive by any means, but it is toothless. It’s oddly similar to last year’s Jay Kelly, but without any of the backstory. For all that movie’s faults, there was an honesty to it, and while Outcome is trying to be honest, it comes across as flat and dull.
Benoît Debie‘s cinematography is another strange component. A large chunk of the movie is brightly lit with sun-bleached lights, which at certain moments add some liveliness to the movie but in other scenes it is jarring and distracting. It’s hard to take certain scenes seriously when the lighting makes everybody look like a Simpsons character.
‘Outcome’ Plays Into Keanu Reeves’ Wholesome Reputation
For all of its absurdities, Outcome is still at times watchable. You can tell that Hill, who co-scripted along with Ezra Woods, wrote the film with Reeves in mind. A recurring motif has Reeve’s Reef googling himself only to see countless articles celebrating how nice a guy he is. It’s clever and a knowing nod not only to Reeve’s reputation but also to celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and Jimmy Fallon, who sold themselves as friendly but whose true selves have proven to be far more complicated. There are alsoa few clever jabs at Kanye West, with Hill finally referencing the embattled artist’s comments on him.
Whilethe movie doesn’t feel like a confessional,Outcome does feel like the result of Hill wanting to address his reputation and reflect on it, especially compared to somebody like Reeves who has never been perceived as anything other than squeaky clean. It’s an admirable endeavor but unfortunately, the conclusion he ends up drawing doesn’t go any deeper than “we all make mistakes.”
As an actor, Hill does garner some laughs in his role as Ira, especially in a boardroom scene where he meets with advocates to help Reef but there are other times when he comes across as obnoxious and grating including yelling at Reef’s personal assistant Sammy (Ivy Wolk) about toilet paper. The film’s only emotionally effective moments come from Diaz and Bomer who despite their characters being underdeveloped are still likable and their pleas with Reef in the third act of the movie come across as effective rather than sloppy. Scorsese is another major highlight as Red delivering a vulgar yet human monologue on his belief in Reef and how he feels betrayed over how their relationship ended.
Outcome is clearly coming from a personal place for Hill. It doesn’t come across as too bitter or full of self-pity but the point of the movie is never made fully clear. It moves at too quick a pace to leave much of an impact and it’s a bit of a tonal nightmare. Hill has already proven himself as a director but Outcome was a strange yet bold choice to make as his second narrative film.
Outcome premieres on Apple TV on April 10.
