“Outcome” is a film released on Apple TV+ that is, among other things, Jonah Hill’s second fiction feature film as a director, after several years of releasing his splendid debut film titled “Mid90s” (2018).
It has a footage of only about 80 minutes, but that period of time makes me reason enough to know that I think I am looking at one of the worst films of the year; one that leaves me with the feeling that it is nothing more than a flat and enormously boring comedy about the cancel culture in Hollywood, which not even the presence of Keanu Reeves is able to bring out of the void when he plays a fictional version of himself.
The plot follows Reef Hawk, an actor adored by the public who, after a successful career as a franchise star and having been sober for five years, receives an extortion based on a video from the past that threatens to destroy his public image, while he tries to resolve the crisis accompanied by his lawyer Ira Slitz, and his lifelong friends, Xander and Kyle.
Overall, this simple premise works within a narrative structure that adopts the conventional formulas of black comedy.
The drawback, however, is that the script does not bother to develop Reef beyond the personal motivations driven by superficial descriptions, often keeping him in a range of predictable situations that never abandon the disjointed sketches, alternating between clumsy humor and sentimental moments that tend to become boring among so many expository dialogues.
In this sense, the plot remains stagnant under an inconsistent tone that weakens the action uselessly between the conversations that Reef has with Ira in his office to try to find the blackmailer who leaks the video; Reef’s arguments with his gay friend and his gossipy friend at his house in Malibu; the visits that Reef sets out to make up for his mistakes with those he wronged in the past, such as his childhood manager, his former wife and his famous mother.
Everything moves at a rushed, slow pace, showing the crisis management of a celebrity with the sole purpose of synthesizing, in a quite obvious way, a satirical chronicle about fame and forgiveness that is understood, in addition, as the repentance of a morally impeccable actor who clashes head-on with the hypocrisy of cancel culture and learns the value of being honest with himself.
This speech is somewhat weak because, unfortunately, Hill takes a lukewarm and self-congratulatory approach that avoids any risk of dirtying the accommodating surface, by showing Reef’s “life lessons” as patronizing, without allowing himself to interrogate the matter away from the moral truisms of those forced to apologize for not committing any crime.
VIDEO. “OUTCOME.” Dubbed Spanish Latin Trailer (2026) Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz, Jonah Hill © 2026 – Apple TV+
Reeves, usually charismatic, I find him out of place as the repentant and narcissistic actor who seeks to redeem himself for his toxic past, in a particularly weak performance that, despite having scenes in which he seems to be honest with himself in a self-parodic way – his “nice guy” aura – is never convincing in the scenes of confrontation with others.
Hill, for his part, finds some room to become, with a beard and shaved head, the cynical lawyer with nervous tics and catchphrases, although his character is ultimately one-dimensional and unfunny.
Hill’s direction, this time, loses control of what it is trying to narrate in its staging, although it makes somewhat correct visual decisions when it allows the photography by Benoît Debie to underline the absurd side of the story with its atmospheres manufactured by hyperbolic saturation and strident colors, which aim to evoke a “psychedelic trip.” His good intentions are not enough to draw his satire from an erratic execution lacking substance.
TECHNICAL SHEET
Original title: Outcome
Year: 2026
Duration: 1 hr. 23 min.
Country: USA
Director: Jonah Hill
Script: Jonah Hill, Ezra Woods
Music: Jon Brion
Photograph: Benoit Debie
Distribution: Keanu Reeves, Jonah Hill, Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer, Martin Scorsese
Qualification: 3/10.
