Outcome
Keanu Reeves plays a hugely popular movie star who discovers that a past indiscretion is about to bite him in the neck…
Victim capitalism: Laverne Cox, Jonah Hill and Keanu Reeves
Image courtesy of AppleTV+.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
They say that to be a successful actor you need more than talent and good looks. You need opportunity and luck, and lots of it. Then, if you are able to achieve your goal, the art is how to stay on your perch. And in order to pull off that feat you need to have the skin of a rhinoceros. Keanu Reeves has been a major movie star since the age of 22, when he played a high school student in River’s Edge (1986). Since then he’s been a central cog in three movie franchises (Bill & Ted, The Matrix, John Wick), not counting his vocal contributions to two more, Toy Story and Sonic the Hedgehog. And, at the age of 61, he looks like a man more than a decade younger. Indeed, in Outcome he plays a movie star who is 56 and who still looks good for his age.
Outcome is the story of a movie star with three franchises to his name who is suffering an existential crisis. The black comedy is co-written and directed by the actor Jonah Jill, who has been in the passenger seat of the movie star machine himself, having appeared opposite the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Channing Tatum. He’s also directed three movies, with a fourth due this summer, so he’s pretty familiar with the inside workings of the business. Here, he has chosen to highlight the artificiality of Hollywood and has bathed his film in hyper-intense colours, as if the whole saga unfolds in California’s magic hour.
Keanu is Reef Hawk, a former child prodigy who has achieved everything he dreamed of: success, fame, wealth, recognition and a life of continuous luxury. However, the goal posts have recently shifted and the fan magazines have been replaced by social media. Now, Reef is constantly and obsessively Googling himself for any possible slander, although his ‘crisis lawyer’ Ira Slitz (Jonah Hill) has managed to keep any ill-favoured rumours at bay. Just as Ira is adept at manipulating the truth, so Reef is a past master at protecting his image from defamation, so when he’s blackmailed by an unknown source, he rummages through his past for possible clues. Along the way, he realises that he has not been the most considerate guy and has taken the constant flattery for granted. Even his closest friends (played by Cameron Diaz and Matt Bomer), admit their misgivings, while an old girlfriend (Welker White), choosing her words carefully, tells him: “you are not a good person.”
Preoccupied with his own fame and image, and too selfish to have thought about a wife and kids, Reef Hawk suddenly finds himself stranded on an island of his own making, with only a monstrous shark (Jonah Hill) swimming in his corner. It’s a reflection of the movie star syndrome, and perhaps a brave choice for Keanu Reeves (cf. George Clooney in Jay Kelly, also co-written by an actor), although much of Hill’s ruminations are decidedly old hat. Fame tends to corrupt, and absolute fame corrupts absolutely. Still, it’s hard not to feel sympathy for Reef as he constantly apologises for his past and can’t escape being recognised wherever he turns. “You’re Reef Hawk!” Reef Hawk: “Yuh.” He’s also got to try and remember something he might have said in an age long before cancel culture.
Here, the narcissistic hand of Hollywood is wildly over-played (cf. TV’s The Studio), and Jonah Hill’s lawyer is beyond grotesquerie, along with his overpaid retinue of caricatures. Although this is really Jonah and Keanu’s show, the two best moments belong to Matt Bomer as Reef’s closest male friend, Xander Alexander. Recalling a moment in their childhood, Xander relates, “you said you wouldn’t not be my friend if I was gay. You would only not be my friend if I was not myself.” Then, later, Xander finds himself in the hot seat of The Drew Barrymore Show after Reef has stormed off the set. On live TV, he listens as Drew Barrymore says, “you know, E.T. changed my life.” To which he replies, ”actually, I always thought it was pronounced ‘Ett’,” but, I’ve “never seen it before – I saw the poster. I’ve only seen Call Me by Your Name and The Notebook.” It’s a belated chuckle, but it’s a good one.
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Jonah Hill, Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer, Susan Lucci, Laverne Cox, David Spade, Martin Scorsese, Atsuko Okatsuka, Roy Wood Jr, Welker White, Kaia Gerber, Ivy Wolk, Drew Barrymore, Cary Christopher.
Dir Jonah Hill, Pro Jonah Hill, Matt Dines and Ali Goodwin, Screenplay Jonah Hill and Ezra Woods, Ph Benoît Debie, Pro Des K.K. Barrett, Ed Nick Houy and Nicholas Ramirez, Music Jon Brion, Costumes Natasha Newman-Thomas.
Apple Studios/Strong Baby Productions-Apple TV+.
84 mins. USA. 2026. UK and US Rel: 10 April 2026. Cert. 15.
