If you missed this one in the Netflix shuffle (where it landed with a whisper), here is the elevator pitch: Set in post-WWII America (1948), a Japanese war criminal (played by the excellent Tadanobu Asano) escapes his transport and flees to the burgeoning American underworld. He teams up with a down-on-his-luck ex-GI, Nick Lowell (Cage), to build an empire. It sounds like a B-movie action flick. It is not. Letâs address the elephant in the room: Cage. This is arguably his most restrained performance of the last decade. He plays Nick Lowell as a man who has already died inside. He speaks in a low, gravelly monotone. He doesnât scream; he whispers. He is a man drowning in whiskey and regret after his familyâs construction business gets taken over by the mob.
But The Outsider isn't that movie. And that is precisely what makes it so haunting. The Outsider -2018-
But where The Outsider wins is in its texture. This is not the shiny, jazzy Vegas of Casino . This is the muddy, industrial, rain-slicked underbelly of a reconstruction-era America. The cinematography is coldâblues, grays, and the crimson red of blood. Director Timothy Woodward Jr. channels the spirit of 1970s Michael Mann (think Thief rather than Heat ). If you missed this one in the Netflix
Do not watch this expecting John Wick . The action is sparse, brutal, and clumsyâwhich is actually realistic for 1948. Fistfights look exhausting. Gunshots feel loud and final. It is not
What is interesting about the 2018 release date is the context. This came out during the peak of the "Peak TV" boom. Compared to Peaky Blinders or Boardwalk Empire , The Outsider looks small. It feels like a TV pilot that got stretched into a movie. But that "smallness" is its secret weapon. It feels intimate, dirty, and dangerous. Yes, with a caveat.