‘Outcome’ Review: Keanu Reeves Seeks Redemption While Redeeming This Dramedy

At its best, Jonah Hill’s dark and melancholy comedy, Outcome, is the film that 2025’s Jay Kelly wanted to be, had the emotionally unflinching director Noah Baumbach not waved the white flag at the sight of George Clooney’s megawatt smile. The minor miracle of Outcome is that, while Clooney couldn’t muster even an ounce of the self-loathing that would make his character work, Hill coaxes out of his lead actor, Keanu Reeves, a dolefully funny performance filled with self-doubt. Such introspection pairs well with Hill’s sensibilities. Outcome is his third film as a director. His previous two — Mid90s and Stutz — are intimately autobiographical, devoid of sheen, and seem to have arrived because he had some internal issue to work out. Indeed, anyone who makes a documentary about their personal therapist is not afraid to air out their problems to a paying audience. And even if Outcome is shinier and less self-consciously indie than his other directing efforts, it reveals a filmmaker who lives very much in his head, processing his complicated feelings about how fame has treated him by making a movie about it.

source