This is one of those cases where, much like the recent faces Of Death supposedly having something to say about our desensitization to violence, Outcome has something to say on cancel culture. Jonah Hill writes and directs an odd duck of a film that never quite finds a consistent tone, and cant’ quite decide on its own messaging. On one hand, Hill might be interested in exploring the external forces behind cancel culture, as he flirted with it when his ex-girlfriend released a barrage of personal text messages and accused him of emotional abuse. If Hill was hitting close to home, he might have explored the awkwardness of having your intimate moments thrown into the public eye and overly scrutinized by a portion of the population that likely would hate it if the exact same thing happened to them.

Instead, with outcome, he makes fake move star Reef Hawk (Keanu Reeves) a recovering drug addict who took a break to get clean and sober. He’s just about to jump back into his massive career, with his two Oscars the film doesn’t like to explain, and has a chance of being derailed by an embarrassing video of him masturbating. So, instead of brushing cancel culture, he pokes at the old sex tape scandal atmosphere from before Hill was even a famous celebrity. it is an experience he has not had, and is trying to somewhat therapeutically work his own experiences through, despite not exactly being the same thing, and certainly not cancel culture. we don’t cancel people over this, mostly we find it embarrassing, and that’s why people fade away. Do you remember that celebrity phone hack scandal from around ten years ago? While it was embarrassing for celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence to be included, she certainly didn’t lose her fanbase, nor did she stop acting altogether.

But, Reef is advised by his agent (Hill) to go on an apology tour to everyone he may have pissed off, who might be behind the threat, which in and of itself could have made for a great film. It feels like that part of Something’s Gotta Give where Jack Nicholson’s character has an awakening and goes back to offer all his past relationships closure and hear their opinions on him. This could have been a feature version of that, and in some ways it is, but Hill can never figure out if this is a drama or a comedy, and if it is dark or light. he has an entire sequence where he’s on the toilet talking to Reeves, and in and around his already nonsensical agent-speak, he debates the quality of toilet paper for which he needs to wipe his ass. Apparently, Reef hawk uses environmentally friendly paper, and Hill wants the good stuff. So, he makes Reef’s assistant go get the good stuff, and then chastises her when she coughs a bit while standing in the room where he’s taking a shit, because coughing is gross.

I’m sorry Jonah. It is really hard to take you seriously. On the other hand, by the end, you have Reef talking to his two best friends (Cameron Diaz and Matt Bomer), both of whom have emotional pack-a-punch points to drive home.But in the 80-ish minuts this film traverses through, it clunkily swaps genres, trying to find beats strange and uncomfortable, with truth and lies mixed into a casserole of well intentioned, but directionless commentary on a star seeking absolution, birthed from something not nearly as devastating as his crippling heroin addiction. In fact, since Hill can’t seem to make a cancel culture film, one wonders why he didn’t just make an addiction centric film, allowing Reef Hawk to apologize as part of his process.

This is far messier than Hill’s previous efforts, the documentary Stutz, and his feature debut Mid-90’s. Hill got financing, called some friends, and made a film, but his friends probably all needed to tell him the script didn’t have quite the heft behind it Hill believes it does.

The massive ensemble, which includes an inspired casting of Susan Lucci, as well as David Spade, Laverne Cox, Kaya Gerber, and a sublime martin Scorsese, along with the leads, deliver solid work. If I was Hill, I would ahve made a different film. It needed to either lean in fully on cancel culture, or move away from it, instead of trying to hold onto some aspect of it that doesn’t actually fit the mold, and ends up feeling like a trap that a potentially better rehabilitation journey could have had without it present.

Reeves has some nice moments when he isn’t uncomfortable by the tonal shifts, so his acting isn’t the problem. I wish Hill had made reef into a non-Oscar winner, to mirror Reeves, who has had box office success, without the critical acclaim.

Hill got his start as the friend of Dustin Hoffman’s son, who had the chutzpah to prank call the actor, and get offered a bit part in I Heart Huckabees, which transformed his life (and arguably Beanie Feldstein’s as well), and he’s not so entrenched in Hollywood for him to be this out of touch.

Laura Post’s audio description for the film is fine, considering she goes for a consistent friendly and upbeat performance on a film that has no idea what genre it is.

Jonah Hill’s Outcome shows that sometimes the worst thing about cancel culture isn’t the actual cancelling, it is having to make a film about it.

Rotten: 3.4/10