Abhiroop Das
Helmed by Jonah Hill, Apple TV+’s ‘Outcome‘ tells the story of Reef Hawk, Hollywood’s biggest and nicest actor, who is currently going through a life crisis. After years of showbiz conditions, Reef is paranoid about how he is portrayed to the world, and when an extortionist claims to have a video that could ruin Reef’s career, it doesn’t take him long to spiral out. Fortunately, he has his two best friends, Kyle and Xander, as well as his crisis lawyer, Ira, to sort things out. Their best course of action turns out to be a full-blown apology tour, in which Reef tracks down everyone he might have wronged. At the top of the list is Red Rodriguez, Reef’s former manager. What their conversation reveals, however, is that the dynamic went much deeper than what Reef remembers. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Scorsese Plays Reef’s First Talent Manager With Infectious Charm and Wit
While ‘Outcome’ is a film expressly about the world of actors and filmmakers, perhaps its most surprising revelation comes in the form of Martin Scorsese, who plays Red Rodriguez, Reef’s former talent manager. It would be unfair to call Scorsese’s role here an ordinary cameo, as it yields some of the most potent sequences the movie has to offer. This also marks the first time that Scorsese and Keanu Reeves share the screen together, and the result is as magical as one would expect. When Reeves was asked by Today about filming with Scorsese, he humorously replied with an angelic singing voice. Following that, he described feeling as if everything outside the scene fell away, which allowed both of them to bring their best to the screen.
Scorsese is no stranger to cameo appearances, often in his own movies, and it always has a powerful effect. Beginning with a brief appearance in his debut film, ‘Who’s That Knocking At My Door,’ he has followed it up with cameos in most of his works, including ‘Mean Streets,’ ‘Taxi Driver,’ ‘Raging Bull,’ ‘After Hours,’ ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ and several others. Among these, his performances in ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ are heralded as narrative lynchpins for the respective movies, and this is similar to how the character of Red is conceived in ‘Outcome.’
Director Jonah Hill, who also plays Ira in the film, has famously collaborated with Scorsese in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street,’ for which he earned an Oscar nomination. To that end, ‘Outcome’ makes for a fitting reunion for these two creative artists, and Hill leaves no stone unturned in infusing Red’s brief but memorable arc with a sense of self-reflection. Introduced as the first in the list of people whom Reef has wronged, Red turns out to be much different from our set expectations. While we know that Reef fired Red sometime early on in his career, it is only with this present discussion that we learn of the whys behind his decision. In reality, fame latched onto Reef faster than he could handle it, and that caused him to fire Red impulsively.
Red’s Reunion With His Prodigy is the Emotional Heart of the Movie
While one would expect Red to hold a permanent grudge after being unceremoniously fired, the scene of their reunion takes on a much more pensive form. Red, who is well into retirement and now runs his own bowling alley, seems to have accepted that his primary function was to catapult budding stars into the higher echelons of Hollywood. In doing so, he internalizes the fact that most of his actors end up bidding him an early goodbye, and though that includes Reef, the circumstances here are somewhat different. Unlike all the other actors Red has managed over the years, Reef is like a son to him, and that is what truly saddens him about how they parted ways.
During their conversation, Red gloomily reminds Reef that he never tried to call or check up on him even once, and though the old man wanted to initiate contact from his end, he never even got to find out Reef’s new number. On a symbolic level, this means that Reef quite literally became a brand new person after achieving stardom, one wholly unavailable to Red or any of the people he interacted with in the past. By the end of the movie, Reef actively seeks to correct this toxic mindset, and that begins with a second reunion with Red. This time, however, it is not part of Reef’s apology tour, but rather a genuine check-in on the old man who was once a father figure to him. Scorsese’s portrayal of this moment is equal parts dramatic and comedic, which is what gives the scene all of its charm.
Read More: Did Jonah Hill Shave His Head and Lose Weight For Outcome? Is He Wearing a Bald Cap?
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