The Outside Story is one of the many cinematic casualties of the pandemic. The film was originally going to premiere at Tribeca back in April 2020, but its showing was delayed until August. This led to the film’s official release in late April of this year. However, by this time, many Americans had already been vaccinated and were beginning to enjoy the outside again. This isn’t just a matter of inconvenient timing—how one relates to the main character and his plight is significantly affected by one’s relationship with quarantine.
The Outside Story follows Charles Young (played by Brian Tyree Henry) who recently broke up with his girlfriend, Isha (Sonequa Martin-Green of Star Trek: Discovery fame). To make matters gloomier, Charles’ job is to create “in memoriam” videos for celebrities who have not died yet.
But it isn’t Charles’ relationship woes or erratic deadlines that keep him at home, but rather by choice. Charles is not agoraphobic or has some diagnosable form of social anxiety, he just doesn’t like going out and making small talk. A point of contention, we learn, in his previous relationship.
This is where COVID comes into play, not in the reality of the film, but the audience. How many of us would willingly stay in a tiny, New York apartment when the world outside was safe to explore? When Charles gets locked out of his apartment, sans wallet, shoes, or phone charger, he spends much of the film desperately trying to find a way back in. At eighty-five minutes, this storyline is both too long and too short. The initial conflict, locked out of the apartment, would work as a short film. You could even throw in the relationship woes as a sub-conflict because typically exes have keys.
However, it is the sub-plots that are added in that seem to pad the film’s runtime for no other reason than to make the film feature-length. There are multiple characters introduced, with little context, their troubles laid out but rarely resolved, and character connections made obscenely quickly. These segments and plotlines move along so fast, and hardly tie back to the main conflict, that there was little reason to care about their lack of resolution.
Speaking of numerous storylines, there were also numerous tonal shifts throughout the film. The Outside Story is a comedy, and at times a rom-com, but has spikes of drama that seem out of place. Credit to Brian Tyree Henry, who shows his range no matter the film’s genre at the time. However, the rest of the cast, particularly Sonequa Martin-Green and Asia Kate Dillon, are wasted with very little screen time. It is a shame because there are strong performances here and the writer can clearly craft dialogue, but the overarching narrative and its intricacies never gel. Not a necessary purchase.