By James V. Ruocco
In "The Outsider," pretty-boy Jared Leto plays a brooding, violent American enforcer for the yakuza in post-war Japan of the 1950's. Placing the actor front and center for a full two hours, director Martin Zanduliet asks the audience to get inside the character's mind, become his ally, succumb to his wickedly wild ways, accept his quick-charged streaks of crazed brutality and never once doubt for a single moment that he's the real deal in a world where cutting off one's own fingers for social acceptance and slashing people's throats with wild abandon is as normal as ordering "sushi take away" and "saki" on a Friday night from your favorite local Japanese restaurant.
Mind you, slashed throats, severed fingers and lots and lots of red blood oozing gloriously from "The Outsider's" many, many victims doesn't mix well with sushi or saki. But in long run, it's not all that important. Here, Zanduliet supplies his decadent yakuza opus with enough violent twinges, surprises and deadly gore to keep the story afloat even when the superficiality of the material, the dialogue, the characters, the deaths and the craziness of the Japanese yakuza themselves make you question the sanity and validity of this pumped-up Netflix project. Regardless, the film, lop-sided or not, still fascinates.
Really?
Yes, really.
That said, "The Outsider" is still chock full of problems. Yes, it's dumb and silly. Yes, the Japanese and the American characters are all stereotypes. Yes, one has to stretch the imagination to accept and believe Leto's character is an actual killing machine. And yes, all the violence and gore served up by Zanduliet and his classy production team has been done to death before.
Still, the filmmaker strives to create a fast-paced escapist motion picture drama that packs a punch and wallop even when you snicker, laugh, hit "replay" in denial or for clarity's sake or shake your head in disbelief, saying, "What the fuck just happened?"
Still, things could be much worse.
The story opens in a grimy Japanese prison where Leto's character, Nick Lowell, has been serving an unknown prison sentence for an unstated crime. But since this is the movies, his luck immediately changes when he saves a fellow yakuza prisoner named Kiyoski (Tadanobu Asano) from being hanged to death. Within minutes, Kiyoski repays the debt by getting Lowell out of prison and puts him immediately to work in the family's very shady, very violent underworld crime business. Next, the film's edgy "outsider" theme kicks in. And Lowell, scrubbing up nicely, is dressed to kill in attire that cries "London Fashion Week."
Written by Andrew Baldwin, "The Outsider" plunges its audience into the complex world of the yakuza traditions, the Japanese culture of the times, its kabuki theater entertainment, its sumo wrestling, its long-winded drinking rituals, its criminal underworld, its gangland rivalry and warfare and the actual prejudice of the period. That's a lot to digest. But it's all pretty general, in execution. And Baldwin doesn't seem to offer anything new. You simply watch, react and wait until the film's big finish.
The screenwriter does, however, spend a lot of time focusing on Lowell's pretty-boy looks. At times, the character is called "the white dog" or "the white kitten." Then, there are moments when the Japanese male characters are so bloody taken with Lowell's handsome appearance, they simply gush and spout things like "Your skin is so soft, should I lick it?" "You have a cute face" or "Why don't you take him home and pet him?"
It's all rather amusing in a giddy homoerotic way, but what is Baldwin really trying to say? Do the Japanese men in "The Outsider" making these flip remarks want to have actual sex with Lowell? Why are they so taken with him? Haven't they seen attractive American men in Japan before? Have they had too much saki? Or is Lowell the answer to their private bedroom fantasies? What gives? Given all this playful innuendo, we never know why . But in the context of the story, this gay subtext adds a comic edge to the film's otherwise serious proceedings.
In 2014, Jared Leto won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his riveting portrayal of Rayon, a transgender woman with HIV, in Jean-Marc Vallee's hypnotic "Dallas Buyers Club." In "The Outsider," the actor does nothing Oscar worthy but he does take direction well from Zanduliet and never breaks character once. His line delivery is crisp, steadied and determined. He broods magnificently. When asked to void his face of all expression by the filmmaker and stare aimlessly into space, Leto does so willingly to the point where he almost becomes robot like. And then, there are times when Zanduliet purposely lets the camera linger on Leto and nothing happens at all. Who knows? Maybe, that's the point. Regardless, it still works.
Tadanobu Asano is tailor-made for the part of Kiyoshi, a part he plays with unbridled passion. Even when certain dialogue prompts unintentional snickers or an action scene suggests B-movie clichés, the actor refuses to acknowledge these stumbling blocks and holds his head high. The alluring Kutsuna Shiori, cast in the role of Kiyoshi's sister Miyu, makes the most of her one-note female role, flirting and bedding Lowell, staring lovingly into the camera lens, changing costumes, wigs and hairstyles like a runway model and being one of the few women in the film to get some decent, character-driven dialogue.
In conclusion, "The Outsider" is not a great film. But it's not a bad film, either. Zanduliet's direction is carefully mapped out and never once stops the film dead in its tracks. His many group scenes and moody long shots of the actors walking, standing still or simply conversing are incredibly framed by the filmmaker. Camilla Hjelm’s insanely cool, slick and expressive cinematography is visually stunning. And finally, Leto's edgy, brooding performance gives "The Outsider" its hypnotic allure even when he commits an act of self-mutilation that is cringe-worthy of the highest order.
"The Outsider" stars Jared Leto, Tadanobu Asano, Shioli Kutsuna, Kippei Shina, Emile Hirsch, Nao Omori, Rory Cochrane and Min Tanaka. Directed by Martin Zanduliet. Written by Andrew Baldwin. Rated R. Running time: 2 hrs. (Netflix)
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