The Outsider -2018- 🎯

If you missed this one in the Netflix shuffle (where it landed with a whisper), here is the elevator pitch: Set in post-WWII America (1948), a Japanese war criminal (played by the excellent Tadanobu Asano) escapes his transport and flees to the burgeoning American underworld. He teams up with a down-on-his-luck ex-GI, Nick Lowell (Cage), to build an empire. It sounds like a B-movie action flick. It is not. Let’s address the elephant in the room: Cage. This is arguably his most restrained performance of the last decade. He plays Nick Lowell as a man who has already died inside. He speaks in a low, gravelly monotone. He doesn’t scream; he whispers. He is a man drowning in whiskey and regret after his family’s construction business gets taken over by the mob.

When you hear that a movie stars Nicolas Cage, your brain immediately clicks into a specific gear. You expect the manic energy of Vampire’s Kiss , the operatic meltdowns of Mandy , or the "not the bees!" chaos. So, when I sat down to watch The Outsider (2018)—directed by Timothy Woodward Jr.—I was waiting for the Cage tsunami. The Outsider -2018-

But The Outsider isn't that movie. And that is precisely what makes it so haunting. If you missed this one in the Netflix