The Outside Story

Movie review by John Sooja, Common Sense Media
The Outside Story Poster Image

Common Sense says

age 14+

Feel-good drama about Brooklyn community; language, drugs.

NR 2021 85 minutes
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A Lot or a Little?

The parents' guide to what's in this movie.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Outside Story is a feel-good drama with comedic elements set in Brooklyn, New York. There's a fair amount of talk about relationships. Characters talk about cheating and jealousy. A man also repeatedly interrupts 3 people in a relationship (and in their underwear) and their activities. Some phallic art hangs on their apartment wall, and they have a sex swing in clear view. A mild altercation with police also occurs, but it clearly, like the whole film, isn't very realistic or representative of what unfairly happens to many Black men and their encounters with police. In this film, the police officer/parking ticket giver character is South Asian and is somehow able to easily talk down two male beat cops who have already begun taking away a Black man (the main character) into custody. A mother is represented as constantly drunk. Her daughter is shown throwing out a large bag full of liquor bottles. A young couple is briefly shown smoking something out of a water pipe. References to a drug raid and doing mushrooms

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What's the Story?

In THE OUTSIDE STORY, Charles (Brian Tyree Henry) has just broken up with his girlfriend, Isha (Sonequa Martin-Green). With a deadline approaching, packages on their way, and food ordered, Charles doesn't plan on leaving his apartment today. But Charles quickly finds himself locked outside, with no keys, no shoes, and no girlfriend to let him back in. Will he have to finally meet and interact with his neighbors for help? How bad can this day get?

Is It Any Good?

It's definitely a feel-good movie, but The Outside Story fails to accurately represent a world, in this case, Brooklyn, New York. If this film were futuristic or clearly satirical, maybe its world would be believable. Thankfully, the characters are very believable, but the world they live in feels way too contrived, vanilla, tame, and just not the real world at all. Somehow, even though main character Charles is having the worst day, everyone he turns to for help, literally everyone, helps him. His upstairs neighbor who is about to play with his adult friends lets Charles interrupt them repeatedly (and it isn't for kicks), his landlord stops by to help before driving his mother to her appointment for her cataracts (and he was already driving her there!), a White middle schooler girl lets him (a Black man and a stranger) into her home, and police don't assault him when he's trying to break back into his own apartment. One police officer even buys Charles a sandwich and rips up a parking ticket she wrote him earlier.

Further, Charles witnesses two women finding out they each cheated on each other, and they both immediately forgive the other person, reconcile, and go about their way. It seems the only conflict or drama in the movie is in Charles (his own idleness, social anxiety, lack of ambition) and not between people. But this isn't realistic. The entire film feels idealistic and what some people might wish Brooklyn looked like. This is all unfortunate because the moment-to-moment writing is solid and the acting is wonderful (Brian Tyree Henry is excellent as ever). But it's difficult, maybe especially these days, to suspend disbelief to this extent. Aliens, time-travel, dinosaurs, superheroes, and impossible action sequences? Easy. But saccharine police and a quixotic Brooklyn? No way. Still, those who can look past the unrealistic views of Brooklyn will find much to enjoy.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about forgiveness. In The Outside Story, how does Charles learn how to forgive?

  • This movie represents Brooklyn very nicely. How might the creators have made Brooklyn feel a little more real?

  • Was it important to have the main police officer character in the film be played by a South Asian? How would this film have looked differently if the police were represented more realistically?

Movie Details

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