Outpost – Review
84 Minutes, Not Rated
Written and Directed by Joe Lo Truglio
**NOTE: You can read Mark’s review below, as well as all our movie reviews here on the website. Remember, though, you can listen to all our movie discussions directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
After a violent assault, a woman asks her best friend for help escaping an abusive ex. She’s given a job as a fire lookout in the mountains of northern Idaho, hoping the peaceful solitude will heal her trauma. But the PTSD and isolation have other plans, and it’s suddenly a fight to save herself and the town.
A woman who has suffered trauma at the hands of her significant other seeks solace by manning a fire watch tower for three months. She hopes the isolation of the tower will provide her with the healing she needs to move past the events and on with her life.
But we all know what happens when people are left alone, right?
Their deepest thoughts have no place to hide, bubbling to the surface in all their power, forcing us to deal with them and react to them. What that reaction is depends upon the person, but as the victim of a recent, violent trauma, our heroine is almost destined to react in one direction.
Outpost is a decent enough set-up, but I feel as though it falls down somewhat isn’t in its overall execution, but rather by failing to give us enough backstory to make her decline/breakdown more understandable and believable for us.
Most of that is narratively glossed over, as well merely jumping us from brief flashback to flashback (almost just snapshots, really) before depositing us back into the now to see where on the “unhinged” scale she is at any particular moment.
That said, the movie overall is pretty good. The setting is flat-out gorgeous, a reminder of the beauty of nature and the solace to be derived from it. The cast performs admirably, despite the shortcomings noted about.
Outpost is a film that might have benefitted from one more editing pass focusing more on ensuring the overall strength of the narrative.
Though I do very much like where the film maker’s head was at.
Outpost is in theaters and On Demand now and stars Beth Dover, Ato Essandoh, Dylan Baker, Becky Ann Baker, Dallas Roberts, Ta’Rea Campbell, Tim Neff, and D.R. Anderson.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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