Sonequa Martin-Green

(On Cable TV, April 2022) It’s almost amazing to realize that The Outside Story was not shot during the early months of the pandemic, given that it’s addressing self-isolation, community and stepping outside after a protracted period of being focused inward. Brian Tyree Henry plays an extremely introvert freelance video editor (working for TCM, no less – although fans of the channel will tell you that the channel reacts in weeks if not months to celebrity deaths, taking away one of the film’s dramatic drivers) who accidentally locks himself outside his Brooklyn apartment/fortress and has to rediscover the neighbourhood around him, and the neighbours willing to help him get through his recent breakup and insecurities. The Outside Story is all decidedly low-stake stuff – the action doesn’t venture very far by design, the issues remain very personal and the same cast of characters keeps revolving around the protagonist. But it’s clever, likable and even poignant at times. Henry does well as the protagonist, while Sonequa Martin-Green looks terrific, and I’m increasingly taken with Sunita Mani every time I see her on-screen. I don’t think it’s perfect – elements of the romantic climax had me gritting my teeth – but it’s a happy discovery. The Outside Story is the kind of unspectacular, low-profile film that doesn’t look like much on paper, but eventually develops into something quite successful and effective in its own way. It also happens to carry a message that we need to hear in this bleary dawn of 2022, where we’re not quite sure to relate to the people around us after being told to isolate ourselves for so long.