by Rich Cross
Comedian Joe Lo Truglio (best known for his role as Charles Boyle in Brooklyn Nine-Nine) makes his debut as writer-director with the new indie-thriller Outpost. There’s lots to recommend in this cautionary tale of paranoia and disconnection, especially in the way that cinematographer Frank Barrera frames the film’s breathtaking real-life locations. But much of Barrera’s good work is undermined by the uncertainties of Lo Truglio’s uneven script.
Having escaped the horrors of domestic abuse, fortysomething Kate is desperate to rediscover her mental equilibrium. In the hope of finding solace, she volunteers to take on a secondment as a fire watcher deep in the mountains of northern Idaho. It’s a solitary posting, living and working on the watchtower’s viewing platform. The responsibilities of the job and the long, slow days begin to weigh heavily, and Kate experiences not a renewed sense of tranquillity but vivid hallucinations and a loosening of her grip on reality. This culminates in a series of shockingly bad choices and Kate’s descent into madness and violence.
Outpost is a great-looking film. The vast Idaho landscape offers fantastic on-screen vistas, while the walkways, staircases, and cramped interiors of the watchtower provide an effective contrast. This juxtaposition between openness and enclosure is used to illustrate Kate’s growing mental instability as she flips between the grounded and the delusional. Beth Dover invests Kate with the right mix of resilience and fragility. Yet the plot, which sets her character out on a path towards recovery, heads off somewhere altogether darker. It’s a destination that requires the viewer to abandon any sense of empathy with Kate – something that feels uncomfortably close to making her a victim once again.
OUTPOST is available now from streaming platforms, including Prime Video.
