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Director Rod Lurie ’s first film in almost a decade is also one of his best, and the first movie since our national nightmare began in 2020 that I really regretted not being able to see in a theater. While I would always prefer a theatrical exhibition, the truth is that films like “ The King of Staten Island ” and “Trolls: World Tour” haven’t lost a lot by transitioning from the multiplex to VOD. However, “The Outpost” is designed to be a visceral, you-are-there experience, a film like “ Black Hawk Down ” or “ Saving Private Ryan ” that drops viewers in the middle of an absolute nightmare. While dozens of movies have sought to recreate the unimaginable horror of literally fighting your life, “The Outpost” connects more than most, thanks in large part to Lurie’s technical skill and a young cast that elevates what could have been overly familiar material. In particular, Scott Eastwood and Caleb Landry Jones do the best work of their respective careers.

“Our mission from now is what it’s always been.” “Yeah, to survive.”

Just looking at the geographic layout of the outpost at Kamdesh in Afghanistan in 2006, one realizes how that mission to survive was a daily concern. Lurie and his cinematographer Lorenzo Senatore give viewers a tracking shot at the start of “The Outpost,” revealing how this real outpost was basically in the worst possible spot, at the center of a deep valley. The enemy Taliban forces always had a dominant perspective on it, and were able to hide out on the many ridges that overlooked it. They could shoot directly down into the outpost, which had been placed there near the Pakistani border to help with community relations, which quickly broke down after attacks and mistrust formed with the local elders.

Lurie and screenwriters Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson (“ The Fighter ”) adopt an episodic approach for the first half of the film, as the troops at Kamdesh outpost suffer tragedies that require new leaders to take command. This half consists mostly of routine conversations interrupted by gunfire. The dialogue often overlaps, and many of the faces blend together, but that’s part of the point. These men were similar in age and often in background, and they all alternated the extreme boredom of a distant outpost with the constant terror associated with imminent attack. A few faces do stand out, including Lieutenant Benjamin D. Keating ( Orlando Bloom ), Staff Sergeant Clint Romesha (Scott Eastwood), Specialist Ty Michael Carter (Caleb Landry Jones), and Captain Robert Yllescas ( Milo Gibson ).

Every performance in “The Outpost” is better than average, particularly for movies like this, and that’s one of Lurie’s greatest accomplishments. He threads that needle in which he somehow captures the “average guy” nature of this group of soldiers while giving his performers just enough of what they need to stand out. Eastwood is particularly solid, giving a performance that is so reminiscent of his father’s youth that one can almost close their eyes and hear Clint. (Try it when he says, “No. Not today.” It almost sounds like young Clint dubbed the line.) And Jones continues to impress, particularly in the back half of the film.

That half consists almost entirely of the two-day attack from October 2009, one of the most brutal modern assaults of the neverending war that has been in that region since 9/11, all of it boiled down into about an hour of filmmaking. After learning that the outpost was finally being closed, the Taliban fighters decided to deliver a message and sent hundreds of soldiers to attack the men there. Lurie adopts a Ridley Scott style in which bullets and shouted orders dominate the filmmaking, but he never gets lost in the action, as so many modern directors tend to do (looking at you, Peter Berg ). He manages to convey the insanity without resorting to cheap filmmaking tricks or manipulative storytelling.

“The Outpost” isn’t the first film to document how human errors led to the loss of life—the Battle of Kamdesh resulted in multiple disciplinary actions against people who failed to support the base in the first place—and it certainly won’t be the last. Sadly, acts of heroism often emerge from acts of failure on a structural level. What elevates Lurie’s film is the balance, never allowing his film to turn into blind jingoism, or a castigation of a broken system that sacrifices young men. He keeps his eye where it belongs, on the real people caught in the middle of it all, stuck in the valley of war.

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Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

The Outpost (2020)

Rated R for war violence and grisly images, pervasive language, and sexual references.

108 minutes

Scott Eastwood as Staff Sergeant Clint Romesha

Caleb Landry Jones as Specialist Ty Michael Carter

Orlando Bloom as 1st Lt. Benjamin D. Keating

Taylor John Smith as Lt. Andrew Bundermann

Cory Hardrict as Sergeant Vernon Martin

Writer (book)

Jake Tapper
Eric Johnson
Paul Tamasy

Cinematographer

Lorenzo Senatore
Michael J. Duthie
Larry Groupé

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‘The Outpost’: Film Review

West Point graduate Rod Lurie brings a respect for military service to this harrowing immersive account of a standoff between the Taliban and a small U.S. Army squad in Afghanistan.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

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Just a few minutes past the midway mark of “ The Outpost ,” director Rod Lurie re-creates the Battle of Kamdesh, and for nearly the next hour of this intense, immersive modern-day combat thriller, audiences experience how it must feel to be caught in a sustained Taliban siege on a virtually indefensible location in Afghanistan.

Situated at the bottom of three tall mountains in hostile territory, exposed to daily attack from all sides, Combat Outpost Keating represents a terrifying example of an indefensible military position — what children, in their playground games, proverbially refer to as “the mush pot.” Adults might call it a suicide mission. And yet, on Oct. 3, 2009, 53 American soldiers found themselves trapped in this Afghan Alamo, swarmed by an estimated 400 enemy forces, in what would become one of the deadliest confrontations the Army sustained in the region.

A film critic turned filmmaker who made his reputation behind the camera with a pair of talky political dramas, “Deterrence” and “The Contender,” Lurie similarly found himself in the mush pot after his ill-advised 2011 remake of Sam Peckinpah’s “Straw Dogs” — which is hardly a place of strength from which to stage either a career comeback or an epic homage to real-life heroism. Even so, working with a relatively modest budget, Lurie commits himself to delivering an authentic account of this unthinkable worst-case scenario, which is like having a front-row seat to hell — or it would be, if one were able to experience it in a movie theater, the way the director intended.

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But how could Lurie have known that a worldwide outbreak awaited “The Outpost’s” release? He’s been cursed before, as DreamWorks had to rethink the release of his 2001 military-prison thriller “The Last Castle” (the campaign for which featured an upside-down American flag) in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. In that case, the film still came out in cinemas, whereas “The Outpost” saw its U.S. premiere at SXSW canceled by the coronavirus (following an earlier screening at the Thessaloniki Film Festival the previous fall), and was later forced to scrap plans for a July 3 theatrical push from Fathom Events, defaulting to a streaming release.

Such a film may suffer from home viewing, and yet, “The Outpost” represents the most exhilarating new movie audiences have been offered since the shutdown began, which softens the compromise of watching it under less-than-ideal conditions — although it seems frivolous to talk about poor conditions compared to what the servicemen of Bravo Troop, 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment faced at COP Keating. “The Outpost” makes clear in its opening moments how tense life in such a camp must be at all times, as bullets blaze down from above, cutting fiery streaks across the screen.

If this were fiction, audiences might be able to better predict who lives and dies among the ensemble (a multi-cultural mix that features four survivors, cast alongside professional actors). But unless they’ve read journalist Jake Tapper’s book, “The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor,” things don’t play out in predictable ways.

Screenwriters Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson come to the assignment having previously collaborated on two Mark Wahlberg movies, “The Fighter” and “Patriots Day,” although it’s another of Wahlberg’s true-story projects, the Afghanistan-set “Lone Survivor” (in which they had no part), that “The Outpost” most resembles. Like that film, Lurie’s project captures the intensity of 21st-century warfare. But as its title implies, “Lone Survivor” perpetuates the Hollywood myth of solitary heroism, of exceptional individuals single-handedly saving the day, whereas “The Outpost” depicts how a group of soldiers work together under chaotic circumstances to save as many lives as possible.

The biggest name involved here is Orlando Bloom , who plays First Lt. Benjamin Keating, the commanding officer who receives the order to start prepping the team to close down the location — although they don’t yet realize that’s the Army’s goal. Rather, the immediate directive is to move a heavy-duty truck out from the bottom of this basin up a series of narrow roads and tight switchbacks, so it might be more useful elsewhere. That sets up what seems like an update of “Sorcerer,” William Friedkin’s underseen, ultra-suspenseful “The Wages of Fear” remake, in which a small team transports nitroglycerin via a similar vehicle. “The Outpost” illustrates how such a mission might have gone wrong, leaving the camp even more vulnerable than before.

Written accounts of the Battle of Kamdesh — including not just Tapper’s book, but also Medal of Honor recipient Clint Romesha’s own first-person retelling, “Red Platoon” — contextualize events by explaining the decisions that endangered the men stationed at COP Keating. For example, knowing that the outpost would soon be shut down, the Army directed its attention and resources elsewhere, instead of reinforcing the camp. But the soldiers couldn’t know that at the time, and “The Outpost” thrusts audiences into their shoes. Overwhelmed and confused, frustrated by orders that put them directly at risk, the members of Bravo Troop recognize they’re in a tough spot. Still, they don’t believe the local informant who insists that a Taliban attack is imminent.

During one of their walks up the mountain, Staff Sgt. Romesha ( Scott Eastwood ) points out just how easy it would be to overwhelm their low-ground position. Coming across as more than just a younger cover-band version of father Clint, Eastwood cowboys it up in the role, spitting out lines like “It’s the Big One. Saddle up!” and coolheadedly picking off Taliban snipers when everyone around him is ducking for cover. He’s the only one here who behaves like a Hollywood action hero, whereas the others — most notably Caleb Landry Jones as Staff Sgt. Ty Carter — embrace the fear and panic that threaten to overwhelm their training.

“The Outpost” isn’t glamorous, but it’s respectful of the sacrifice and split-second decision-making that Bravo Troop faced, amplifying the terror of such an impossible assignment by attempting to mirror the characters’ point of view. At times, the camerawork suggests first-person shooter games, or the swiveling perspective of virtual reality simulations. Cheating Bulgaria for Afghanistan, Lurie and DP Lorenzo Senatore embrace long takes, but don’t employ them to show-offy effect, making every attempt to place audiences in the scene, which pays off best in the film’s spectacular nearly hourlong finale.

That sequence deserves to be seen on the big screen — and maybe it eventually will, when megaplexes start booking the movies obliged to bypass them during the shutdown. In the meantime, it’s as if we’re all stuck in the mush pot these days, bombarded on all sides. Here’s a movie that understands that metaphor, as well as the existential need to keep on fighting.

Reviewed online, Los Angeles, June 24, 2020. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 123 MIN.

Production: A Screen Media release of a Millennium Media presentation of a Millennium Media, Perfection Hunter production, in association with York Films. Producers: Paul Merryman, Paul Tamasy, Marc Frydman, Jeffrey Greenstein, Jonathan Yunger, Les Weldon. Executive producers: Avi Lerner, Trevor Short, Rob Van Norden, Boaz Davidson, John Kalafatis, Tommy Vlahopoulos, Joanna Kalafatis, Jake Tapper, Eric Johnson, Andrey Georgiev. Co-executive producers: Samuel Hadida, Victor Hadida, Cory Hardrict. Co-producers: Hank Hughes, Ty M. Carter.
Crew: Director: Rod Lurie. Screenplay: Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, from the book “The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor” by Jake Tapper. Camera: Lorenzo Senatore. Editor: Michael Duthie. Music: Larry Groupé.
With: Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, Orlando Bloom, Jack Kesy, Cory Hardrict, Milo Gibson, Jacob Scipio, Taylor John Smith, Jonathan Yunger.

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The Outpost Reviews

It is, at best, a somewhat average war film. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jan 27, 2024

The Outpost will shake your core and rattle your bones.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 1, 2022

While the first half of “The Outpost” is a borderline disservice, the second half is a fitting tribute to the soldiers who fought the Battle of Kamdesh.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 24, 2022

Action scenes felt random and deaths felt emotionless. Caleb Landry Jones is probably the only good thing about this film. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Oct 22, 2021

Set in treacherous terrain, it's tightly wound, inventively shot, disorientating and distressing. Thrilling and depressing at the same time.

Full Review | Oct 1, 2021

All in all, a really good war/action film.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 20, 2021

A triumph of authenticity, The Outpost is as close to war as you want to get.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 18, 2021

As a stark comment on the cost of war it is a powerful and award worthy effort.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 4, 2021

The Outpost is the visceral, often-gripping experience Lurie designed it to be.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 28, 2021

The Outpost honors this particular group of soldiers while still recognizing the pointlessness of their mission. There's no entertainment value in its brutality, but it's still a worthy addition to the war film canon.

Full Review | Feb 5, 2021

It's a true-life story, masterfully directed by Rod Lurie who instinctively captures the danger, risks and moments of desperation and humanity of the event.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 18, 2020

... an unsparing look at the frustrations of fighting against hundreds of invisible enemies armed to their teeth.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 6, 2020

When the action comes, as it frequently does, it is viscerally effective, conveying the fight between internal discipline and external chaos.

Full Review | Nov 20, 2020

The Outpost is crafted with precision, expertise and experience. It's a war drama that transports you to the battlefield in all its cinematic brilliance.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 19, 2020

I think this beautifully depicts the uncertainty of combat and the moments before and after, too.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 12, 2020

The Outpost is a cleverly, and respectfully, crafted war film that uses a segmented, episodic approach to help you invest in the characters while building up to a very impressive battle sequence.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Oct 9, 2020

I can't say enough about the performance of Caleb Landry Jones.

Full Review | Oct 8, 2020

Filled with fear, tension, blood, bravery. The way the battle is shot is ripe with realism.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 2, 2020

The Outpost ... may wind up being the defining movie of the Afghanistan War.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 1, 2020

Even when we grip our seats at the taut action sequences or smile at the band-of-brothers camaraderie, there's something hollow and disconnected about the whole.

Full Review | Jul 30, 2020

Screen Rant

The outpost review: jake tapper's best-seller gets a riveting adaptation.

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In 2012, CNN news anchor and chief White House correspondent Jake Tapper released a non-fiction novel titled "The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor". It tells the story of a group of U.S. soldiers at a remote outpost near the town of Kamdesh, Afghanistan, who were overwhelmed and attacked by hundreds of Taliban in 2009. It was called The Battle of Kamdesh and was considered the bloodiest battle for American soldiers in that year. Rod Lurie's latest film adapts Tapper's novel with a star-studded cast leading the way. However, this film puts more of an emphasis on the battle itself rather than diving into the many decorated individuals at its center. The Outpost finds success in its thrilling, white-knuckling battle sequence, but rarely digs below the surface of the ones who fought in it.

The Outpost starts off by explaining how, in 2006, the U.S. Army established a number of outposts in Northern Afghanistan in order to connect with the locals and cut off any weapons or supplies that may be transported to the Taliban. One of these outposts, and the one this story centers on, was called COP Keating. Based at the bottom of three different mountains, the outpost was nearly surrounded on all sides, putting it at a massive disadvantage if an attack were to take place. Many individuals being sent there even believed that they had no choice but to accept the fact that they probably wouldn't be making it out alive due to the outpost's location. From here, a number of characters are promptly introduced that are all en route to the outpost, but things don't stay calm for long.

Related: 10 Movies Like Black Hawk Down Everyone Needs To See

The conflict kicks off fairly quickly, with Lurie immersing viewers into it almost immediately and without warning. In many instances, casual conversations are suddenly cut off by gunfire, placing the viewer right in the shoes of these soldiers and keeping them just as on edge. At one point, Scott Eastwood's character, Staff Sergeant Clint Romesha, expresses that as long as they stay alive, they win, which echoes that intense sense of awareness that these soldiers feel daily while heightening the edge-of-your-seat action for the viewer. The stakes are incredibly high from the get-go, and tensions only rise from that point onward. There's rarely a moment where Lurie allows the viewer time to pause, relax, and breathe, but rather, maintains that high-intensity energy throughout the film's entire runtime. By doing this, Lurie is able to show viewers the almost constant feeling of uncertainty that these soldiers lived with on a daily basis. Not only is it immersive, but it's consistently gripping.

However, these incredible scenes of overwhelming action are often at the expense of well-developed characters and an added depth to the story. Aside from their brief introductions at the beginning, most of these characters aren't explored beyond that. It feels very surface-level, with little room being made available for exploration into these individuals and who they are. It isn't until the film's very final moments where a few of these soldiers' more vulnerable sides are tapped into. Be that as it may, in comparison to some war movies like Sam Mendes's wildly successful 2019 hit 1917 or even Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker (which both allowed ample space for their leads to fully explore a range of emotions about what they were enduring), The Outpost focuses more on the intense, and often crass, camaraderie these soldiers have rather than the emotional impact each of them experiences while being there.

Even so, this joking back-and-forth they all share could be a reflection of the fear they're feeling because of where they are and the dire circumstances they're in. Unfortunately, it's difficult to see behind that curtain as the narrative becomes more enveloped in the battle itself. At one point, Caleb Landry Jones' Staff Sergeant Carter even exclaims that "all this frat boy sh*t and joking around [...] this is not the place for it," and it feels like the point being made is never truly taken to heart. As the story carries on, they all maintain these same attitudes until the second half of the film when the main battle starts up. From there, it's non-stop action until the last ten minutes or so. It's clear that a tough-love atmosphere is needed in a place like this, but by leaving very little room available at the beginning for even brief moments of empathetic interaction holds The Outpost back from being the best war movie that it could be.

Regardless, The Outpost remains a harrowing story that does a fantastic job of immersing viewers directly into its high-intensity action. Lurie's direction even captures these terrifying instances that these soldiers faced with very precise angles and viewpoints, especially when the camera pans upward to show how they really are just sitting ducks at the bottom of these mountains. It may not be perfect, but it's a thrilling and well-shot story that still honors those that served at Combat Outpost Keating during the Battle of Kamdesh.

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The Outpost is now playing in select theaters and on-demand. It's 123 minutes long and rated R for war violence and grisly images, pervasive language, and sexual references.

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‘The Outpost’ Review: A Harrowing Account of the War in Afghanistan’s Bloodiest American Conflict

David ehrlich.

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Another guns and glory war movie about young American soldiers having to shoot their way out of some rats nest they should never have been sent to in the first place, Rod Lurie’s “ The Outpost ” is a familiar but uncommonly visceral reminder of what it really means to “support the troops.” Set during America’s War in Afghanistan — which technically means that it could take place anytime between 2001 and God knows when — Lurie’s film dramatizes the bloodiest and most disastrous engagement our military has been involved in since deploying to Afghanistan almost two decades ago.

It all went down on October 3, 2009, when hundreds of Taliban soldiers took advantage of the fact that the 54 servicemen of Bravo Troop 3-61 CAV had been stationed at the bottom of a valley that would later be deemed “obviously indefensible.” Lurie has described what followed as “an extraordinary shitshow of mayhem and violence,” and “The Outpost” conveys that sense and then some. The film’s “Call of Duty”-level combat sequences may be too hypnotic to disprove the idea that there’s no such thing as an anti-war movie, but even (and sometimes especially) those parts seethe with non-partisan rage at the fact that these kids were sacrificed at the altar of America’s most pointless war.

If this steely memorial is louder than it is deep, it still manages to eke some real courage out of an incident that never should’ve happened. Far from the dick-swinging valor you might get from a Peter Berg movie about the same subject, Lurie’s version genuinely seems to care more about the people ensnared by the Battle of Kamdesh than it does about how badass they looked doing it. So many American soldiers have been asked to die for nothing, but “The Outpost” — for all of its occasional VOD vibes — finds true heroism in how they continue to fight for each other regardless.

Based on the Jake Tapper book of the same name, “The Outpost” spends its purgatorial first hour setting the stage for the violence to come; teaching us the film’s terrain like Kurosawa used to do so well. We’re told that the United States set up COP Keating in 2006, and that it quickly acquired the nickname “Camp Custer” because it seemed inevitable that everyone stationed there — surrounded by mountains that gave the Taliban the high ground — was going to die. The soldiers know that when the movie begins, and they just try to go about their business of engaging with the locals anyway. “This place is a shithole,” one of them says. “Well, it’s our shithole,” another replies. It’s hard to remember who, exactly.

To a degree, Lurie’s interchangeable cast of grunts (whose names flash by on screen faster than we can learn them) helps create a feeling that who they are won’t save them from what’s to come. A southern-fried Orlando Bloom owns the first act as First Lt. Benjamin Keating, but this isn’t the kind of movie where billing order determines what fate has in store for someone. Most of the idle chatter between the soldiers comes across like bad screenwriting, but only in the way that time-killing conversations do in real life, and Lurie shoots them with the light touch of someone just taking in the scenery. Some bullet fire rains down on the camp in the middle of a sunny day, and a totally naked infantryman grabs the nearest rifle and shoots back. That’s how it goes. It’s not always engaging, but it’s usually believable.

All of these characters mush together as part of Lurie’s attempt to convey the nervous limbo of life at the outpost, and yet a few still manage to stand out for better or worse. Caleb Landry Jones is well cast against his usual type (a demonically possessed lizard) as Staff Sgt. Ty Carter, a manic saint who’s always wearing shorts and never leaves a man behind. Scott Alda Coffey leaves a memorable impression as the ineffably decent Michael Scusa. Only Scott Eastwood , playing Staff Sergeant Clint Romesha, feels like he’s in the direct-to-Redbox version of this movie. Making the least of a standard-issue soldier role and grimacing through dialogue that even his father couldn’t say with a straight face (“We’re taking this bitch back!”), everything about Eastwood’s ersatz stardom detracts from the grim reality of what’s happening here.

That only proves more true when the combat starts, and his well-honed glint is distractingly out of sync with everyone else’s abject terror. Maybe that’s just what Staff Sergeant Romesha was like during the battle, but it can’t help but seem like his action star bravado belongs in a different movie — one where a firefight feels more like an opportunity and not the tragic consequence of a major leadership fuck-up. For the most part, however, Lurie does a strong job of threading the needle between excitement and calamity; shooting much of the 45-minute long ambush in hectic, agile long-takes allows him to capture the Battle of Kamdesh for all of its terror, and with a clarity that allows us to feel that terror in our bones.

Awash with the ominous tones of Larry Groupé’s score (which restrains itself from full-chested military bravado until the very end), every set-up is framed in a way that conditions you to expect a sudden jolt of violence. Sometimes it stays quiet, and other times major characters are sniped down with little fanfare. The savage grace of the battle choreography is sustained far longer than your nerves can take it, and the result is some of the most intense modern combat footage this side of “Black Hawk Down.” Understanding that some of the wannabe young Rambos watching this at home might want to partake in the action, Lurie emphasizes valor over victory whenever he can, and that — to quote one character —“it doesn’t matter what kind of soldier you are” when the army hangs you out to dry. “Dead bodies attract dead bodies” is a common refrain here, and those words radiate off the screen.

For all of its heart-in-your-throat excitement, “The Outpost” resonates as a cautionary tale more than anything else — especially in the wake of the revelation that the President of the United States looked the other way when Russia put bounties on the most vulnerable members of the American military. If our government cared about the boys of Bravo Troop 3-61 CAV as much as they cared about each other, more of them would still be alive today. Then again, if our government actually supported the troops, they wouldn’t have sent them to Afghanistan in the first place.

Screen Media will release “The Outpost” on VOD on Friday, July 3.

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DVD & Streaming

The Outpost

Action/Adventure , Drama , War

Content Caution

In Theaters

Scott Eastwood as Staff Sgt. Clint Romesha; Caleb Landry Jones as Staff Sgt. Ty Carter; Orlando Bloom as First Lt. Benjamin Keating; Milo Gibson as Capt. Robert Yllescas; Jacob Scipio as Staff Sgt. Justin T. Gallegos; Taylor John Smith as First Lt. Andrew Bundermann

Home Release Date

July 3, 2020

Distributor

Movie review.

In 2006, U.S. outposts were establishished around Afghanistan to stem the tide of Taliban fighters flowing in from Pakistan. One such outpost was a small and poorly situated camp just outside the village of Kamdesh. From the center of PRT Kamdesh, all you could see around you were the walls of rough-hewn mountains that stretched to the sky as you craned your neck back.

That’s exactly what Staff Sgt. Clint Romesha and several other soldiers did on the night they were heloed into the base. They looked up and up and all around from the foot of the slopes surrounding their darkened position.

“Aren’t we supposed to be on the top of the mountain to win this?” one of them asked. And the sergeant could only nod his head silently in agreement. There was no gunfire, no battle at this particular zero-dark hour, but there would be for sure. Some day. But that was their job: hold the position, work with the locals and stem the tide that would enevitably come.

One analyst gave PRT Kamdesh the nickname “Camp Custer,” for obvious reasons. And after a series of small, fish-in-a-barrel attacks over the following months, everyone stationed there understood those reasons.

The big one was coming. And they had to face it and stop it, no matter what the brass gave them. They would stop those well-armed insurgents. Or die trying.

Positive Elements

The American occupants of the outpost are not perfect men or ideal soldiers. In fact, some of them appear to be frazzled, even broken in painful ways. They question their orders at times and fret over the wisdom of distant commanding officers. For all of that, however, their bond as a unit is sacrosanct.

When one of them falls, they all feel the agony. They may not even really like the guy next to them, but they will fight, struggle, bleed and even die to save him. And that never-wavering, never-relenting resolve is what saves those who come out of the battle alive.

Spiritual Elements

A soldier mentions having once been a Mormon. And several soldiers have brief discussions about how Muslims and Christians both claim the favor of God.

Others question the very existence of God. “If God was real, then those guys wouldn’t be trying to kill us every … day,” one states. “God works in mysterious ways,” says another. An officer tells a soldier, “Just ’cause I’m not watching doesn’t mean God isn’t.”

We overhear a few telephone calls home that end with “God bless.” And a man calls out, “God help us all!” during battle. Another makes a profanity-laced reference to the “Lord’s work.” Someone says, “Fear wakes up the beast, and the devil comes to feast.”

Some soldiers grumble because the Islamic call to prayer rings out five times a day.

Sexual Content

A masturbation scene (which suggested and off-camera) involves a soldier getting caught looking at a picture of another man’s wife. Another soldier is caught in an attack while coming from the showers. He grabs a gun and returns fire while naked (see from the rear). Soldiers have random discussions about having sex with porn stars and other men.

Violent Content

This is a movie of modern war. Accordingly, it is filled with grizzly images of dead bodies and torn flesh. In some instances, the battles are comprised of short-lived attacks that riddle the outpost with gunfire and an occasional RPG shell. But those blasts take their toll as well.

In one of those smaller attacks, for instance, a man has the side of his face blown off, a wound shown in all its gory detail. Another soldier is left badly torn and bleeding when the truck he’s driving rolls off the side of a mountain road. The badly ravaged corpse of young woman is brought in from the nearby village. And a boobytrap blows an officer into pulp while he is crossing a rope bridge. The man behind him is splashed with gore and left, in shock, to spit the man’s brain matter out of his mouth.

In the heart of the Kamdesh attack, however, the explosive destruction is ratcheted up a hundred-fold. Some 400 men attack the outpost with automatic rifles, RPGs and mortars. And though the 50 men in camp fight back with high caliber weapons they are quickly overwhelmed by a constant, vicious storm of bullets and explosives.

The camp itself is shredded by huge detonations and set ablaze. And the soldiers are brutally torn and left to bleed out. We see splattering headshots at a distance and up close. Men are shot in cover and out, leaving behind large torso and flank wounds and a variety of other less-deadly wounds.

In turn, the attackers are hit by large bombs dropped from tardy support aircraft, which blow up large groups of men. Dead bodies are strewn everywhere. All the while, the camera watches closely in the heated, bloody action. The men left standing struggle to save their comrades in whatever way they can—including running an IV directly from their own arm into a badly bleeding comrade.

The soldiers discuss the randomness of battle, nothing that even the most prepared and seasoned fighter can fall at a moment’s notice. They talk of some that have fallen in unexpected ways.

Crude or Profane Language

The language here is, if anything, even more raw than the gory imagery. In fact, the f-word fills in for a noun, verb and adjective in nearly every sentence spoken. There are north of 300 f-words, some 50 s-words and five to 10 uses each of the words “d–n,” “b–ch,” “co–suckers,” as well as various crudities referencing male and female genitalia. The n-word shows up several times along with a crude use of “spook.” And God’s and Jesus’ names are maligned nearly 20 times total (with God always being combined with “d–n” and Jesus being combined with the f-word once). Someone uses an offensive hand gesture.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Many of the soldiers smoke cigarettes, both in and out of conflict. Someone talks of once drinking carpet cleaner in an aborted suicide attempt. The outpost captain talks sternly to a soldier about his drug abuse. The man balks at the idea, but the captain retorts: “You’re not the only one who came here with substance abuse issues. But you’re the only one who persists!”

Other Negative Elements

The outpost officers work diligently to form trusting relationships with the local elders, but they’re repeatedly betrayed and lied to by those same tribesmen. Because of the difficulty of their violent job in a violent land, soldiers are encouraged by some to isolate themselves and not call home to their wives.

The Outpost isn’t what you’d call a typical war movie. It doesn’t deliver some things you’d normally expect.

It doesn’t, for instance, tug at your heartstrings with intimate performances or dazzle with witty dialogue and stirring inspirational speeches. This is not a film that romanticizes war with any nationalistic bravado, nor does it disdain the cause of its conflict. It’s far more straightforward than that.

The Outpost is simply … war.

After brief introductions of rather interchangeable warriors—who fraternize with incredibly foul-mouthed jibes and jokes one minute, then dive for cover with hair-trigger intensity the next—this flick leads us into the battle at its core. We wade into an earnest, 40-minute recreation of one of the deadliest clashes between American and Taliban forces in the Afghanistan war. Forty minutes of grit, grief and gushing wounds as 50 U.S. soldiers struggle to hold off a swarm of hundreds of heavily armed attackers: an attack we’re told would happen from the film’s first moments.

The Outpost lauds real-world, self-sacrificial bravery here, to be sure. And you can’t walk away without being struck by the true terrors of high-powered military conflict. You understand why a man can suffer down deep from such experiences, and you can’t help but lament the fact that we’d ever put one through it

Gaining that insight, though, comes with its own slice of pain. And that’s what you can expect from this not-so-typical war movie.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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REVIEW: “The Outpost” (2020)

In 2006 during Operation Enduring Freedom the United States put together a counterinsurgency plan which included setting up a series of outposts in northern Afghanistan. The aim was to connect with the locals and win their support in stopping Taliban fighters from crossing over from Pakistan. Combat Outpast Keating was precariously nestled in a remote mountain valley and near the town of Kamdesh. It’s vulnerable location left it under constant threat of a Taliban assault.

Director Rod Lurie’s “The Outpost” tells the true story of the inevitable Battle of Kamdesh. More importantly it highlights the incredible heroism and valor shown by the soldiers who fought against insurmountable odds. The movie is a tale of two halves. The first, a wobbly attempt at introducing characters that leans too heavily on oozing machismo and relentless frat-boy jabber. And the second, a visceral and intense portrayal of combat anchored by a deeply human perspective that puts fear and bravery hand-in-hand.

Photo Courtesy of Screen Media Films

The film is based on the 2012 book “ The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor ” by Jake Tapper. The screenplay by Eric Johnson and Paul Tamasy begins by introducing us to the troops of the ill-fated outpost. They’re led Cpt. Benjamin Keating played by Orlando Bloom sporting a Southern-ish accent (that mostly works) and a surprising gravitas and stoicism. Keating is a soldier admired by his men and committed to his duty. “ We’re going to win by getting their hearts and minds ” he says of locals.

Scott Eastwood plays Sgt. Clint Romesha with toughness and grit while Caleb Landry Jones gives an eye-opening performance as Spc. Ty Michael Carter. Both were Medal of Honor winners for their heroics on October 3, 2009. That’s when the Taliban surrounded the outpost with over 300 men and began their attack. Previously it had only been the occasional stray gunfire. This was a full scale assault against the vulnerable outpost and the 54 soldiers defending it.

But getting to that point in the movie is a bit maddening as endless locker-room prattle takes the place of meaningful character development. Think “Porky’s” goes to the military. It’s unfortunate because there are some good scenes showing negotiations with local villagers and conversations questioning the wisdom of their overall mission. But the first half can push your tolerance level especially if you’re hungry for deeper, fleshed out characters.

But it’s the second half which saves the movie as it thrusts these soldiers into the heart of combat and anchors their desperate experiences in authentic human emotion. A key reason it works so well is that Lurie doesn’t shy away from showing unbridled fear. These aren’t 54 Rambos standing in the open blasting machine gun fire while barely breaking a sweat. The last hour presents these men as real people, as scared and on edge as anyone else would be, but with an uncommon valor and willingness to sacrifice themselves for the men next to them.

While the first half of “The Outpost” is a borderline disservice, the second half is a fitting tribute to the soldiers who fought the Battle of Kamdesh. It takes too long to hit its mark, but once it does the film immerses you in the sheer ferocity of combat. And while the action is intense and kinetic, it never feels like your watching an action movie mainly because Lurie never loses sight of the human element. If only the first half had the same convictions. “The Outpost” is now available on VOD.

VERDICT – 3 STARS

‘The Outpost’ Review: A War Film Remembers the Fallen

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

You might expect director Rod Lurie (West Point class of 1984 with four years in military service) to push the flag-waving aspect of a film about the war in Afghanistan. Though The Outpost pays heartfelt tribute to the soldiers who fought and died during the bloody 2009 Battle of Kamdesh, he opens fire on the military hubris and stupidity that put these soldiers there in the first place. While President Obama talked of withdrawing troops, Army brass ordered a small unit of 53 U.S. soldiers to hold down Camp Outpost Keating, located at the bottom of three steep mountains. It was also just 14 miles from the Pakistan border, where more than 400 Taliban fighters picked them off from above like sitting ducks.

It’s that suicide mission that Lurie, and a cast headed by Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones and Orlando Bloom, bring so vividly to life as the insurgents assaulted the outpost with small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns and B-10 recoilless rifles. They killed eight American soldiers and wounded nearly two dozen others, making it one of the worst attacks on a U.S. outpost during the Afghan war. And just try not to think of the recent reports about Russia-paid bounties to Taliban forces for killing American soldiers.

With a script by Eric Johnson and Paul Tamasy, based on The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor by Jake Tapper, the film emerges as an action thriller which never loses sight of the futility of the war being fought. Tapper, the chief Washington correspondent for CNN, wrote his 2012 bestseller to highlight what he termed the “deep-rooted inertia of military thinking.” Praising the book, Into the Wild author Jon Krakauer said: “If you want to understand how the war in Afghanistan went off the rails, read this book.”

You could also watch this intensely powerful movie, which Lurie directs with a keen understanding of the mechanics of battle and an overriding humanism that puts flesh-and-blood on the bones of the tragic story being told about Bravo Troop 3-61 CAV, one of the most decorated units of the 19-year conflict. Eastwood excels in the key role of Staff Sergeant Clint Romesha. (As the son of Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood, the young star of The Longest Ride and The Fate of the Furious must have seen the irony of playing a soldier named Clint.) Romesha understands that thoughts of home and family might interfere with the laser focus required to have the backs of his brothers in arms. Having written his own account of the war in the book Red Platoon, Romesha won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his courage under fire. Eastwood captures the soldier’s “saddle up” spirit and also his keen grasp of what led to this unwinnable situation.

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Still, not everyone had Romesha’s knack for putting on a brave front. As Specialist Ty Carter, another Medal of Honor winner, Caleb Landry Jones ( Get Out, The Florida Project ) shows how fear is real factor that needs handling in the heat of battle. The first part of the film at the base follows the usual bro pattern that lets us get to know the characters, including CPT Robert Yllescas, played by Milo Gibson (son of Mel), and Daniel Rodriguez, who along with other survivors of the battle, plays himself. Lurie catches the tension of base life that can be interrupted at any moment by sudden death from enemy fire — a few major characters are killed even before the main battle starts.

British actor Orlando Bloom, head shaved and meaning business, assumes a credible Yank accent to play Captain Ben Keating, the base commander whose mission of counterinsurgency — enlisting the civilian population to help against the enemy from the inside — is lost when the shooting starts. Taking up the film’s final, high-tension hour, the Battle of Kamdesh represents Lurie’s finest achievement to date as a director, up there with Deterrence and The Contender (and enough to forgive him for his misguided remake of Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs. ) There have been other films about the Afghan war, including 12 Strong, War Machine, Lone Survivor, and the superb doc Restrepo. But The Outpost gets it crucially right by bringing home the meaning of heroism as a collective action. The you-are-there ferocity of this sequence, brilliantly abetted by the prowling, handheld camerawork of Lorenzo Senatore, ranks with the best interpretations of combat on film. Your nerves will be shattered, guaranteed.

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The outpost, common sense media reviewers.

Impressive, harrowing depiction of battle in true war story.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Fictional depiction of real-life courage and heroi

Real-life staff sergeants Clint Romesha and Ty Car

Frequent guns and shooting. Exploding mortars. Man

Naked male behind. Strong sex-related dialogue. A

Constant, extremely strong language includes uses

Cigarette smoking. Reference to smoking hash. Refe

Positive Messages

Fictional depiction of real-life courage and heroism, with people risking their lives in a deadly situation to save their colleagues. Wrestles with question of whether Army made a mistake by placing the outpost in such a vulnerable spot, putting the soldiers in danger in the first place, in addition to origins of war in Afghanistan.

Positive Role Models

Real-life staff sergeants Clint Romesha and Ty Carter, both awarded Medal of Honor, are heroes for attempts to save others during deadly situation. Many heroic acts depicted, from dragging wounded to safety to donating blood to concentrating on bigger picture and ending the attack. In addition to being portrayed in the movie, Romesha and Carter -- and other soldiers -- are interviewed for the epilogue. On the downside: use of racial/cultural slurs (joke about Mexicans sneaking across the border, use of the word "retard," etc.).

Violence & Scariness

Frequent guns and shooting. Exploding mortars. Many characters killed. Bloody, gory wounds (character's cheek blown off his face, piece of brain lands in man's mouth, etc.). Charred body. Fighting, kicking. Truck tumbles off cliff, crashes below. Character considers suicide, points rifle at chin. Fire. Dog shot and killed (off-camera). Characters hold waterboarding contests.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Naked male behind. Strong sex-related dialogue. A man wears women's underwear on his face and inhales. Man caught attempting to masturbate to a photo of another man's wife, etc. Sexy pinup picture shown hanging in background.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Constant, extremely strong language includes uses of "f--k," "motherf----r," "c--ksucker," "s--t," "bulls--t," the "N" word, "p---y," "t-ts," "a--hole," "ass," "d--k," "snatch," "cum," "bastard," "bitch," "goddamn," "damn," "hell," "piss," "retarded," plus exclamatory use of "Jesus," "Jesus Christ," and "doing the Lord's f--king work."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Cigarette smoking. Reference to smoking hash. Reference to a character having a "substance abuse issue."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Outpost is a war drama set in Afghanistan in 2009. Based on Jake Tapper's book, it tells the true story of a deadly attack on a U.S. Army outpost. Violence is bloody and intense, with lots of guns and shooting, explosions, death, extremely gory wounds, fighting, and other disturbing imagery (someone contemplating suicide, a dog getting shot, etc.). Language is also extremely strong, with constant use of words including "f--k," "c--ksucker," "s--t," "retard," and more. There's some pretty graphic sex-related dialogue, a naked male bottom, a man sniffing a woman's panties, and more. Characters smoke cigarettes, and there are references to smoking hash and a man with substance abuse issues. While the film isn't perfect, it does have impressive filmmaking, depicting the action in suspenseful yet harrowing and heartbreaking ways. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 4 parent reviews

A Great, Though Shockingly Profane Movie

Bloody movie is very good, what's the story.

In THE OUTPOST, which is based on a true story, a group of American soldiers is stationed at U.S. Army Combat Outpost Keating, located at the bottom of a valley in Nurestan Province in Afghanistan. Surrounded by mountains, the outpost is highly vulnerable to attacks, and the men fend off Taliban snipers on a daily basis while going through an ever-rotating selection of first lieutenants. In 2009, the Taliban launched everything they had at the outpost, resulting in the bloody Battle of Kamdesh. There were many casualties, and many lives were lost, but the bravery and heroism of staff sergeants Clint Romesha ( Scott Eastwood ) and Ty Carter ( Caleb Landry Jones ) earned them both Medals of Honor.

Is It Any Good?

It has a few flaws typical of war movies, but this tense drama features an amazing, extended battle sequence that's harrowing yet coherent. It also has an appealingly hard, terse quality to its dialogue. That said, The Outpost -- which is based on journalist Jake Tapper's book -- has many characters, and, with the roving camera and identical military gear and helmets, it's often difficult to tell them apart. Director Rod Lurie tries to make up for this with an extended epilogue in which many of the real men who were there are interviewed, but that still doesn't provide much context. The movie also sometimes leans too far toward seriousness and honor, but fortunately it pulls back frequently enough.

The actual storytelling during the movie's first half focuses on little moments -- such as one scene involving a soldier admiring his girlfriend back home -- and the exchanges between characters have a classical snap, recalling "tough guy" war movies of the 1950s. The final half of The Outpost focuses on the big battle, with Lurie's camera darting and dodging between buildings and barriers, ducking bullets, and getting up to move again. These scenes are composed of several long, dynamic takes that capture the chaos and the action perfectly and with clarity. It's suspenseful but also horrifying and heartbreaking. Ultimately, this is a portrait of men in war whose top priority is to look out for one another.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Outpost 's violence . How intense is it? Does it make war seem exciting? Or does it seem shocking, horrifying? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

Is this an anti-war movie? Does it support the soldiers who served? How?

How do the characters demonstrate courage ? Why is that an important character strength ?

How is smoking depicted? Is it glamorized? Are there consequences? Why does that matter?

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : August 18, 2020
Cast : Scott Eastwood , Caleb Landry Jones , Orlando Bloom
Director : Rod Lurie
Studio : Screen Media
Genre : Drama
Character Strengths : Courage
Run time : 123 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : war violence and grisly images, pervasive language, and sexual references
Last updated : April 20, 2024

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THE OUTPOST (2020) – Review

Last year in the times of opulent movie showcase palaces with big wide screens and thundering digital sound (yes, the “before times”) two major studio features focused on the last century’s two world wars: 1917 and MIDWAY. This holiday weekend sees the release of a major battle film from a more recent conflict. Without the big theatres to bask in the epic scope, this film goes for a more intimate approach. Instead of hopping from country to country, we’re embedded right there with the warriors as the world seems to explode all around them. Even with modern tech, the danger is just as abrupt and deadly. And for the last couple of decades, the hottest of the world’s hot spots (in nearly every way) was Afghanistan. As we celebrate our freedom on this patriotic holiday, it may be the perfect time to look back at another incident concerning those who gave everything for us to enjoy our cookouts and fireworks, those soldiers who valiantly defended THE OUTPOST.

The story actually begins in 2006 as Staff Sergeant Clint Romesha (Scott Eastwood) and several other new additions arrive at their new assignment, Combat Outpost Kamdesh (later renamed Keating) in the dead of night (the Taliban forces haven’t acquired night-vision tech, valuable since the mountain block-outs the moonlight and most stars). Upon landing they are immediately taken to the C.O.1st Lieutenant Benjamin Keating (Orlando Bloom) who re-states their purpose there to support counterinsurgency efforts against the flow of weapons from nearby Pakistan into neighboring towns like Kamdesh in the Nuristan Province of Eastern Afghanistan. One way to win the locals’ “hearts and minds” is by funding local constructions (roads, schools) and recruiting the younger men as “peacekeepers” (lured by some “financial aid”). Keating himself meets with the village elders to convince them of the US military’s just intentions. Prior to the “sit-down”, Romesha and the new men get a taste of the daily routine there as the outpost is suddenly under attack from shooters high up in the mountains surrounding them. It’s then that we meet the main ammo supply “runner” Specialist Ty Michael Carter (Caleb Landry Jones) who evades machine gun fire as he delivers the much-needed supplies (bullets, etc.). The men return fire until the mortar launcher finds its target, scattering (or destroying) the attackers. As the years pass, the men try to adjust to rigors of downtime while being alert to the constant threat of the insurgents. The base officers come and go until one of the “long-timers” is put in charge until the base’s rumored shutdown (after the local elections in October). But then the tension amps up. The village intel man’s warnings about incoming Taliban troops become more frantic. Then the elders head into the camp demanding immediate payments for destruction and “insults to their honor”. Not long after, the early morning sunrise reveals waves and waves of heavily armed Taliban troops descending down the mountainside. The outpost’s location in the valley surrounded by high ground makes them a “sitting duck” with no real escape option. Luckily the communications aren’t cut off. But the air firepower (mainly Apache helicopters) is a couple of hours away. Can these 53 soldiers possibly survive against the hundreds all around them until back-up from above helps to “even the odds”?

With his work as real-life hero Romesha, Eastwood continues to build an impressive resume on his way to big screen hunk/ action star (some cowboy romance in THE LONGEST RIDE, switched with the fantasy of THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS franchise). He’s required to be a steely-eye (easy considering his DNA) man in charge, which he excels at, particularly as he barks out strategy and instructions to his often overwhelmed “band of brothers”. It’s not until the high-energy third act do we see some of that tough exterior begin to soften as frustration over the whole “boxed-in” scenario begins to wear on him seeming to cause him more pain than the oozing shoulder wound (he dismisses countless offers for a “patch-up’). While he’s solid in battle, Jones excels in expressing the “inner fight” inside the mind of the complex Carter. He shows us a man barely given the respect of a “service animal” by his squad (you can almost see him wince as they basically scream “Run! Fetch!”, then berate him for mixing up any ammo numbers). Nobody appears to appreciate his “zig-zagging” through the firefights in order to load up and repeat over and over. During the “downtime” he softly seethes as the others bond and joke, even brushing off digs at his odd resume (from school to the Marines, then a stateside gig at a “big-box’ store before jumping into the Army). His opinion, much as his mortality, doesn’t seem to matter to anyone, especially when he expresses his concerns about the new C.O. to an officer ( a verbal “slap-in-the-face” is his “reward”). Jones isn’t concerned about making Carter “likable” even as that attack brings out his inner “protector”, a turn that will no doubt lead to many sleepless nights. He delivers the film’s best performance. As for the film’s first act, Bloom is most impressive as the “papa bear’ trying to protect his men while carrying out conflicting orders from the top that require him to humble himself to the locals who would take advantage of their “deep pockets”. He’s noble in his desire to be right alongside “his guys” in the dirt and dust, though he’ll pay the ultimate price for his compassion.

Though perhaps best known for his political dramas like THE CONTENDER, Rod Lurie proves to be an effective action director. He expertly captures the sweaty panic of the near-daily attacks and ramps up the disorienting chaos of the big battle. Unfortunately, the long stretches of everyday aggravation and monotony quickly become repetitive with petty squabbles and booze (and pot) fueled revelry (what’s the deal with the two naked guys mumbling “I love you” to each other as they slow dance). Still, there are scenes of great suspense with a nighttime convoy trek over crumbling roads of the mountain that recalls the nail-biting moments of SORCEROR. But aside from the surprisingly abrasive Jones as Carter, the rest of the troops soon adhere to the old war film stock characters (at least none of them is nicknamed “Brooklyn”). Perhaps the screenplay by Eric Johnson and Paul Tamasy, adapting Jake Tapper’s lauded non-fiction book, needed a bit more ‘tightening’. And though combat sequences feel authentic, they also seem too similar to the now-standard “desert battles’ from recent films like AMERICAN SNIPER, LONE SURVIVOR, 13 HOURS, and even the flashbacks of HBO’s series “Barry”. But aside from such familiar trappings, the film is respectful of those sacrifices, even getting in a jab at the “higher-ups” for establishing a base in such a dangerous, “hemmed-in” locale. Be sure and stick around for the end credits to see the real faces of those heroes of THE OUTPOST, before you resume your Fourth festivities. After all, they picked up “the tab”.

Two and a Half Out of Four

THE OUTPOST screens at select theatres. Beginning Friday 7/3 it will be available as a Video On Demand via most cable and satellite systems along with many streaming apps and platforms.

Jim Batts was a contestant on the movie edition of TV's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" in 2009 and has been a member of the St. Louis Film Critics organization since 2013.

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The outpost (2020), directed by rod lurie.

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Review by Steven Yoder

Jake Tapper's non-fiction book, The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor, is brought to life by director Rod Lurie (The Contender) and screenwriters Paul Tamasy (Patriot's Day) and Eric Johnson (The Finest Hours). The excellent scripting, inspired direction, and brilliant camera work combine to bring the audience into the stark reality of a no-win situation turned somber victory.

US Army Outpost Keating, located in Kamdesh, Afghanistan, is vital for the outreach to locals in the battle against the Taliban. But it is also in an indefensible position, and ultimately scheduled to be dismantled. Before this can happen, missteps with the locals lead to a major assault on the outpost. Through leadership and courage, Keating is defended at the cost of eight American soldiers and resulting in the death of an estimated 150 Taliban fighters.

Johnson's script doesn't hesitate to show the combat soldier's day-to-day life, from the aggressive camaraderie among those that do and don't get along, to the unusual and occasionally obscene ways they get by in such a stressful environment. It doesn't cut any corners in showing the dangers of living in such a zone, from daily sniper attacks to tenuous relationships with the allies and tribal elders. Lurie steps into the script with full gusto, translating it into a realistic, sometimes hard-to-watch world that so many troops live every day. He doesn't spend excess time promoting any particular character. Instead, he creates a genuine feel that these men are a band of brothers.

The actors show a great deal of respect to the fact that these are real men. Each actor could just as easily have been active-duty US Army because they fold so well into their roles. Scott Eastwood does a good job as Staff Sergeant Clinton Romesha, but the standout is Caleb Landry Jones. Much like the real Staff Sergeant Ty Carter, he goes above and beyond the call of duty in a spectacular portrayal of the Medal of Honor winner. Also worth noting is that, in an act of both valor and honor to those who died, SPC Daniel Rodriguez relived the battle by portraying himself in the film.

The camera work leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination, creating a fully immersive world that is sometimes frenzied as the battle unfolds. Moving from one location to another and showing individual groups as they try to get a handle on the situation could quickly lose the audience. But Lorenzo Senatore has a full grip on the cinematographer's job, keeping the action controlled and easy to follow.

As the film closes, we see the service awards that the heroes of this battle received. While the credits are rolling, the eight fallen soldiers are depicted beside the actors who portrayed them. This is another instance of just how much respect everyone involved in the production holds for those involved.

The Outpost might have scenes that are too violent for some viewers. Still, it is an honest, gritty, and sometimes disturbing portrayal of events that might otherwise fade into the obscurity of war archives. The memory should never be lost - both to avoid the mistakes that were made from a military standpoint and for each man that was at Keating that day.

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‘The Garfield Movie’ Review: This Feels Like Too Much Effort

Garfield, voiced by Chris Pratt, is joined by Samuel L. Jackson as his father, in an inert big-screen adaptation that fundamentally misunderstands its protagonist.

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An animated scene of a yellow dog with a tennis ball close to his mouth, next to a puffed-up orange and black cat looking perturbed.

By Brandon Yu

Since Garfield’s debut in the 1970s, Jim Davis’s orange tabby has become one of the most successful brands to evolve from the humble American comic strip. And fortified by a reliable stream of cartoon shows, video games and a couple of bland Bill Murray-voiced films in the early 2000s, Garfield is now one of the more enduring images of the American imagination.

Even if you’ve never consumed Garfield in any prolonged form, you probably know who he is and what he represents. (Mondays: reviled. Lasagna: beloved. Effort of any kind: a fundamental misunderstanding of life.)

It’s particularly odd, then, that the latest iteration of the Garfield empire, the animated “The Garfield Movie,” somehow doesn’t. The film, directed by Mark Dindal, is an inert adaptation that mostly tries to skate by on its namesake. In other words, it’s a Garfield movie that strangely doesn’t feel as if Garfield as we know him is really there at all.

Part of this can be attributed to the voice — Chris Pratt, an overly spunky casting choice that was doomed from the start — but there’s also a built-in defect to the very concept of the big-screen Garfield treatment. An animated, animal-centric children’s movie tends to require a narrative structure of action-packed adventure — the antithesis of Garfield the cat’s raison d’être.

Instead, after a perfunctory origin story of Garfield’s life with his owner, Jon (Nicholas Hoult), and dog companion, Odie (Harvey Guillén), the film is quickly set into adventure mode when Garfield and Odie are kidnapped by a pair of henchman dogs working for a vengeful cat named Jinx (Hannah Waddingham). Garfield’s estranged father, Vic (Samuel L. Jackson), quickly comes to the rescue, but it’s Vic that Jinx is really after. After Jinx demands a truck full of milk as payment for a botched job she took the fall for, Vic, with Garfield and Odie in tow, are off to find a way to pay his debt.

Vic is a new addition to the lore. (Garfield’s father wasn’t present in the many media iterations, save for a few passing mentions.) He abandoned Garfield as a kitten in an alley, and their relationship is strained. This Garfield, aside from the predictable references here and there to his gluttony, is mostly an agitated son who chafes at his dad’s sudden presence in his life.

Even before all of this is set in motion, Garfield is introduced with too much pep in his step by Pratt, who has become, for better or worse, blockbuster animation’s go-to lead (“The Lego Movie,” “Onward,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”). His voice acting, though, lacks the dynamism to embody a memorable character like Garfield. His golden retriever, himbo energy can work in specific situations, like “The Lego Movie,” but here it’s the inverse of what Garfield ought to be. Bill Murray, Garfield’s voice in the earlier films, felt genuinely well suited to the cat’s languor, even if the movies were rough.

Granted, Pratt isn’t helped along elsewhere. The animation is visually flat, with compositions that seem oddly half-populated and cheap. The script, by Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove and David Reynolds, is weak, with most of its comedy derived from cheap slapstick violence that even kids may tire of, and emotional beats that were written on autopilot.

This is all the more disappointing considering that in 2000, Dindal directed one of the more comically daring big-budget animated works: Disney’s “The Emperor’s New Groove.” That film opened with a fourth-wall-breaking introduction from its protagonist, just as in this “Garfield”; in “The Emperor’s New Groove,” it foreshadowed the tone of an idiosyncratic work, but here it just reads as lazy.

More cynical viewers might see the film as simply a flotation device for ads, considering the constant product placement. In all his indolence, even Garfield would have dragged himself up to change the channel.

The Garfield Movie Rated PG for action/peril and mild thematic elements. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. In theaters.

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Blog The Education Hub

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2024/05/16/new-rshe-guidance-what-it-means-for-sex-education-lessons-in-schools/

New RSHE guidance: What it means for sex education lessons in schools

R elationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) is a subject taught at both primary and secondary school.

In 2020, Relationships and Sex Education was made compulsory for all secondary school pupils in England and Health Education compulsory for all pupils in state-funded schools.

Last year, the Prime Minister and Education Secretary brought forward the first review of the curriculum following reports of pupils being taught inappropriate content in RSHE in some schools.

The review was informed by the advice of an independent panel of experts. The results of the review and updated guidance for consultation has now been published.

We are now asking for views from parents, schools and others before the guidance is finalised. You can find the consultation here .

What is new in the updated curriculum?

Following the panel’s advice, w e’re introducing age limits, to ensure children aren’t being taught about sensitive and complex subjects before they are ready to fully understand them. 

We are also making clear that the concept of gender identity – the sense a person may have of their own gender, whether male, female or a number of other categories – is highly contested and should not be taught. This is in line with the cautious approach taken in our gu idance on gender questioning children.

Along with other factors, teaching this theory in the classroom could prompt some children to start to question their gender when they may not have done so otherwise, and is a complex theory for children to understand.

The facts about biological sex and gender reassignment will still be taught.

The guidance for schools also contains a new section on transparency with parents, making it absolutely clear that parents have a legal right to know what their children are being taught in RSHE and can request to see teaching materials.

In addition, we’re seeking views on adding several new subjects to the curriculum, and more detail on others. These include:

Suicide prevention
Sexual harassment and sexual violence
L oneliness
The prevalence of 'deepfakes’
Healthy behaviours during pregnancy, as well as miscarriage
Illegal online behaviours including drug and knife supply
The dangers of vaping 
Menstrual and gynaecological health including endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and heavy menstrual bleeding.

What are the age limits?

In primary school, we’ve set out that subjects such as the risks about online gaming, social media and scams should not be taught before year 3.

Puberty shouldn’t be taught before year 4, whilst sex education shouldn’t be taught before year 5, in line with what pupils learn about conception and birth as part of the national curriculum for science.

In secondary school, issues regarding sexual harassment shouldn’t be taught before year 7, direct references to suicide before year 8 and any explicit discussion of sexual activity before year 9.

Do schools have to follow the guidance?

Following the consultation, the guidance will be statutory, which means schools must follow it unless there are exceptional circumstances. 

There is some flexibility w ithin the age ratings, as schools will sometimes need to respond to questions from pupils about age-restricted content, if they come up earlier within their school community.

In these circumstances, schools are instructed to make sure that teaching is limited to the essential facts without going into unnecessary details, and parents should be informed.

When will schools start teaching this?

School s will be able to use the guidance as soon as we publish the final version later this year.

However, schools will need time to make changes to their curriculum, so we will allow an implementation period before the guidance comes into force.   

What can parents do with these resources once they have been shared?

This guidance has openness with parents at its heart. Parents are not able to veto curriculum content, but they should be able to see what their children are being taught, which gives them the opportunity to raise issues or concerns through the school’s own processes, if they want to.

Parents can also share copyrighted materials they have received from their school more widely under certain circumstances.

If they are not able to understand materials without assistance, parents can share the materials with translators to help them understand the content, on the basis that the material is not shared further.

Copyrighted material can also be shared under the law for so-called ‘fair dealing’ - for the purposes of quotation, criticism or review, which could include sharing for the purpose of making a complaint about the material.

This could consist of sharing with friends, families, faith leaders, lawyers, school organisations, governing bodies and trustees, local authorities, Ofsted and the media. In each case, the sharing of the material must be proportionate and accompanied by an acknowledgment of the author and its ownership.

Under the same principle, parents can also share relevant extracts of materials with the general public, but except in cases where the material is very small, it is unlikely that it would be lawful to share the entirety of the material.

These principles would apply to any material which is being made available for teaching in schools, even if that material was provided subject to confidentiality restrictions.

Do all children have to learn RSHE?

Parents still have the right to withdraw their child from sex education, but not from the essential content covered in relationships educatio n.

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The Education Hub is a site for parents, pupils, education professionals and the media that captures all you need to know about the education system. You’ll find accessible, straightforward information on popular topics, Q&As, interviews, case studies, and more.

Please note that for media enquiries, journalists should call our central Newsdesk on 020 7783 8300. This media-only line operates from Monday to Friday, 8am to 7pm. Outside of these hours the number will divert to the duty media officer.

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User reviews

Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara

A Jewish boy is kidnapped and converted to Catholicism in 1858. A Jewish boy is kidnapped and converted to Catholicism in 1858. A Jewish boy is kidnapped and converted to Catholicism in 1858.

Marco Bellocchio
Susanna Nicchiarelli
Edoardo Albinati
Paolo Pierobon
Fausto Russo Alesi
Barbara Ronchi
7 User reviews
72 Critic reviews
71 Metascore
16 wins & 16 nominations

Papa Pio IX

Salomone Mortara

Marianna Padovani Mortara
Edgardo Mortara da bambino
Edgardo Mortara da ragazzo

Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli

Pier Gaetano Feletti
Angelo Padovani
Riccardo Mortara

Giudice Carboni
Anna Morisi

Sabatino Scazzocchio

Maresciallo Lucidi
Angelo Moscati
Padre Mariano
Brigadiere Agostini
Bonaiuto Sanguinetti
(as Pietro Daniele Aldrovandi)
Avvocado Jussi
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Trivia Steven Spielberg was intending to direct a version of this story around 2016. He even was looking at casting the young boy's role though open auditions from Jewish Schools in Europe and America. Although he had cast Mark Rylance as Pope Pius IX and Oscar Isaac as the older Edgardo Mortara, Spielberg's inability to find the right child actor led to the project becoming stalled.

Salomone Mortara : What were we supposed to do?

User reviews 7

serenamanouchehri
Oct 15, 2023
How long is Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara? Powered by Alexa
May 24, 2024 (United States)
Official Site
Piazza Maggiore, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy (views of the cathedral facade)
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€13,000,000 (estimated)
May 26, 2024

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Runtime 2 hours 14 minutes
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‘the balconettes’ review: noemie merlant’s genre-bender about female friendship and sexual violence is a hot mess.

Souheila Yacoub, Sanda Codreanu and Lucas Bravo co-star alongside the director in a movie whose script had collaborative input from Celine Sciamma.

By Leslie Felperin

Leslie Felperin

Contributing Film Critic

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Noemie Merlant, best known beyond France for her performances in Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Todd Field’s Tár , made her debut as a writer-director-actor a few years back with Mi Iubita, mon amour , which starts with a bachelorette party. Merlant offers up another female-solidarity story in the shape of The Balconettes ( Les femmes au balcon ), a comedy with a very dark streak or a giggly drama depending on how you look at it.

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Controversial Donald Trump movie ‘The Apprentice’ depicts him as rapist

A dark new biopic starring Sebastian Stan as a young Trump is the talk of Cannes.

CANNES, France — Had a movie titled “The Apprentice” about a young Donald Trump ’s rise to power premiered in America — during an election year in which said protagonist is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president — one imagines there might have been protests and police in riot gear.

Instead, this Monday evening at the Cannes Film Festival, the film received the usual reverential treatment: a gala audience in gowns and tuxedos and star Sebastian Stan posing for photos on the red carpet. (Jeremy Strong, who plays the ruthless lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn, is on Broadway; during the eight-minute standing ovation, Iranian Danish director Ali Abbasi held up a still photo of the actor in his dressing room with his fingers in a peace sign.)

The film follows Trump in his years as a New York real estate mogul, as he strikes up an almost filial relationship with Cohn (and then abandons him as Cohn contracts AIDS), and falls in and out of love with his first wife, Ivana (Maria Bakalova of “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”).

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Going into the premiere, the main questions swirling around the movie seemed to be about tone. Did the presence of Bakalova mean that this was going to be a biting satire? (The Cannes party invite, for instance, says, “If you’re indicted, you’re invited,” which is a line Strong’s Cohn says in the film.)

Or would it be a dark look into Trump’s power grabs and predatory behavior? After all, the screenplay is from Vanity Fair journalist Gabriel Sherman, and Abbasi’s last Cannes film, 2022’s “Holy Spider,” is about a serial killer targeting sex workers in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad.

When the lights rose, the applause was instant and robust, with Cate Blanchett and Cynthia Erivo somehow leading the charge down in the orchestra seats near Abbasi and Stan. There had been spots of laughter, especially during moments of physical comedy, like when Trump slips on ice while courting Ivana and boastfully telling her he knows how to ski. But, by and large, it is a very dark and chilling origin story.

Stan’s Trump is not a clown but a vicious “killer,” as the character categorizes his ambition. In details that seem to be based on a 1990 divorce deposition from Ivana Trump , we see him go under the knife, in gory detail, to get liposuction and a scalp reduction surgery, as a solution to his growing love handles and bald spot.

And we watch when, as Ivana also alleged in that deposition, Trump pushes her to the floor of their home during an argument and rapes her. (Ivana’s testimony had brought the concept of marital rape into mainstream American conversation at the time, but she recanted her statements about it in 2015 .)

He’s also depicted receiving oral sex from a topless blonde in Atlantic City while married.

“We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers. This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked,” said Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign communications director.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Abbasi personally invited Trump to a private screening. The director also took the threat of legal action in stride: “Everybody talks about him suing a lot of people. They don’t talk about his success rate, though,” he said. The film does not yet have a U.S. distributor though Abbasi is hoping for a mid-September release to coincide with the second presidential debate. “We have a promotional event coming up called the U.S. election that’s going to help us with the movie.”

As they were making the film, Abbasi told the crowd at the premiere, he had so many people question why he would choose Trump as his subject matter, or why he didn’t wrap up what he wanted to say about the world in an allegory about the American Revolution or the Second World War.

“But the point is there is no nice metaphorical way to deal with the rising wave of fascism,” he said. “There’s only the messy way … there’s only the way of dealing with this wave on its own terms, on its own level, and it’s not going to be pretty, but I think … that the good people have been quiet for too long. So I think it’s time to make movies relevant. It’s time to make movies political again.”

Later on, at a party celebrating his new film, Abbasi told The Washington Post: “He’s a complex character. I think anyone who thinks Donald Trump is stupid or banal or superficial is gravely mistaken. I think a lot of my liberal friends think that because he doesn’t speak as eloquently as Barack Obama, he’s dumb and he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

He continued: “He has a very intuitive, actual ability to understand the masses. The Donald Trump in the movie is a construct, you know? I can call it a persona. And I can’t say that I decoded him.”

Early griping about the film, from the select few who’d seen it before the premiere, centered on how favorably Trump comes across in the first half. Stan plays him as a cocky, endearing kid, eager to earn his emotionally withholding father’s approval by building the biggest, most gaudy buildings in New York.

Determined to build his own legacy on the skyline of a city that was crumbling and emptying out in the late ’70s and early ’80s, Trump befriends Cohn, who helps the Trump family out when the Justice Department sues them for discriminating against Black rental applicants to their buildings. Cohn was the one who came up with the idea to countersue the government for $100 million .

Almost as soon as they meet, Cohn is teaching Trump life lessons that still seem to be ones he lives by — and that he laid out in his book “The Art of the Deal”:

1) Attack, attack, attack. (“If someone comes at you with a knife, you hit them with a bazooka,” Stan’s Trump later says.)

2) Admit nothing and deny everything.

3) Never admit defeat.

“I thought that the director’s voice was incredibly bold, and it was a funny take but also incredibly impactful,” said Michelle J. Li, a 27-year-old costume designer from New York, outside the theater. “When you see him portrayed as a human, it makes all these wild choices that we know him to have made even more [frightening].”

“It’s a lot easier to write off monsters as if they’re a fable,” said her friend Reece Feldman, 25, who works in digital marketing for film. “But when they’re depicted as people, you realize that their choices come from something within as opposed to just like a storybook [evil].”

Behind the scenes, though, Variety reports that the film has been embroiled in a vicious legal battle with one of its investors, the billionaire former owner of the Washington Commanders, Daniel Snyder.

According to the trade paper, Snyder — who is a friend of Trump’s and donated $1.1 million to his inaugural committee and Trump Victory Fund in 2016 and $100,000 to his 2020 campaign — invested in the film through Kinematics. The production company, founded by actor-director Mark H. Rapaport, has made only four films so far, and most of them are horror.

Per Variety, Snyder believed the film would be a flattering portrayal of Trump. But, according to the outlet: “Snyder finally saw a cut of the film in February and was said to be furious. Kinematics’ lawyers were enlisted to fight the release of ‘The Apprentice,’ and the cease-and-desist letters began flying.”

Kinematics president Emanuel Nuñez confirmed to Variety that his company had tried to stop the release but that it was a result of creative disagreements between the company and the filmmakers and had nothing to do with Snyder.

Snyder’s attorney John Brownlee did not respond to an email from The Post seeking comment.

Nicki Jhabvala and Maeve Reston contributed to this report.

This article has been updated to include a statement from Donald Trump’s campaign communications director, as well as remarks from a Tuesday news conference.

Jeremy Strong, as Roy Cohn, says, “If you’re indicted, you’re invited” in the film. It is not written on an invitation in the film. This article has been corrected.

The real 3-star Michelin meal behind Ruth Reichl’s most decadent eating scene in ‘The Paris Novel’

Ruth Reichl smiling with a platter of oysters while seated along a street in Paris. In foreground, the words "tasting notes."

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Many of Ruth Reichl’s decadent eating scenes in “The Paris Novel” were based on real meals she reported on for the L.A. Times. Plus, L.A.’s best cookies, new restaurant openings, a $400 pineapple, Red Lobster gluttony and California’s cannabis cafe bill. I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week’s Tasting Notes.

Adventures with Ruth

Chef Marc Meneau wearing a red gingham button-up, vest and hat among trellises in his vineyard in Vezelay, France, in 1996

“What I would really like,” the French chef Marc Meneau told Ruth Reichl in 1990 when she was this paper’s restaurant critic, “is to throw out the foie gras at the end and just eat the lentils.”

Reichl was at the Michelin three-star l’Espérance in Saint-Père-sous-Vézelay, two and a half hours outside Paris, and had set out to discover what some of the world’s best chefs at the time could teach a California critic about fine dining.

“He cooks a whole foie gras in a pot of lentils — along with lard, onions and carrots,” she wrote in her article. “It comes to the table — the entire foie gras! — in its own pot. Then it is sliced and served with gros sel and pepper. The combination is extraordinary.”

I was working for Reichl at this paper when she wrote those words. That foie gras, as she described it in print and in person, has stuck in my memory as one of the world’s great dishes that got away. I never had the chance to eat the cooking of Meneau, who closed his restaurant in 2015 and died during the COVID pandemic in 2020.

But when I picked up Reichl’s latest book, “ The Paris Novel ,” and got to the part where her heroine, Stella St. Vincent , is taken to l’Espérance, there was that foie gras, presented by the chef himself to the young American woman still learning the pleasures of the table. But this time, with the power of fiction, Reichl fulfilled the chef’s wish from 1990.

“With a flourish, the chef stuck a fork into the liver, pulled it out, set it aside,” Reichl writes in the novel. “‘Au revoir le foie gras.’ Then he scooped the lentils onto their plates. ‘I have always wanted to do this. And I knew you were the one who would appreciate it.’”

Stella is also served ortolan in Paris by L’Ami Louis founding chef Antoine Magnin ; a jewel box of a salad by Alain Passard with chervil, parsley, tarragon, sage and blue borage petals treated as precious stones; and some of the first sous vide successes by Jean Troisgros , not only foie gras but salmon “caught just this morning in the Allier,” says the novel, and served with an abstract-painting-like slash of sorrel sauce. “The flavor is so green I feel like I’m eating color,” says Stella.

Of course, there is more foie gras and dozens of oysters, including Meneau’s, which “trembled,” she writes through Stella’s eyes, “suspended in jellied sea water, as if Meneau had caused the tides to stop.”

Back in 1990, wrote Reichl of the real meal that inspired the scene: “In Marc Meneau’s hands foie gras turns to liquid and seawater jells. It’s magic.”

Stella also gets to make hollandaise with a mortar and pestle alongside the great American-in-France cookbook writer Richard Olney — someone I did get to interview during my time working for Reichl.

But of all the magical foods Stella eats in “The Paris Novel,” set in 1983 when France’s real-life food legends were breaking old traditions and setting a new template for fine dining, it’s the lentils minus the foie gras with which they were cooked that I consider the most decadent dish in the novel.

Though I’ll never eat those lentils, I’ve been lucky enough to have many other wonderful meals with Reichl, including several three-star adventures. But one of the most fun outings we’ve had over the years was the day pictured above when we ate oysters at Huîtrerie Régis and then went around the corner and slid into a booth at Brasserie Lipp for pig trotters .

“It’s the most perfect oyster bar,” Reichl wrote of Huîtrerie Régis in her Substack newsletter La Briffe , “and the place to try the coppery, unforgettable Belons that taste like no other oyster. A fine place to bid farewell to a city where the food has never been better.”

L.A.’s most desirable cookies

“The cookie scene here has gotten so competitive,” writes assistant food editor Danielle Dorsey in this week’s guide to 24 of the best cookies in L.A. , “that a handful of East Coast shops have relocated to get in on the action”

Certainly, if you are a cookie lover, you’ve noticed that some of the best places require patience, as deputy food editor Betty Hallock observed: “A child waiting in line on a recent Sunday at Gusto in Long Beach wailed to his dad, ‘Why does this place have to be so popular?!’”

Stephanie Breijo and Jenn Harris joined Dorsey and Hallock on an epic cookie quest that included “ Lo Hoang ’s cult-favorites” at Largwa ; the “craggy ... gooey ... cakey” almond rocher cookies at Jordan Kahn ‘s Destroyer , and Chip Cookie ’s so-called “Better Than Sex Chip.”

If you prefer to bake your own cookies, Betty Hallock compiled 10 of her favorite cookie recipes from our archives for tomorrow’s cooking newsletter, which comes out every Sunday. If you’re not a subscriber, you can sign up here .

The $395.99 pineapple

The $395.99 Ruby Glow pineapple framed by its opened packaging

Luxury prices for fruit are not a new phenomenon. Japan’s famed square watermelons ($800 in 2017) and even pricier bowling ball-shaped densuke watermelons ($6,100 in 2008) are just two examples of rare and pricey fruit. This week, Cindy Carcamo wrote about the $400 pineapple ($395.99 to be exact) from Melissa’s Produce and Fresh Del Monte Produce . The Rubyglow pineapple is prized for its sweetness and ruby-like exterior — and as of Monday this year’s harvest is sold out.

“The rise of luxury fruits comes at a time when some Americans are struggling to afford groceries and food insecurity is [growing],” Carcamo writes. The pineapple “reflects a deepening chasm between luxury food consumers and average American families just scraping by.”

Oroblanco and avocado salad with golden turnip, curry and mint at Rustic Canyon.

“It was a fruit salad that rivaled the most complex, extravagant dish on any tasting menu I’ve had in recent memory. Subtle and nearly monochrome, it was calming on the eyes like a Robert Ryman hanging in the Tate Modern .” That’s Jenn Harris on the oroblanco and avocado salad she ate at Santa Monica’s Rustic Canyon, created by Jeremy Fox ’s sous chef Elijah G Deleon . The salad, made with fruit from JJ’s Lone Daughter Ranch in Redlands (buying JJ’s avocados from Laura Ramirez is one of the delights of going to the Hollywood Farmers Market ) inspired Harris to find three great savory fruit salad recipes , including one with roasted beets, citrus and labneh from “ Vegetarian Salad for Dinner ” author Jeanne Kelley , profiled last year by novelist Michelle Huneven .

From left: Raul R Porto, son Adrian, 9, Betty Porto–Kawabata, patriarch Raul. E Porto, wife Rosa, and Margarita Navarro

This week brought news of the passing of two very different and influential food figures.

“If you’ve ever held a pastel-yellow box full of Cuban pastries in Los Angeles, you’ve most likely tasted the legacy of Raul Porto Sr .,” wrote Stephanie Breijo . “The patriarch and co-founder of Porto’s , one of the region’s most popular bakery chains, died at the age of 92.”

And as Christie D’Zurilla and Alexandra Del Rosario reported, Morgan Spurlock , “the Oscar-nominated filmmaker who in ‘ Super Size Me ’ documented the deleterious physical and psychological effects of a fast-food diet,” died this week of cancer at 53.

Though he stepped down from his production company after allegations of a “fratty” work environment, there’s no denying that, as D’Zurilla and Del Rosario wrote, “‘Super Size Me’ sparked larger conversations about diet and lifestyle [and] indirectly prompted McDonald’s to scale back its super-size options.”

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This week’s restaurant openings column from Stephanie Breijo includes details about the new Studio City location of smashburger specialists Heavy Handed ; Shibumi chef David Schlosser ’s new Kushiba , serving kushikatsu, or fried skewers, in Echo Park; Hato Sushi in Koreatown from Parks BBQ alum Tony Jin ; a new outpost of famed Seoul coffee spot Camel Coffee ; Santa Monica’s burger spot Burgette ; a Koreatown outpost of Florence’s famed sandwich shop All’Antico Vinaio ; a revamp of Venice’s Gran Blanco , and the return of beloved Spanish restaurant Cobras & Matadors.
Columnist Michael Hiltzik makes the case that it wasn’t only customer gluttony and a $20 all-you-can eat shrimp promotion that led to the Red Lobster chain’s bankruptcy, but the financial machinations of its owners.
Columnist Gustavo Arellano makes the case that California lawmakers’ plan to add folic acid to tortillas is a bad idea.
Columnist L.Z. Granderson makes the case that America needs cannabis cafes .

Eat your way across L.A.

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Laurie Ochoa is general manager of Food at the Los Angeles Times.

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Annie Wells x77020 –– For 40 years, Porto s Bakery has given Glendale and the LA metro area a little taste of Cuba. The family–owned, two–story bakery is a place where nostalgic Cuban exiles and the rest of LA can come for Cuban sandwiches at lunch, pastries and cakes. 023492.SO.0127.bakery.1 Three generations of Porto's work in the Porto Bakery. Left to right: Raul R Porto and his son Adrian, 9, Betty Porto–Kawabata, Raul. E Porto, the patriarch and his wife Rosa, and Margarita Navarro.

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FILE - Patrons smoke marijuana at Lowell's Original Cannabis Cafe, a legal marijuana establishment, in Los Angeles, Nov. 13, 2019. Marijuana advocates are gearing up for Saturday, April 20, 2024. Known as 4/20, marijuana's high holiday is marked by large crowds gathering in parks, at festivals and on college campuses to smoke together. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)

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The Outpost (2020) releasing to 4k in extended Director’s Cut
The Outpost movie review & film summary (2020)
Outpost movie review
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The Outpost movie review & film summary (2020)
However, "The Outpost" is designed to be a visceral, you-are-there experience, a film like " Black Hawk Down " or " Saving Private Ryan " that drops viewers in the middle of an absolute nightmare. While dozens of movies have sought to recreate the unimaginable horror of literally fighting your life, "The Outpost" connects more ...
The Outpost
Rated: 4/5 Sep 1, 2022 Full Review Keith Garlington Keith & the Movies While the first half of "The Outpost" is a borderline disservice, the second half is a fitting tribute to the soldiers ...
'The Outpost' Review: At War, in a Worst-Case Scenario
The casting of this war movie, set in Afghanistan in 2009, has novelty appeal. Two members of the ensemble, Scott Eastwood and Milo Gibson, are sons of famous actor-directors (Clint and Mel) who ...
'The Outpost' Review
Editor: Michael Duthie. Music: Larry Groupé. With: Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, Orlando Bloom, Jack Kesy, Cory Hardrict, Milo Gibson, Jacob Scipio, Taylor John Smith, Jonathan Yunger ...
The Outpost Review: Movie (2020)
The Outpost may be a brutal war film, but it's also an obvious labor of love. Production companies: Millennium Media, York Films. Distributor: Screen Media. Cast: Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry ...
The Outpost
Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jan 27, 2024. The Outpost will shake your core and rattle your bones. Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 1, 2022. While the first half of "The Outpost ...
The Outpost (2020) Movie Review
Rod Lurie's latest film adapts Tapper's novel with a star-studded cast leading the way. However, this film puts more of an emphasis on the battle itself rather than diving into the many decorated individuals at its center. The Outpost finds success in its thrilling, white-knuckling battle sequence, but rarely digs below the surface of the ones ...
The Outpost Review
The Outpost Review Enemy at the gates. ... 2020 10:06 pm. Posted: Oct 9, 2020 10:00 pm. This is a catch-up review, where we head back and watch a movie we missed over the past few months of PVOD ...
'The Outpost' review: Afgan War movie based on Jake Tapper's nonfiction
Review by Ann Hornaday. July 1, 2020 at 9:58 a.m. EDT. Scott Eastwood, right, in "The Outpost." (Simon Varsano/Screen Media Films) ... This is a movie in which casual conversation all too ...
The Outpost
Generally Favorable Based on 19 Critic Reviews. 71. 74% Positive 14 Reviews. 26% Mixed 5 Reviews. 0% Negative ... Negative Reviews; 90. TheWrap Jun 29, 2020 A riveting combat movie that aims to put viewers alongside American soldiers in the midst of one of the bloodiest battles in the long-running war, "The Outpost" takes the measure of ...
The Outpost Review: A Harrowing Account of the War in Afghanistan
Scott Alda Coffey leaves a memorable impression as the ineffably decent Michael Scusa. Only Scott Eastwood, playing Staff Sergeant Clint Romesha, feels like he's in the direct-to-Redbox version ...
The Outpost (2019)
The Outpost: Directed by Rod Lurie. With Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, Orlando Bloom, Jack Kesy. A small team of U.S. soldiers battles against hundreds of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
The Outpost
In the heart of the Kamdesh attack, however, the explosive destruction is ratcheted up a hundred-fold. Some 400 men attack the outpost with automatic rifles, RPGs and mortars. And though the 50 men in camp fight back with high caliber weapons they are quickly overwhelmed by a constant, vicious storm of bullets and explosives.
REVIEW: "The Outpost" (2020)
This entry was posted in Movie Reviews - O. Bookmark the permalink. Post navigation. ← Great Images From Great Movies #17: "Dunkirk" REVIEW: "The Rental" (2020) →. 13 thoughts on " REVIEW: "The Outpost" (2020) " Tony Briley says: July 17, 2020 at 12:59 pm
The Outpost (2019 film)
The Outpost is a 2019 American war film directed by Rod Lurie, based on the 2012 non-fiction book The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor by Jake Tapper, about the Battle of Kamdesh in the War in Afghanistan.It stars Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, Orlando Bloom, Jack Kesy, Cory Hardrict, Milo Gibson, Jacob Scipio, Will Attenborough, and Taylor John Smith.
'The Outpost' review: Director Rod Lurie turns Jake Tapper ...
Review by Brian Lowry, ... 3 minute read Updated 11:58 PM EDT, Thu July 2, 2020 Link Copied! Video Ad Feedback. Jake Tapper on the origins of new movie 'The Outpost'
'The Outpost' Movie Review: A War Film Remembers the Fallen
You might expect director Rod Lurie (West Point class of 1984 with four years in military service) to push the flag-waving aspect of a film about the war in Afghanistan. Though The Outpost pays ...
The Outpost Movie Review
Refe. Parents need to know that The Outpost is a war drama set in Afghanistan in 2009. Based on Jake Tapper's book, it tells the true story of a deadly attack on a U.S. Army outpost. Violence is bloody and intense, with lots of guns and shooting, explosions, death, extremely gory wounds, fighting, and other….
THE OUTPOST (2020)
THE OUTPOST (2020) - Review. Last year in the times of opulent movie showcase palaces with big wide screens and thundering digital sound (yes, the "before times") two major studio features focused on the last century's two world wars: 1917 and MIDWAY. This holiday weekend sees the release of a major battle film from a more recent conflict.
The Outpost (2020)
Review by Steven Yoder. Jake Tapper's non-fiction book, The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor, is brought to life by director Rod Lurie (The Contender) and screenwriters Paul Tamasy (Patriot's Day) and Eric Johnson (The Finest Hours). The excellent scripting, inspired direction, and brilliant camera work combine to bring the audience ...
Video Movie Review: THE OUTPOST (2020): A War Movie That ...
The Outpost Review. The Outpost (2020) Video Movie Review, a movie directed by Rod Lurie, written by Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, based on the book by Jake Tapper, and stars Scott Eastwood, Caleb ...
Video Movie Review: The Outpost (2020): A War Movie That Honors Our
The Outpost Review — The Outpost (2020) Video Movie Review, a movie directed by Rod Lurie, written by Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, based on the book by Jake Tapper, and stars Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, Orlando Bloom, Jack Kesy, Cory Hardrict, Milo Gibson, Jacob Scipio, Taylor John Smith, Jonathan Yunger, Alexander Arnold, George ...
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Many of Ruth Reichl's decadent eating scenes in 'The Paris Novel' were based on real meals she reported on for the L.A. Times. Plus, L.A.'s best cookies, Red Lobster gluttony, a $400 pineapple and ...

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