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| Scene from Outlaws |
In case you didn't know, A24 is one of the great purveyors of modern cinema. Since 2013, the studio has found a way to innovate independent cinema by turning each release into an event. As a result, A24 A-to-Z will be an ongoing series that looks at every release from the studio by analyzing its production history, release, criticisms, and any awards attention that it might've received. Join me on a quest to explore the modern heroes of cinema by exploring every hit and miss that comes with that magnificent logo. They may not all be great, but they more than make A24 what it is and what it will hopefully continue to be for years to come.
Released: February 1, 2019
Release Number: 76
Directed By: Stephen McCallum
Starring: Ryan Corr, Abbey Lee, Simone Kessell
Plot: 1% is set within the primal underworld of outlaw motorcycle club gangs. It follows the heir to the throne of a motorcycle club who has to betray his president to save his brother's life.
Despite having many hits in 2018, A24's lack of presence at that year's Academy Awards reflected a poor strategy that saw the studio at a disadvantage for the first time in four years. How was it going to pick things up and make 2019 an even better year? While what laid ahead was an exciting mix of oddball genre pieces and deeply emotional dramas, their first film out of the gate followed a familiar, if unspectacular tradition of being a somewhat maligned production from their DirecTV branch. In fact, it's one of the few films that has two competing titles that make searching for it a bit difficult without the A24 moniker. Sometimes called 1% but largely known as Outlaws, director Stephen McCallum created an Australian biker drama that sought to be more melodramatic and even Shakespearian, but ended up being one of the studio's least impressive works to date.
The story begins with the career of screenwriter Matthew Nable, who was born in New South Wales, Australia. Along with a sports career, he had many jobs before landing on screenwriting. This came from the advice of his mentor, Booker Award-winner Thomas Keneally ("Schindler's Ark"). This inspired Nable to start writing the project based on his unpublished book. The results, The Final Winter, would introduce him to the world of self-financing as he worked to get the film to the big screen. In the interim following the project, he would move to Hollywood and work on various shows. Other noteworthy gigs include the Vin Diesel film Riddick and the A24 film Son of a Gun. His highest-profile gig was as Ra's Al Ghul on the CW comic book series Arrow. It was working here that he befriended McCallum, whom he would work with on his directorial debut.
Nable had been fascinated with the biker culture of Australia and sought to make a drama exploring the internal world of these characters. Along with consulting people involved in the organization, he believed that he captured the atmosphere perfectly in his portrayal of characters. He named the film 1% because of a biker tradition of having "1%" tattooed somewhere on their body to represent the outlaws of society. He wanted the film to be brutal and melodramatic, but also have a deeper understanding of the culture as one man defies loyalty in order to help out his brother. He believed that it would be Shakespearian, making it the heightened drama that many would easily compare to the TV series Sons of Anarchy.
Some of the noteworthy things he added to the script involved the inner lives of these characters. He especially found interest in making the women three-dimensional, believing that they had a way of motivating the male characters that weren't often seen in other films. As a result, there were a lot of strong portrayals in supporting roles. Nable would also choose to make the story more sexually ambiguous, believing that figures of power were often sexually confused and used their power in ways reflecting their own personal confusion. Considering that Nable played Knuck (for which he gained weight), he sought to find a way to capture the character while handing the script over to McCallum. It was a group effort that allowed him to reflect a subculture that interested him but hadn't really had a chance to explore.
The film would premiere during the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017 as part of the Discovery line-up. With A24 there promoting many of their Fall 2017 releases, it allowed them to be in close proximity to the screening. It was said that audience members were engaged with 1% and found a deep interest in how the biker culture is depicted. Whether or not that's true is speculative, as early reviews remained just as negative as later ones. 1% would be one of two films bought at TIFF that year alongside Hot Summer Nights with a promise to be released sometime in late-2018. It was true that the film had theatrical screenings in Australia, though it bypassed the American release in favor of DirecTV distribution that sent it directly to video on demand. As a result, it made $0 in America theatrically, but $76,151 from home video sales. The film was also nominated by the Australian Academy of Cinema and TV Arts (AACTA) including Best Original Screenplay. It didn't win any. The film missed its 2018 release, settling for a February 2019 date instead. It isn't clear when or why 1% became Outlaws, though advertisements on websites like IMDb still confuse both titles with some ease.
Things weren't looking too good for what little audience saw the film. According to critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, Outlaws would earn 30%, which places it among the bottom five lowest-rated films in A24 history as of this publication. Matthew Monagle of Film School Rejects lead the general complaints when suggesting that "Outlaws is an Australian biker throwback that throws back to some of the worst aspects of American exploitation cinema." Jared Mobarak of The Film Stage seconded this opinion when noting "Without that nuance to rip their wounds open, though, it's tough thinking anyone but hard-drinking criminals already in an MC to crack skulls will find much appeal." Even those who saw the dramatic flourishes, like Mark Dujsik of Mark Reviews Movies, criticized that "Outlaws is kind of like a modern-day interpretation of Macbeth that involves an Australian motorcycle gang ... The movie also ... is quite dumb."Andiee Paviour of Nobody's Reading This But Me was one of few defenders when arguing "A copperhead is a venomous snake. It's also the name of a gang of West Australian outlaw motorcycle riders-the 1 percent who are a paradox of the deadly and the fiercely." Overall, it was one of the least impressive turnouts in A24's imports from Australia.
Whether one thinks of it as 1% or Outlaws, McCallum's movie did little to separate itself from the competition. Even with a story that pushed boundaries and gave supporting players interesting perspectives, it wasn't enough to make it pleasing to audiences. It makes sense then why it remains confused about its own identity, never quite settling on a title nor a resonant enough marketing strategy. The same couldn't be said for the next film from A24, which found them teaming up with one of international cinema's most provocative auteurs. He was a filmmaker who promised to take the dance movie genre and throw it into drug-fueled chaos. What director Gaspar Noe lacked in nuance, he made up for in sheer visceral reaction. Climax was the first of many films in 2019 that would brutally form its own reputation with a weird story that resonated far more than it should've.
Up Next: Climax (2019)
Despite having many hits in 2018, A24's lack of presence at that year's Academy Awards reflected a poor strategy that saw the studio at a disadvantage for the first time in four years. How was it going to pick things up and make 2019 an even better year? While what laid ahead was an exciting mix of oddball genre pieces and deeply emotional dramas, their first film out of the gate followed a familiar, if unspectacular tradition of being a somewhat maligned production from their DirecTV branch. In fact, it's one of the few films that has two competing titles that make searching for it a bit difficult without the A24 moniker. Sometimes called 1% but largely known as Outlaws, director Stephen McCallum created an Australian biker drama that sought to be more melodramatic and even Shakespearian, but ended up being one of the studio's least impressive works to date.
The story begins with the career of screenwriter Matthew Nable, who was born in New South Wales, Australia. Along with a sports career, he had many jobs before landing on screenwriting. This came from the advice of his mentor, Booker Award-winner Thomas Keneally ("Schindler's Ark"). This inspired Nable to start writing the project based on his unpublished book. The results, The Final Winter, would introduce him to the world of self-financing as he worked to get the film to the big screen. In the interim following the project, he would move to Hollywood and work on various shows. Other noteworthy gigs include the Vin Diesel film Riddick and the A24 film Son of a Gun. His highest-profile gig was as Ra's Al Ghul on the CW comic book series Arrow. It was working here that he befriended McCallum, whom he would work with on his directorial debut.
Nable had been fascinated with the biker culture of Australia and sought to make a drama exploring the internal world of these characters. Along with consulting people involved in the organization, he believed that he captured the atmosphere perfectly in his portrayal of characters. He named the film 1% because of a biker tradition of having "1%" tattooed somewhere on their body to represent the outlaws of society. He wanted the film to be brutal and melodramatic, but also have a deeper understanding of the culture as one man defies loyalty in order to help out his brother. He believed that it would be Shakespearian, making it the heightened drama that many would easily compare to the TV series Sons of Anarchy.
Some of the noteworthy things he added to the script involved the inner lives of these characters. He especially found interest in making the women three-dimensional, believing that they had a way of motivating the male characters that weren't often seen in other films. As a result, there were a lot of strong portrayals in supporting roles. Nable would also choose to make the story more sexually ambiguous, believing that figures of power were often sexually confused and used their power in ways reflecting their own personal confusion. Considering that Nable played Knuck (for which he gained weight), he sought to find a way to capture the character while handing the script over to McCallum. It was a group effort that allowed him to reflect a subculture that interested him but hadn't really had a chance to explore.
The film would premiere during the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017 as part of the Discovery line-up. With A24 there promoting many of their Fall 2017 releases, it allowed them to be in close proximity to the screening. It was said that audience members were engaged with 1% and found a deep interest in how the biker culture is depicted. Whether or not that's true is speculative, as early reviews remained just as negative as later ones. 1% would be one of two films bought at TIFF that year alongside Hot Summer Nights with a promise to be released sometime in late-2018. It was true that the film had theatrical screenings in Australia, though it bypassed the American release in favor of DirecTV distribution that sent it directly to video on demand. As a result, it made $0 in America theatrically, but $76,151 from home video sales. The film was also nominated by the Australian Academy of Cinema and TV Arts (AACTA) including Best Original Screenplay. It didn't win any. The film missed its 2018 release, settling for a February 2019 date instead. It isn't clear when or why 1% became Outlaws, though advertisements on websites like IMDb still confuse both titles with some ease.
Things weren't looking too good for what little audience saw the film. According to critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, Outlaws would earn 30%, which places it among the bottom five lowest-rated films in A24 history as of this publication. Matthew Monagle of Film School Rejects lead the general complaints when suggesting that "Outlaws is an Australian biker throwback that throws back to some of the worst aspects of American exploitation cinema." Jared Mobarak of The Film Stage seconded this opinion when noting "Without that nuance to rip their wounds open, though, it's tough thinking anyone but hard-drinking criminals already in an MC to crack skulls will find much appeal." Even those who saw the dramatic flourishes, like Mark Dujsik of Mark Reviews Movies, criticized that "Outlaws is kind of like a modern-day interpretation of Macbeth that involves an Australian motorcycle gang ... The movie also ... is quite dumb."Andiee Paviour of Nobody's Reading This But Me was one of few defenders when arguing "A copperhead is a venomous snake. It's also the name of a gang of West Australian outlaw motorcycle riders-the 1 percent who are a paradox of the deadly and the fiercely." Overall, it was one of the least impressive turnouts in A24's imports from Australia.
Whether one thinks of it as 1% or Outlaws, McCallum's movie did little to separate itself from the competition. Even with a story that pushed boundaries and gave supporting players interesting perspectives, it wasn't enough to make it pleasing to audiences. It makes sense then why it remains confused about its own identity, never quite settling on a title nor a resonant enough marketing strategy. The same couldn't be said for the next film from A24, which found them teaming up with one of international cinema's most provocative auteurs. He was a filmmaker who promised to take the dance movie genre and throw it into drug-fueled chaos. What director Gaspar Noe lacked in nuance, he made up for in sheer visceral reaction. Climax was the first of many films in 2019 that would brutally form its own reputation with a weird story that resonated far more than it should've.
Up Next: Climax (2019)
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