KRR: So, Run, Run, 'Run'!
We've all been stuck inside most the year. Because of that we've all watched an ungodly amount of television and movies. And because of that we all know that 2020 has not been a great year for new films. Sure, Disney+ has had some big releases: Onward (which will cede its thrown to Soul soon enough), Mulan (which is bad), and Hamilton (which isn't really a movie). And sure, the other major streaming services have had big releases this year too. Earlier this year Hulu released Palm Springs, a fun romcom that feels wildly appropriate for quarantine life, Netflix had a big artsy release in I'm Thinking of Ending Things, and Amazon Prime brought back an all-time classic character with Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. I liked all of those movies. They were all very enjoyable. It's still been a lackluster year in film though. There's no denying that.
But now we're approaching the holiday season, and if you know anything about the movie industry, you know what that means. It's the best time of year for movies, baby!! This is when studios drop their absolute best pieces of work. The summer blockbusters have faded. The springtime indie films are long forgotten. By Thanksgiving every studio and streaming service is competing for your attention as you move inside from the cold. These are the Oscar contenders, the end-of-year box office smashers, the Best-of-the-Year list toppers. And that season began in full effect over the last week, with three huge releases from the Internet's three biggest streamers: Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime.
So, this weekend we're gonna take a look at each of those three major releases, beginning with Hulu's Run. Created and directed by Aneesh Chaganty, the thriller prodigy behind 2018's Searching, Run is a modern, mother-daughter version of a prisoner story. It's the Gypsy Rose Blanchard case meets Stephen King's Misery. And while it isn't quite as good as the 1990 classic adaptation of Misery, there's still a lot here to appreciate.
-SPOILERS AHEAD-
To understand Run you have to acquaint yourself with a medical term I'd never heard of before watching: Munchausen syndrome by proxy. This is when a caregiver makes up or causes an illness in a person under their care. This syndrome most famously arose in the Gypsy Rose Blanchard case, when a mother convinced her daughter (for a time) and the world (for longer) that her daughter had cancer, as well as an assortment of other medical problems, she didn't actually have. This ultimately led to Gypsy Rose murdering her mother to get away from her control, and the case becoming something of a legend amongst true crime podcast nerds. That's how I found out about it - by proxy.
I'm not a true crime podcast nerd. Ew. But my partner, Blair, is. So, thanks for the explainer on that whack ass syndrome, Blair.
Munchausen by proxy is the easiest way to explain the plot of Run. Mama Diane, played by Sarah Paulson, overexaggerates and entirely makes up some of the medical deficiencies in her daughter Chloe, played by newcomer Kiera Allen. As Chloe's departure for college creeps closer and closer, she begins to notice some inconsistencies in her medicine and her mother's medical treatment of her, while Diana tries harder and harder to cover her tracks. Their paranoias feed off of each other, ultimately leading to some terrifying clashes. It's relentlessly paced and ruthlessly stressful.
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| I'll never trust parents again. |
While that stressful pacing is in large part due to Aneesh Chaganty's thoughtful writing and directing, it's more a credit to the performances by Sarah Paulson and Kiera Allen. There's no one else of consequence in this entire movie. Seriously, the third highest billed star is Sara Sohn. I bet you've never heard of her. I certainly haven't. She plays a nurse for about 45 seconds in this film. When I say it's a two woman show, I mean it. Not even Misery did that. There are important performances outside of Kathy Bates' home that add a larger sense of world building in that film. (One of the reasons I hold Misery in such high esteem.) But in Run, the movie begins and ends with Sarah Paulson and Kiera Allen. So, let's get into their performances.
It seems criminal to start with anyone else over Sarah Paulson. You may know Paulson, the reigning queen of horror, from her many years on American Horror Story, or her roles in Ocean's Eight, 12 Years a Slave, and Carol, or for her award-winning portrayal of Marcia Clark in The People v. O.J. Simpson. However you know her, you know that she is a monster on screen. She's had one of the best careers of the last decade, making everything she graces immeasurably better. And if you need someone to make your scary movie scarier, there's no one better than Sarah Paulson.
Paulson plays the sweet smiling, secretly evil mother in Run to perfection. She takes the air out of the room with her presence, a fitting quality for the suffocating nature of Diane's character. While you're by no means rooting for Diane, there's definitely a part of you that hopes Chloe is wrong about her mother. You hope that maybe you'll be able to root for Sarah Paulson. That isn't the case. She's pure terror in this film, which is a necessity when you're 50% of the cast in a quasi-horror flick.
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| Ahhhh! |
That's just what this movie needs. It'd obviously be a real drag if Chloe's role were being completely eclipsed by Sarah Paulson. But Kiera Allen is able to pull off Chloe's charm, wit, fear, and stunts (she actually has real stunts) with a believability that's commendable. I hope Allen has a long career ahead of herself and that she doesn't fall to Hollywood's ablest wayside, because it's not everyday you find a young actor who can hold their own against a star as bright as Sarah Paulson.
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| Baby Paulson in the making. |
Where Run falls short of its predecessors, especially Misery, is in its world construction and storyboarding. (But before I go further, allow me to mention that the reason I mention Misery so often is not only because the two films share striking similarities, but because Aneesh Chaganty named it as the primary inspiration for this film and one of his favorite movies of all time. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that. These comparisons aren't of my own creation.) Anyway, on to the film's problems.
I'll spare you the laundry list of plot holes I noticed in Run, mostly so I don't spoil it for you, but also because it doesn't make for very good reading. But please know, there are some major liberties being taken with the inner workings of the American medical system in this film, at least in my opinion. Blair, true crime podcast NERD, disagrees with me, and while they definitely know more than I do about cases like this one, they also aren't American - so their opinion is moot. Most of this movie couldn't happen. There. That's the long and short of my plot problems.
My other major problem is with the ending. The final few minutes of Run take a pretty drastic and shocking turn - which, again, I won't spoil - but it isn't one I entirely buy. I enjoy it. I think it's clever and well done. I just don't buy it. Here was my real time reaction: "Wow! WOW! Okay, holy shit. That is fucking crazy... Yeah, I don't think that would happen though."
Take that for what you will. That doesn't mean I hate the ending. On the contrary, actually, I think the story's conclusion is just as well done as the rest of the film. It has its problems, sure, but none that make the movie unenjoyable.
From start to finish, Run is a relay race between Sarah Paulson, Kiera Allen, and Aneesh Chaganty behind the camera. They are all incredible in their respective moments. Does it live up to the classic it was inspired by? I don't think so. But that doesn't mean it isn't great. It is. And in a movie year with so little going on, Run is a little bit of stress relief from so much cinematic misery.
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| Fuck getting red-pilled, don't get green-pilled. |
Run KRR: 7.8/10
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