Run This Town

I watched this movie expecting a Rob Ford biopic. It focuses on two people -Bram a writer for a Toronto newspaper and Kamal, one of Ford's aides.

The story seems all over the place, telling the story of these two low level workers and how one is trying to bring down the Mayor while the other protects him. The story of the two of them really doesn't go anywhere and the movie drags on without coming to a point.

The movie finally ends and leaves you with a feeling that you wasted your time.

...and very little to do with Rob Ford's tumultuous term as mayor of Toronto, which is the headline-grabbing event the writer clumsily used as a framework upon which to hang his story of millennial journalist angst.

I am very aware of this story that takes place in Toronto. This rambles all over the place. There are some well known names and faces. They must have needed the money or a free plane ticket to Toronto and sightseeing. Damian Lewis as Rob Ford. Why?

Saw this at the Traverse City Film Festival. Was really excited as it had Damian Lewis and was described as, "... comes this whip-smart, rapid-fire, political sizzler that delivers all the AARON SORKIN vibes you want." Yes, they actually used his name. And they delivered none of that. The biggest problem with this movie was the story. Plain and simple. It bored me to tears. The music & cinematography were good as was Nina Dobrev, but everything else was tough to sit through. I'm guessing the only reason this movie got into the festival was because director Ricky Tollman agreed to speak afterwords. We were told he left early lol. He knew it was bad, that's why he was a no-show. I wouldn't have thought about writing a review until I overheard at least 9 other people complaining about the movie.

I once reviewed a McDonald's in 2006 on Yelp purely for the novelty and newness of it. I haven't bothered to review anything on the internet since because the idea my opinion has value feels ridiculous, and generally the voice of the masses hits the mark. Until this movie.

Throughout the pandemic I've been working through my "Movies to Watch" list, usually indies with snappy trailers, or a premise I'd never seen before (this movie being one of the former). It's been a train of disappointment, because two minutes of good editing or a gonzo idea do not a good movie make. Based on the reviews I was bracing myself for yet another story to run in the background while I check it off my list, yet here I was, actually entertained. The cinematography is pretty damn good, along with the score, and decent enough acting. The pacing is a bit wonky, the dialogue strained, and Damian Lewis' fat suit is distractingly bad, but from a writer/director still getting their footing early in their career, it's not a bad effort. Hell, there's stuff out there from far more senior filmmakers that don't meet the bar of "Run This Town."

This movie is perfectly...fine. Great? No. Good even? Sure, maybe, why not? But these 1 and 2 star reviews make "Run This Town" seem unwatchable. I gave more attention to this movie than most of the dull fare that felt like a chore to get them out of my queue. In fact, here's a quick list (before I got bored with writing it) of movies far slower and less engaging than "Run This Town" that are better rated on IMDb:

The Lodge, Little Joe, It Comes at Night, Vivarium, Upstream Color, Mandy, Color Out of Space, The Brand New Testament, The Vast of Night, Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss, Snowflake, Footnotes, The Fitzroy, Ad Astra, etc.

Similarly, I've gotten bored with writing this review and have realized I'm probably in the wrong if this many people dislike it this much. Give it a chance at least if it seemed interesting and the review scores drove you off though.