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Run This Town

Play trailer 1:30 Poster for Run This Town R Released Mar 6, 2020 1h 38m Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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43% Tomatometer 35 Reviews 76% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
A journalist and a political aide become entangled in a larger-than-life scandal.
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Run This Town

Run This Town

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Critics Consensus

While possessing honorable intentions and shining light on a well-known political scandal, Run This Town never quite outruns its potential.

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Critics Reviews

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Christy Lemire FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles) I never for a second forgot that I watching an actor under piles of makeup. Mar 7, 2020 Full Review Amy Nicholson FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles) I did buy the freshness and the youth in this world of industries dying. Mar 7, 2020 Full Review Arielle Bernstein RogerEbert.com This is well-trod territory in 2020, explored richly in any number of TV shows and films, and the choice to center Run This Town on Millennial malaise is an odd one. Rated: 2/4 Mar 6, 2020 Full Review Steven Warner In Review Online The film feels scattered, and its lack of a central rooting protagonist does nothing to help the situation. Jun 5, 2021 Full Review Richard Crouse Richard Crouse Jam packed and lightening-paced it hop scotches around, pausing only long enough to linger on a grotesque caricature of Rob "Show me some respect, will ya?" Ford. Rated: 1.5/5 Jan 30, 2021 Full Review David Nusair Reel Film Reviews It's almost astonishing just how misbegotten and uninvolving Run This Town is virtually from the get-go... Rated: 1.5/4 Aug 12, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Jelisije J You want a good movie about the demise of Rob Fords career this movie ain't it and honestly a politician who gropes people while drunk is not something I would consider movie worthy. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/24 Full Review Rich S While it's got some things going for it, Run This Town runs aground in all of its verbiage and stories that take the viewer in several different direction. You could say it's the perfect movie to memorialize Rob Ford's time as Mayor of Toronto. He had some thing going for him, but ran aground amid all of his stupid remarks and constant searches for several different ways to get high. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 10/30/20 Full Review Audience Member I didn’t like how they portrayed the Rob Ford. He was mean spirited towards his staff and they also made him look dumb. Rob was smart. He has his substance abuse issues but the film portrays him as being nasty. Not fair. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 08/30/20 Full Review Audience Member Absolutely useless movie. Not the least bit entertaining. Awful. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member This is a film that wants to be hip and fast-paced like an Aaron Sorkin project, but instead plays as a smattering of perspectives smashed together whether they fit or not. When a young reporter (Ben Platt) deviates from writing his daily lists (a la Buzzfeed) and chases a story involving the Toronto Mayor (Damian Lewis), he finds himself up against individuals with questionable motives and aides to the mayor (Nina Dobrev and Mena Massoud) who are working overtime to cover their boss' tracks. Mayor Rob Ford has a well-chronicled history as a drunk, a womanizer, and ultimately a man that partakes in hitting the crack pipe (an event which is at the center of this film). In attempting to build a narrative around Platt's character, however, Run This Town fails to chart new territory or execute any story depth. Aside from the fact that you know early on what you're dealing with in Ford, the stakes never feel heightened. Ford himself is portrayed in caricaturesque form, both in Lewis' performance and in the horrid prosthetics that are somewhere between Austin Powers' Fat Bastard and The Nutty Professor. The bright spots of the film are in how it presented through the multiple perspectives and through use of jumpy split screens. This also is a huge problem for Run This Town, as you lose track of the time jumps that occur and never quite see everything fit together. Platt, Dobrev, and Massoud are to be commended for what I consider solid performances even with less-than-ideal material. The same goes for Scott Speedman, who plays Platt's character's editor and no, is not a hybrid vampire and werewolf (I can never not look at him as a character from Underworld). In the end, however, this is a film that needed more meat to it. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member It started slow and ended worse. I thought it would pick up. Even though the story seems to be accurate, it was not entertaining or funny. Just simply a horrible screen play. They could have done a much better job with this story and Damian Lewis. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Run This Town

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis A journalist and a political aide become entangled in a larger-than-life scandal.
Director
Ricky Tollman
Producer
Jonathan Bronfman, Randy Manis, Ricky Tollman
Screenwriter
Ricky Tollman
Distributor
Quiver Distribution
Production Co
CounterNarrative Films, Manis Film, JoBro Productions & Film Finance
Rating
R (Language and Sexual References)
Genre
Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 6, 2020, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 6, 2020
Runtime
1h 38m
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