Run This Town

R

Released Mar 6, 2020

1 hr. 38 min.

Mystery & Thriller

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List

43%

35 Reviews

Tomatometer

22%

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Audience Score

A journalist and a political aide become entangled in a larger-than-life scandal.

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Premiered Feb 27

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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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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

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Ricky Tollman

Director

Ben Platt

Bram

Mena Massoud

Kamal

Nina Dobrev

Ashley

Scott Speedman

Actor

Jennifer Ehle

Actor

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45%

33%

The Lie

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for The Lie

75%

74%

I See You

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58%

86%

Infidel

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20%

13%

Deadly Illusions

27%

43%

Role Play

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Run This Town: Trailer 1

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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

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Synopsis

A journalist and a political aide become entangled in a larger-than-life scandal.

Director: Ricky Tollman
Executive Producer: J.C. Chandor, Neal Dodson, Anna Gerb, Berry Meyerowitz
Screenwriter: Ricky Tollman
Distributor: Quiver Distribution
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

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