Directed By Aneesh Chaganty

Starring – Sarah Paulson, Kiera Allen, Sara Sohn

The Plot – Chloe (Allen), a teenager who is confined to a wheelchair, is home schooled by her mother (Paulson), However, her mother’s strange behavior doesn’t go unnoticed and when Chloe pries into some private papers, she discovers a Change of Name Certificate document with her mother’s name, Diane Sherman, on it. When Chloe googles “Diane Sherman,” the internet suddenly disconnnects. Chloe becomes suspicious of all that her mother does, suspecting her of something sinister. She decides to go on the run in her wheelchair in a desperate attempt to get away from her.

Rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic content, some violence/terror and adult language

POSITIVES

– Captivating leads. You won’t find a better duo of female lead performances this year than that of Paulson and Allen, who each invest their every emotional being into their respective roles. For Paulson, it’s the psychological instability that has made her a continuous pivotal presence on “American Horror Story”, articulating a wild card of sorts whose own history with abuse has led her down a dark and devastating road that has unfortunately defined her character for the worse. Paulson has top tier facial resonation that can capture as many as a hundred words and emotions in a single stare, and it’s in that control over both Chloe and the audience that she exerts a spine-tingling advantage whose subtle articulation makes her the perfect antagonist. For Allen, her emotional acting is very much on-par with that of Paulson, but for my money it’s the physicality of a role that allows her to show off her real life situation in fictional form. Allen is very much confined to a wheel chair in real life, and her casting is a decision that pays off wonderfully for the film, as we’re able to see her grit and determination in a series of uphill situations that cements her as anything other than a victim.

– Evaporating sound design. One clever choice that pays dividends with Chaganty’s direction is the transfixing sound that absorbs as much of the awkwardness and unease between the two lead characters as distrust can manufacture. In this regard, Chaganty saves composer Torin Borrowdale’s continuously amplifying musical accompaniments for the moments when the anxiety reaches suffocating levels of dispersion on us the audience. This allows said silence to serve as the initial coals that get the fire burning, and then overwhelm us with their flames when the true claustrophobic design of this house is captured through many over the shoulder shots. It lets the integrity of the sequence play out without meandering enhancements that often hold the hands of their audience, and tells them how to feel, giving these intense sequences of pursuit a naturalistic quality that keeps them beating through a conceirto of shattered nerves and sudden resolve.

– Master craftsman. Chaganty is quickly making a name for himself at the head of the table of some of the most stylishly decadent filmmakers of the 21st century. In only two films as a feature length director, he has managed to capture so much complexity and nuance in a series of shots that give each sequence the kind of emotional dexterity that influences and immerses the audience watching beyond. His work here definitely lends itself quite frequently to telling two stories simultaneously in the same frame, ideally with Paulson’s Diane keeping close tabs over everything happening with daughter Chloe’s continued curiosity. This is showcased through the over the shoulder depictions that I previously mentioned, but beyond that in the backgrounds involving shadows and undeterred facial resonations that always hint at ulterior motives buried deep. In addition, there’s plenty of colorful beauty and volume to the images and objects that he remains focused on, and his use of cleverness between edits gives the movie some much needed humor between scenes of tension without hindering or condensing the tonal consistency.

– Buried Easter Eggs. Speaking of cleverness between takes, there’s a series of reveals within the dialogue and characters that offer random callbacks to Stephen King properties, and solidify that Chaganty is, if nothing else, a fan of the master of horror. I won’t spoil anything, but one phone call early on in the film takes Chloe to a fictional town full of bad histories and untimely deaths. Another introduction at a pharmacy plays very matter of factly to another captivity movie in King’s library, bringing forth a name that even the most inexperienced King fans will stop and giggle with once they hear it. In addition to these, there’s plenty more scattered throughout that will continuously keep your attention, and supply rewards along the way that surprisingly fit well enough in this world, despite it being as dark as anything that you will see this year.

– Simplistic script. This aspect of the movie has been getting a lot of hate from other moviegoers, but I appreciated the benefits of a movie that feels like it could’ve easily been written on ten pages, if only for the way it doesn’t rush through these gravity defining instances of adversity for its paralyzed protagonist. It’s true that some sequences definitely feel like speed bumps on the ways to the movie’s continuously smooth pacing overall, but every unpredictable factor that the character runs into garners a fine spontaneity for the elements of the environment that I greatly appreciated, and helped balance some of the bigger problems that I had with the movie’s inferior second half. Beyond that, I like that not every element of the characters is answered or even been granted enough time in the context of the film to warrant exposition. One such instance involves Diane’s obvious scarring during a shower scene, and while we can piece together that she was obviously a product of abuse somewhere in her life, we never find out if it’s of the parental or spousal variety. A deleted scene that I read about does give away the answer, but I feel like it’s better left unaddressed to the audience for the mysticism of antagonists in horror movies that I wish was left alone in franchises.

– Obstacle of adversity. There has never been a movie that has expressed how bluntly I take for granted something as simple as walking from room to room in my daily routines, but Chloe’s disposition makes for some truly character and situational defining moments whose struggles play wonderfully within the ratcheting of tension that seems to always swell louder with each struggle. Throw in some sharp editing to capture said monotony and repetition in a daily routine, and you can at the very least convey empathy for the character that goes a long way in her development without ever feeling pitiful. In this regard, it’s the disagreeing nature of Chloe’s body that offers a much bigger antagonist to her than that of Paulson’s Diane, despite the fact that the motherly battle is the single most terrifying aspect of this movie’s screenplay. Throw in some sound mixing that rattles and thumps with Chloe’s increased breathing and rampant blood flow, and you candidly illustrate a situation that puts anyone in the seat, making a unique disposition immersively real.

– Fluid pacing. Part of what makes “Run” a title far beyond that of a reflection of being a suspenseful horror film is that it’s also used to describe the overall pacing of the movie, which I found always on its feet for storytelling. It helps that as a co-writer Chaganty instills importance and meaning behind every scene, particularly in the first act of the movie, where curiosity and ambiguity underline much of the movements of the characters, and answers feel very few and far between. From there, we are left with the big reveal and the final conflicts, both of which work cohesively in both the consistency of the film, as well as the consistency of Chaganty, whose reveal in 2018’s “Searching” also feels cloaked in confinement, albeit of a completely different kind. It makes this one of the easiest sits of the year because I was continuously invested, and takes 85 minutes off of your day before you ever have time to check your watch.

– Satisfying twists. I consider myself blessed enough to not see these coming, despite the fact that two of them are anything but original for this particular subgenre. The twists don’t ever define this movie’s overall entertainment factor, but they do occasionally reshape and distort perception in a way that feels like everything we learned in the first half feels like an unreliable narrator of the most satisfying kind. They come at a time when the movie needs them most to redefine and further evolve the relationship between Mother and Daughter, from peaceful to hostile, and with the exception of a couple conveniences along the way don’t break reality within the context of this world illustrated finely in the film.

NEGATIVES

– Plot conveniences. There are a few of them that stand as the biggest obstacle in the movie, and require me to shut my brain off so that my prolonged thinking of them helps flesh out the lack of believability within them. One such instance involves that ages old cliche where a character will conveniently find a bunch of articles that don’t exactly make sense when they’re being held by the person they are. This is the best way to spoon-feed exposition without wasting time on additional characters and subplots, but for a movie that barely clocks in at 87 minutes, I could’ve used more of a naturalistic quality in the conveyance of information, where some additional time could’ve fleshed out the reveal in a way that doesn’t make the antagonist feel like a total idiot. Other examples deal with a hospital that apparently now nor then had an operating surveillance system. This element makes anything possible within the walls of this unsafe environment, and further adds to the skepticism that I have of living in a real world where there’s consequences for every action.

– Tacked-on ending. This is the very final scene of the movie, and one that I could’ve done without for how it feels like unnecessary fan service to the audience. The after result is unbelievable in itself, but made all the more convoluted when you consider the need to prolong the torture doesn’t seem to line up properly with a character whose only goal is escape. I wish I could say more, but spoilers are littered all over this section, so I will instead just say that I would rather the final lasting impressions for this movie be optimistic for the future instead of hindering on the past. Doing the latter only underscores the emotional growth of the character, and leaves the last line of dialogue ripe for the same humor that the rest of the movie fought hard to avoid.

My Grade: 8/10 or A-