‘Run’ aggressively cluttered drama on ambitious millenials

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Bautista stars in Snyder’s ‘Army of the Dead’

There is much to admire but a lot to admonish in “Run This Town”, writer-director Ricky Tollman’s aggressively cluttered drama about ambitious millennials, circulation-famished editors, and other not-so-innocent bystanders who cross paths in Toronto during the scandal-rocked 2010-14 mayorship of Rob Ford.

It doesn’t help much that Tollman takes far too long during the rapid-fire crisscrossing of storylines throughout his movie’s first third before making it clear which individuals should be paid primary attention. And it doesn’t help at all that Mayor Ford – who looms large, literally and physically, despite his status as a supporting character – is played by a heavily latexed Damian Lewis in a less-than-convincing fat suit. Lewis so closely resembles Mike Myers’ Fat character in the “Austin Powers” franchise that it’s practically impossible to fully appreciate his spot-on portrayal of a man with an unstable id checked only sporadically by an image-conscious superego (Donald Trump, anyone?).

At the center of the untidy narrative – a liberally fictionalized version of real-life events – two young men played by very fine actors gradually emerge as morally compromised but irresistibly fascinating co-protagonists.

Kamal (Mena Massoud, soon to be seen in the title role in Disney’s live-action “Aladdin”) is an immigrant’s son who has worked his way up to a position of great responsibility, if not consistent influence, in the Ford administration. His formal job title is special assistant, but he’s better described as a human shield: It’s up to him to keep stories of Ford’s very bad behavior – sexual harassment, substance abuse, black-out-drunk episodes, etc. – from ever reaching voters and tainting the mayor’s image as a down-to-earth populist.

Repelled

Don’t misunderstand: Kamal isn’t exactly Ford’s soul mate; he is suitably repelled by the mayor’s improper activities, especially when his boss crudely comes on to Ashley (Nina Dobrev), an attractive co-worker who takes Kamal’s silence as an act of personal betrayal. But Kamal swallows his outrage because he thinks Ford is, on balance, doing good things for Toronto. And he knows that being associated with such a popular figure is good for his career.

Bram (Ben Platt) is the sort of entitled white male who adamantly refuses to see himself as such (for a while, at least) and has only mixed success when he does try to exploit the breaks he’s been afforded. He trades on connections to land an entry-level job at the Record, a Toronto newspaper where he hopes to make a name for himself as an investigative reporter. The bad news: Bram spends his first several months on staff writing nothing but clickbait listicles, like where to buy the best burgers in the city. The good news: Because he is such a lowly paid but highly productive drone, he’s not among the veteran writers and editors laid off during the paper’s repeated rounds of belt-tightening.

The professional lives of Kamal and Bram become inextricably entwined when Bram takes a phone call intended for a recently fired reporter, and learns that somebody somewhere in Toronto may have filmed Mayor Ford smoking crack (one of several actual events Tollman didn’t have to make up). It’s the sort of bombshell that even Kamal may be unable defuse. And while Bram’s editors – played with just the right measures of cynicism and condescension by Scott Speedman and Jennifer Ehle – are initially skeptical, they ultimately provide their drone with the sizable sum demanded by the person or persons in possession of the incriminating video.

Also:

LOS ANGELES: Dave Bautista is joining Zack Snyder’s zombie movie “Army of the Dead” at Netflix.

Snyder, whose most recent credits are “Justice League”, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Man of Steel”, made his directorial debut 15 years ago with “Dawn of the Dead”.

Shay Hatten and Snyder are writing the screenplay from Snyder’s story. “Army of the Dead” is set following a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, when a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted. (RTRS)

Snyder is producing the pic with his spouse Deborah Snyder through their Stone Quarry production company along with Wesley Coller. Principal photography is set to begin later this year.

Snyder’s “Dawn of the Dead” was a remake of George A. Romero’s 1978 movie, and starred Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer. It grossed $102 million worldwide on a $25 million budget. That led to Snyder and Joby Harold writing a sequel for “Dawn of the Dead”, which was set up at Warner Bros, but ultimately scrubbed in 2012. “Army of the Dead” is not a sequel to “Dawn of the Dead”. (RTRS)

By Joe Leydon

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