Two years ago, I had some pretty positive feelings about Searching, a John Cho-led thriller directed and co-written by Aneesh Chagnaty. It was fun, legitimately tense, and also added in bits of humor occasionally, but not so much as to distract from the drama of the story. His second feature Run is making some pretty big waves on Hulu, and I found it pretty entertaining (if odd and unsettling) for similar reasons to searching, though it manages not to feel like Chagnaty is copying himself. If anything, it sort of felt like a slick tribute to Stephen King’s Misery (who reportedly enjoyed the film).
While Searching also had a parent/child dynamic, this time the perspective of the main character is switched. 17-year-old Chloe Sherman (Kiera Allen) is a homeschooled and hopeful college-bound student, raised as an only child by her mother Diane (Sarah Paulson) who takes care of her and her apparent numerous illnesses. Diane keeps tabs on nearly everything her daughter does to the most minute details, as we’re shown a flashback to start the film showing her child’s physical problems at birth.
So despite a curious lack of updates on her university applications, everything seems hunky-dory at first glance. That is, until Chloe’s curiosity gets the better of her on how her medications are labeled. Some research (preceded by a funny phone chat with a guy arguing with his girlfriend) reveals that the pills she takes might actually be part of a plot to keep her from leaving the nest. As Chloe makes her way down the rabbit hole, Diane becomes more and more mentally and emotionally unhinged.
Occasionally there’ll be a quick bait-and-switch moment where it feels kinda apparent the filmmakers are trying to throw the audience off. It isn’t too bothersome though, because Run encourages the viewer to pay attention to certain clues and details as Chloe gradually uncovers what’s going on, and it does reward the viewer for keeping up.
Much like Searching, there’s a theme with this team of utilizing a realistic, everyday setting, but crafting a zany story with extremely overzealous characters within it. Although I’d say Searching had a bit more of a heartwarming aspect to it, as dark and dramatic as it was, whereas Run is more of a grim, slyly camp B-movie.
The performances of Paulson and Allen are intense and extremely believable, and you’ll definitely feel for Chloe as her world is turned on its head. But I’ve seen some movies where I really felt genuine parent-to-child chemistry between two characters. As the audience learns, these two are opponents locked in a deadly battle.
Now there’s a lot you could do with these kinds of themes, the psychological aspects of Diane’s character and Munchausen Syndrome, but Run isn’t trying to be especially deep- at least not in a way that feels too in-your-face, thankfully. It’s essentially a prison break film depicted in a different context, with Allen pulling off some impressive stunts (in her debut feature, no less) as she fights to get away from her deranged matriarch. Allen, who is disabled offscreen, has mentioned publicly about taking this particular role seriously, and it is definitely a unique form of representation.
This is a movie that seems to be accepting of how completely bonkers it is and just lets the crazy events play out. That not might be to everyone’s liking, especially not to those who might want a more nuanced look at these concepts. Still, I’m willing to recommend Run just based on it being a high energy cat-and-mouse game that’s a quick easy watch, and the high-octane performances of the two leads.