{Movie Review} Run Sweetheart Run

Admittedly I went into Run Sweatheart Run without any prior knowledge. Just that it received solid reviews from a handful of film festivals and that the lead was Ella Balenska who I adored from the short-lived and somewhat controversial Resident Evil Netflix Show. She was the best part of the series and one of the reasons I was sad it was canceled. If Balenska was supposed to carry a Working Girl 9 to 5 chase film I was excited about it. That is not exactly what this movie is. Run Sweetheart Run is really a monster movie parading as #MeToo work horror. It is a ton of fun. Slight Spoilers for the Amazon Prime Original Below.

He Can Smell Your Blood

Ella Balenska is so good. Full stop. If she was not as committed to the single parent who refuses to be a victim role then the rest of the film falls apart. We meet Cherie early on as she attempts to make it in the dick-heavy corporate world. Regardless of her qualifications, we see her get rejection after rejection (including one from an African-American executive who even through shared coded language tells her the glass ceiling is real and that she won’t be shattering it anytime soon). As a result, she takes a job as an administrative assistant in the hopes of moving up the ranks. After she accidentally double-books her boss’s anniversary date with a client dinner she is finally called up to the big leagues to entertain the client at dinner. As the date progresses Cherie and the client Ethan (Pilou Asbæk) hit it off and eventually end up at his place for a distinctly non-work-related drink. As Ethan shakes his head at the camera we are barred from the house. A few minutes after the door shuts we see a scared and beaten Cherie run out of the house. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game that feels very Hitchcockian. We don’t know who to trust. We don’t know who the good guys are; most importantly, we don’t know how any of this will play out as Cherie works to get back to her daughter and survive the night.

The movie is broken into chapters that are announced with giant Run graphics that herald that the movie and the game have entered different phases. The jarring graphics and direct-to-camera head nods by Ethan give the entire film a Weird quality. Like perhaps Ethan is so powerful he can even control the camera. It is not entirely unlike the remote control scene from Funny Games where even the rules of storytelling seem at risk. It is a brave directorial choice and works to unsettle the audience.

The entitled rich white guy trope is played out. We all know they are bad. We get it. The further up the corporate chain you get the more you are asked to dehumanize your subordinates. That being said when the movie turns halfway through into a full monster flick I cheered. Like entitled rich white guys are monsters in that metaphorical sense. But Ethan is an ACTUAL monster. Who seems part vampire part demon and all evil. However, I appreciate even when we go full monster it’s still his worldview that is the most disturbing. We get all kinds of gross rape culture stuff from Ethan as he lays out why he attacks women and Cherie specifically.

John Wick Meets The Hitcher

As Cherie traverses the city she is reminded that authority never protects the weak but uses its own power to protect other elites. As a result, she cannot trust the police. Or her boss, or anyone else that has anything to gain from catering to the powerful. Instead, she starts to explore the subculture of the city. Run Sweetheart Run really shines when it embraces the immersive world-building that feels closer to John Wick than the corporate horror I thought I was getting into at the beginning.

The unhoused play a significant role in the movie as they migrate from the periphery of the frame to the center by the end of the movie. Almost acting as furies or the chorus of Run Sweatheart Run they are mostly silent witnesses to the chase. They know already the harm that comes when the powerful decide they want something regardless of the laws and rules already in place. It is a world crafted for the powerful and Cherie learns what the homeless already know. You can’t fight it. You can only hide from it.

There are so many interesting choices that director Shana Feste makes regarding the momentum and pacing of the film. It moves at a brisk pace and the fluorescent color palette only adds to the film’s urgency. Feste uses Cherie’s menstrual cycle as the movie’s McGuffin. It is a small but effective touch that manages to treat a women’s period as an inconvenience without it being played for humor. The film has some gnarly kills but the violence against Cherie is never glorified and rarely shown on screen. In fact, part of the direct-to-audience interaction we get from Ethan is almost always to avoid seeing the violence against Cherie. It is creative choices like these that help Feste’s movie wriggle out of the male gaze into something different. Something more fun and less problematic a combination that can be difficult to pull off.

The relentless pursuit of a seemingly invincible monster will have some making The Hitcher connections. While the movie uses an urban setting rather than the dusty roads of the interstate Run Sweetheart Run does share some of that connective tissue. It has a bit more to say and offers new energy and perspective. If you are looking for a fun way to round out spooky season you can’t go wrong with this one.