Shadows on the Wall | The Runner

The Runner

dir Michelle Danner
scr Jason Chase Tyrrell
prd Brian Drillinger, Valerie Debler, Alexandra Guarnieri, Dario Kirola, Bill Kenwright
with Edouard Philipponnat, Elisabeth Rohm, Cameron Douglas, Nadji Jeter, Eric Balfour, Kerri Medders, Jessica Amlee, Tracy Melchior, Kyle Jones, Darren Weiss, Matt Silver, Michelle Danner
release US 19.Aug.22
21/US 1h44

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Bursting with cheesy bravado, this thriller plays out with a straight face, or rather several overacting ones. Director Michelle Danner knows she has an ace card in French-Finnish actor Edouard Philipponnat, who charismatically turns a thinly written antihero role into something more textured than expected. But the supposedly gritty decadence is contrived, and both the plot and the dialog feel like they're more inspired by movies than real life.

In Los Angeles, popular teen athlete Aiden (Philipponnat) and his best pal Blake (Jeter) keep both students and teachers at their high school supplied with drugs. And because he also uses them, his mother (Rohm) is at the end of her tether. But she doesn't know that on his previous arrest he made a deal with sparky Detective Wall (Douglas) to take down his supplier (Balfour), who goes by the name Local Legend. But Aiden is also struggling with repercussions from his past. And he faces a turning point at an epic pool party.

Danner adds artful flashbacks of Aiden's happier, sunnier days with former girlfriend Layla (Medders). Combined with other darker memories, the film paints a vivid picture of Aiden's wildly out-of-control life. But Tyrrell's script is more interested in tough-guy posturing than making these disparate elements connect into a coherent whole. The explanation for Aiden's nihilism is rather simplistic, but adds a hint of depth to the story as it spirals to a conclusion that seems messy but is carefully constructed.

Philipponnat's screen presence sustains the movie, putting his lanky physicality to full use as lost-boy Aiden. The script and direction continually push him over the top, using sentimentality to give him a warm heart, so the actor must work to keep things believable. He and Jeter create terrific camaraderie together. Rohm makes the most of her thankless role as Aiden's worried mother. And Douglas (clearly Michael's son) merrily chomps scenery as a tough-as-nails cop on a mission.

As a story of a young man whose life was derailed by a grim mistake, there are powerful elements in here. But while the cast and crew keep the film's surfaces looking sleek and urgent, complete with lots of arthouse-style flourishes, the overfamiliar tropes leave it feeling like a pastiche of boy-goes-wrong movies. This makes it difficult to care what happens as the plot heads into its climactic moments. At least the way the film is put together leaves us guessing whether it is heading toward a populist or artful conclusion.

themes, violence, language 18.Aug.22

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