Run This Town is a re-enactment (or re-imagining) of the “fall from grace” of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford. From a journalists’ perspective, it is not quite the Spotlight scoop. Smoking crack is nowhere near as emotionally hard-hitting, socially explosive, nor satanically intricate as the Catholic Church’s cover up. Plus, everyone knows the ending now. So from a filmmaker’s point of view, why was this a good subject?
The film didn’t have a solid or novel reply. That lack of confidence hampered it from going beyond where typical news reporting had been years ago. While Run This Town is effective, it is not long-lastingly interesting. This was also reflected in subtle presentation choices. The split panel window graphics weren’t always used to the full advantage to create tension of a simultaneous event, nor a cubist way of looking at the same feature from multiple angles. It was just there sometimes to give a chicness the film needs to fit in a 2019 climate.
What made me feel a little sad for this effort is the Molson Canadian message hidden throughout the film. From the subject itself to the insecure millennial trope right at the end: to constantly remind ourselves of a “civic duty” to be second-class at every level, to always be late to the party and content with the consolation prize that signifies some deficiency. Rob Ford’s scandal does embarrass; “but for Gods sake, we can’t even hide a scandal properly, even against a second-rate journalist”. It isn’t just tiring – it’s self-defeatist – and not even remotely true of Canada or Toronto. The “fuck you police officer” scene with supposed resonance with #MeToo is such a misstep in terms of its actual impact, it left me double-taking to make sure this was not 1919. As a Chinese saying preaches: the first is genius, the second a copycat, and the third a moron. The fact that people elected Rob’s authoritarian brother to an even darker Premiership may be a side-effect of our ignorance of the preceding years, and our failure to contrast it in the proper light. Next time, please just frame the whole ordeal as the royal real-life buffoonery that it was: Torontonians were fooled into trusting a Jackass bit actor, and were equally clueless in how to cope.