Run
I hope everyone is surviving 8th week and taking care of themselves.
Despite the stressful nature of this film, I found it enjoyable. The colors were pleasant and calming, which was a unique contrast to the energy of the movie. The extended shots of the nighttime cityscape heightened the paranoia, since anonymity brings its own kind of comfort. Run is trying to critique the anonymity and isolation one feels in a big city, but it manages to create intimacy with the main character through voiceover and a compact runtime.
The voiceover kind of reminded me of a sitcom, since it had elements of silliness and gave simple, perhaps irrelevant insights into Tomilola's character. The viewer follows "a day in her life," which gives this film an element of the real, even though it chronicles some absurd events.
I enjoyed the aspects of humor as well, specifically when she acted so appalled by the corrupt affairs she encounters when she's literally running away from that type of thing herself. It's frustrating when she can't receive help from anyone, but it's also her fault because she criticizes everyone before she even gets a chance to ask for their phone (except the creepy dude. no excuses for him)
I also thought there were a lot of humorous elements in "Run" which worked surprisingly well for a narrative that's kind of dark. In a lot of cases, like you mentioned, we laugh at Tomilola's responses to what she sees, but we can also think about how those responses are very much shaped by her social status as an affluent, independent corporate worker.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point about the voiceover, especially toward the beginning when they showed her morning routine. It felt familiar, maybe because these scenes are fairly common in American films.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the humor elements worked well in this film, especially given that humor doesn't usually translate well across geographic and cultural borders. I think this film has a surprising blend of techniques adopted from Hollywood and modes of narrativizing that are indigenous to the Nigeria film industry. This makes the film particularly dynamic.
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