Loved this story of a 20-something woman who chooses running to get in shape physically and goes through internal changes as well. We're not the only ones--it won the Audience Award for Dramatic Feature and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance earlier this year. It may be a drama but there are plenty of laughs as well, even when dealing with the subtext of body image and self-loathing.
Jillian Bell (dozens of credits, no big parts; she was a Saturday Night Live writer on 22 episodes) is wonderful in the title role (and as producer). She apparently lost forty pounds during the making of this movie, just like her character. Michaela Watkins (last blogged for Brigsby Bear) is predictably good as "Moneybags Martha," Micah Stock (new to me but he has a Tony nomination) adorable as running partner Seth, Lil Rel Howery (most recently in these pages for Get Out) is comforting as Brittany's brother-in-law Demetrius, and Utkarsh Ambudkar (we liked him in the recent season of Brockmire, and ten episodes of White Famous) is attractive as the housesitter Jern. And they're all funny.
It's the directing debut for director/writer Paul Downs Colaizzo, who was inspired by his friend Brittany who got in shape and ran a marathon. I don't know if the real Brittany ran in New York, but this movie was the first non-documentary to shoot during the actual New York marathon.
There are dozens of song, listed here, and on Apple Music there's a playlist of twenty songs (total nineteen minutes) by composer Duncan Thum (nominated for couple of Emmys for scoring Chef's Table, he has quite a few other credits).
Not only have I been on a break from writing this blog (sixteen are in draft form, unwritten), but it's been three weeks since I've even seen a movie--travel, good weather, and other activities have kept me away. I chose it because I remembered liking the trailer, its high rating on Rotten Tomatoes (critics 90%, audiences 87), its theme, and the fact that its streaming and/or DVD release has not been set at all. So, if you can't get to a big screen, watch for it to be announced in the coming months.
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