Run (2019)

Run: Directed by Scott Graham. With Mark Stanley, Amy Manson, Marli Siu, Anders Hayward. In Fraserburgh, young men dream of escapism through late-night drag races. Finnie used to be one, but now he works at the fish factory and it’s his son’s turn to race. Until one night he steals the boy’s car for one last joyride.

“This is quite an interesting observational piece that goes some way to illustrating the lack of opportunities and activities in small, one-industry, towns. This film is based around Fraserburgh – a town of 13,000-odd folk in the north of Scotland that is home to a fishing fleet but very little else. Mark Stanley is u0026quot;Finnieu0026quot; a Fraserburgh lifer who works in a fish processing factory. His son does too, at least until the start of this 24 hour dip into their family lives. His wife works in a hairdressers and they have another younger schoolboy child. Late at night, after a fairly u0026quot;livelyu0026quot; attempt at a family dinner, u0026quot;Finnieu0026quot; borrows his sonu0026#39;s car and goes for a bit of a joyride – picking up his sonu0026#39;s pregnant ex-girlfriend en route and they race a few local youths then the breakers on the sea wall… anything for an adrenalin rush, it would seem. Unfortunately, we only really get a superficial look at the characters; the frustrations and mundanity of their existence is writ large, but therein lies the filmu0026#39;s problem – it is a bit like watching goldfish in a dirty bowl; we see but cannot empathise or really engage. There is lots of pent up anger amongst the family; but also some affection – which neither u0026quot;Finnieu0026quot; nor his son u0026quot;Kidu0026quot; (Anders Hayward) have a clue how to demonstrate. It is worth watching, but is remarkably unfulfilling and empty.”