Binge watch away your COVID blues

After yet another cinema hiatus, going to a theater to catch a film is once again a possibility in Hong Kong. Given theaters are still off-limits in many places around the world, the pickings are slim. Then a small menu could be a good way to ease back into things. After shooting out of the gate in late-February with lingering blockbusters, this week screens are splashed with (among others) a minor gem which would otherwise have been overwhelmed by Soul or Wonder Woman 1984, and a New Year rom-com that's either eight or three weeks late, depending on which calendar you follow.

In Run, we meet Diane (Sarah Paulson) in the midst of a difficult premature labor - shot in hard, suitably harrowing, green light - that very nearly ends in death. Flash forward 17 years and Chloe (Kiera Allen) endures a battery of drugs and physiotherapy to manage her heart, respiratory and mobility issues, but other than reliance on a wheelchair, Chloe is a bright, balanced, college-bound teenager. Diane, however, has a dangerous past that could derail her daughter's plans, inspiring Chloe to, well, run.

For anyone who's seen a nefarious parent thriller, the revelations in Run will come as no surprise. The key to director Aneesh Chaganty (in his follow-up to the clever Searching) and co-writer Sev Ohanian's taut, efficient thriller is in the execution. Instead of making Diane's secrets the central mystery, the pair positions Chloe's discovery of them the story's driver. That's a wise choice, as Chaganty makes no grand statements about psychology, trauma, independence or control, grounding the film in the tension of Chloe's (too rapid) realization of what's going on. Chaganty's willingness to lean into narrative ludicrousness works, especially with support from Paulson's flawless interpretation of an unhinged mother unwilling to let go, and Allen going all-in in a performance that's one part white-knuckle final girl suspense and one-part blow to disabled stereotypes.