Canada: Friday, August 30, 2019
Amazon Studios
for language throughout, sexuality and some drug material
Hilarious, outgoing and always up for a good time, New Yorker Brittany Forgler is everybody's best friend ? except maybe her own. At 27, her hard-partying ways, chronic underemployment and toxic relationships are catching up with her, but when she stops by a new doctor's office to try to score some Adderall, she gets slapped with a prescription she never wanted: Get healthy. Too broke for a gym and too proud to ask for help, Brit is at a loss, until her seemingly together neighbor Catherine pushes her to lace up her Converse sneakers and run one sweaty block. The next day, she runs two. And soon, after finishing her first mile, she sets an almost unthinkable goal: running in the New York City Marathon.
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Gregory M. - Rated it 3 out of 5
"Brittany Runs A Marathon" Hilarious, outgoing and always up for a good time, New Yorker Brittany Forgler (Jillian Bell) is everybody’s best friend, except maybe her own. At 27, her hard-partying ways, chronic underemployment and toxic relationships are catching up with her, but when she stops by Doctor Falloway's (Patch Darragh) office try to score some 'Adderall', she gets slapped with a prescription she never wanted; get healthy. Too broke for a gym and too proud to ask for help, Brit is at a loss, until her seemingly together neighbor Catherine (Michaela Watkins) pushes her to lace up her 'Converse' sneakers and run one sweaty block. The next day, she runs two. And soon, after finishing her first mile, she sets an almost unthinkable goal; running in 'The New York City Marathon'. "Brittany Runs A Marathon" is an uproarious, irreverent and surprisingly emotional comedy inspired by real events. It's a inspirational story of a party girl who finally finds real friends, and dignity, by taking control of her future, one city block at a time. Brittany is everyone’s favorite person to be around. She has a way of making everything into a hilarious joke. But her life is also dysfunctional; by our late 20s, she's neglecting her student loans and drinking on weeknights. Then she decides to make a change. Brittany begins running, first for just a few blocks. She begins to shift what she expected from herself. At the top of the film, Brittany is a guaranteed good time. She wears purposeful blinders that make her unthreatening and directionless. You will never feel bad about yourself hanging out with that version of Brittany. But we watch as she starts to look at herself and her life in a different way. She becomes self-aware and self-respecting. That’s something we can all be inspired by. A lot of people would have made a broad comedy full of cheap jokes about an overweight girl. 'The Brittany' in this film is totally and completely human and also very funny. It seems like 'Rocky' for someone like our little sister. Brittany’s not someone we see at the center of a film often, if ever. She’s so much more than a sidekick and it’s a true story, where someone you can relate to goes through this huge life event and comes out on the other side more evolved. Everything that's in Brittany’s heart and soul needs to be in her eyes. She's the protagonist and the antagonist. It’s the story of a woman locked in a battle with herself. This is a real woman’s story that comes with all of real life’s ups and downs. Brittany is messy and lovable and heartbreaking and joyful and raw and funny all at the same time. To understand and command the elements of filmmaking, camera and movement, lighting and color, the film looks a at every choice as an extension of Brittany’s inner life and emotional journey. The physical part of this journey is so important. The difficulty of changing yourself is something everyone can identify with. It’s so relatable to look at your life and think, ‘I haven’t made anything of it', but choosing to put yourself first can be beautiful. Characters like Brittany don’t usually get to have depth and pathos in movies. The film gives this archetype a true hero’s journey and let it be both entertaining and emotional. It's really important for everyone to see, but especially girls and young women. Seth (Micah Stock) is another novice runner who becomes one of Brittany’s best friends and most enthusiastic supporters. Seth and Brittany are both looking to prove themselves. Seth starts running to show his son that if you put your mind to something you can get it done. Like Brittany, Seth is coming up against a societally ingrained idea of what the world expects from him. For so many years being a gay man means being narrowly defined. You're expected to like shopping or be effeminate, but ***** people are as varied and dynamic as anyone. Seth realizes the boxes the world puts him into, and he wants to make sure his children see that people may try to put their expectations onto you, but you don’t have to accept them. We all have a bit of Brittany inside us. Breaking out and saying, ‘No, I’m not who you expect, I’m not just a sidekick or the supporting player', is tough. It’s really hard to be the author of your own existence. If there's a character in this film that's in any way based on him, it would be Seth. Some of that's him and some of its his choices and it all makes him an easy best friend for Brittany, but also for the audience. Catherine is Brittany's neighbor. She's a photographer and a married woman with a Manhattan home and a studio in Brittany’s 'Astoria' building. On the surface, she's someone Brittany believes she has nothing in common with, a successful adult with money, a career, a husband and children. She runs long distances every day and drinks green smoothies. Of course, she's dealing with her own world of pain. But Brittany is so invested in her own disappointment, she can’t see anything else. To Brittany, Catherine may be ‘Moneybags Martha,’ but her life in no way resembles the fairy tale Brittany imagines. Catherine has more life experience. She thinks Brittany is someone she can help and maybe mentor. She brings her into her running group and says, essentially, ‘I’ve been where you're'. The film is joyful and funny and not at all expected. It's an opportunity to develop a real character, instead of just coming in and telling jokes. Brittany’s roommate Gretchen (Alice Lee) is a character that in the wrong hands might have been one-dimensional, the pretty but vacant party girl who spends all her time on her cell phone. Gretchen is in many ways the same as Brittany. She feels bad about herself and wants to enjoy her life, but she can be toxic to herself and the people around her. In the world today, many people use social media as a way to feel valued or valuable. Gretchen is constantly looking for likes, both on the internet and off. She’s kind of a subtle *****. When Brittany tries to change, Gretchen behaves so badly it forces Brittany to realize it’s actually a very negative relationship. Brittany finds a new romantic interest while working as the daytime house-and-dog sitter in a luxurious Manhattan home. When feckless hipster Jern (Utkarsh Ambudkar), shows up for the night shift, she quickly realizes he isn’t just house-sitting, he’s living there. Instead of turning him in, though, Brittany moves in herself, and what starts out as an antagonistic relationship soon evolves into a complex friendship. Jern is a man-child. He’s in his mid-30s and protecting the idea that he's capable of achieving great success by not doing anything. This way, he shields his fragile ego by avoiding failure. The Jern character is a study in unfulfilled potential. He has fallen by the wayside of his own dreams. He lacks inspiration and motivation but not ego. Brittany’s transformation inspires him to look deep into who he wants to be. Jern and Brittany are both a little different visually from what this culture normally thinks of as attractive. They're not what you see on billboards or in ads, and that’s part of their appeal. The final principal character in Brittany’s story may be the most unexpected. Demetrius (Lil Rel Howery), her brother-in-law, is a man who raised her after tragedy struck her family and her biggest advocate since the day he took her in. The film is set almost entirely in New York City. The city is a character in the movie. Much like Brittany, New York is full of contradictions. The film includes a poignant scene in which Brittany is traveling from Manhattan into Queens, wistfully looking back at the city. It’s means to feel as though she’s living her dream and yet not living it at all. A lot of our theater friends live or have lived deep into the outer boroughs. You can describe the feeling that New York they mean to come to, the reason you're here in the first place, is somehow still out of their reach. The homes run the gamut from stratospherically pricey to absolutely basic, which reflects the economic diversity of both the city and the characters. From 'The Upper East Side' mansion where Brittany and Jern meet to the rundown 'Astoria' tenement flat she shares with Gretchen, the settings provide a cross-section of New York City that the film creates a reflection of Brittany’s inner life. It brings back moments in our life when we feel like we was at rock bottom, and everyone else was doing so well. And everyone feels that way sometimes. The apartment Brittany shares with her party-girl roommate says a lot about the life they're leading, all bar-hopping, hookups and hangovers. She’s not taking care of herself or her space. It's furnished with things Brittany picks up off the street or that she got from her family. A lot of the stuff is sentimental. There are touches that reflect her sense of humor, like the drawing of a fire on the fireplace. The film also takes us inside the warm and cozy apartment Seth shares with his husband and children, Catherine’s immaculate photography studio, the spectacular residence where Brittany and Jern house-sit, and Brittany’s childhood home in Philadelphia. It’s tasteful and muted with small pops of color. After her cramped apartment, it's understandable why she decides to squat there. Then she has to return to the house she grew up in and it’s like she’s backtracking. It seems stagnant, like nothing has ever changed. She stays in a bedroom with wallpaper that’s probably from the ’70s and it’s kind of depressing. The clothes is an opportunity to illustrate the physical and emotional changes Brittany experiences over the course of the film. Color, fit and quality considerations all came into play. The entire movie is about transformation, and the wardrobe shows that. For the film’s early scenes, before Brittany embarks on her fitness regimen, the film uses old photographs to develop a look that evolves as Brittany undergoes her transformation. Customized bodysuits and padding in multiple sizes and shapes are fabricated and used in various combinations at different points in the film. It's extremely versatile. What the film uses at any given time also depends on what she's wearing. Quality of cut of the clothing makes a huge difference, so in the beginning the film puts her in ill-fitting clothes. Brittany’s clothing becomes more body-conscious as she gains confidence. Color also make a difference for the character. Brittany’s wardrobe starts out with pieces that are bright, colorful and fun. Brittany’s arc is one of maturation. The film creates a world where we see her in a juvenile state. Then, she evolves. There are always elements of comedy interspersed with moments of depth. Brittany’s palette starts out with primary colors and changes throughout the film. At the beginning, it’s brighter, but when she’s hurting it goes from green to olive, or from cherry red to cranberry. The character has more than 50 wardrobe changes throughout the film, and each one had to be planned to accommodate the padding. The biggest challenge is making it clear that the transformation is more than physical. There's a lot of back and forth between wardrobe, hair and makeup, This film is a sport movie. It’s also a very personal story about what you can accomplish by pushing yourself to be better than you're. The basic premise of the film, a young woman who decides to change her life by running 'The New York City Marathon', is true. "Brittany Runs A Marathon is born out of the compelling, painful, hilarious and inspiring journey, Brittany takes in her late 20s. The concept for the film is to take a stock character from big American comedies, the ‘hot mess,’ the ‘fat sidekick’, and turn the camera squarely in her direction. What’s her human story? What does she want? What does she struggle with? And how is her story everyone’s story? The idea is, at the start of the film, the audience will think, ‘I know that girl'. As the film goes on they’ll think, 'Wait. I am that girl'. And when the lights come up they’ll think, ‘If I pushed myself hard enough, I could be that girl'. The race has several waves of starters, and Brittany rund with each of them except the first, which is for the most serious runners. She didn’t run the whole race, but we see her at the beginning, middle and end of the course. Brittany is supposed to be pushing herself to get to the finish line, but real runners are so convinced by the character of a woman in pain, they stopped running their own races to help her run hers. The film crafts an unusually poignant portrait of a young woman uncovering her long-buried potential. "Brittany Runs A Marathon" is the first feature film ever to be shot during the iconic 'New York City Marathon', which is run every year on the first Sunday in November. An enormously popular event, it shuts down traffic in parts of the city as it winds from 'Staten Island' through each of the city’s five boroughs before reaching the finish line in 'Central Park'. It’s an emotional, galvanizing moment in New York. It’s not every day that 50,000 dreams come true at the same time. New York is a city of strangers and clashing cultures, but on the day of the marathon, the city basically transforms into 'Mister Rogers Neighborhood'. You take a ride on the subway and everybody is smiling and wishing each other luck. The story is grounded and entertaining, inspirational and fun, and that reminds audiences to think big. Maybe we’ll inspire people to ask themselves what their metaphorical marathon is. We all struggle with fears and beliefs that we find within ourselves. But if you start with one step, sometimes literally, you can be better, maybe not the best, but better than you're now. "Brittany Runs A Marathon" is a celebration of what it takes for one woman to find her footing, but it’s also a heartfelt nudge for anyone who needs a reminder that every race starts with a single step. written by Gregory Mann
