''Run This Town'' is a 2019

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

about

Rob Ford Robert Bruce Ford (May 28, 1969 – March 22, 2016) was a Canadian politician and businessman who served as the 64th mayor of Toronto from 2010 to 2014. Before and after his term as mayor, Ford was a city councillor representing Ward 2 Etobi ...

's personal and work-related controversies during his final year as

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

's mayor, written and directed by Ricky Tollman. It stars

Ben Platt Benjamin Schiff Platt (born September 24, 1993) is an American actor and singer. The son of film and theater producer Marc Platt (producer), Marc Platt and philanthropist Julie Platt, he began his acting career in musical theater as a child and ...

Mena Massoud Mena Mansour Massoud (; born September 17, 1991) is an Egyptian-born Canadian actor. He made his film debut in the 2017 Canadian dramatic thriller '' Ordinary Days''. His breakthrough came with playing the title character in the Disney fantasy f ...

Nina Dobrev Nikolina Kamenova Dobreva (; born January 9, 1989), known professionally as Nina Dobrev ( ), is a Canadian actress. She is known for portraying Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce in The CW's supernatural drama series ''The Vampire Diaries'' (20 ...

Scott Speedman Robert Scott Speedman (born September 1, 1975) is a Canadian actor and model. He is known for portraying Ben Covington in the coming-of-age drama television series '' Felicity'', Lycan–Vampire hybrid Michael Corvin in the gothic horror–act ...

Gil Bellows Gil Bellows (born June 28, 1967) is a Canadian actor, producer, screenwriter, and director. Upon graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he began acting in films and television. Bellows also earned critical acclaim for his stage p ...

Jennifer Ehle Jennifer Anne Ehle (; born December 29, 1969) is an American actress. She received the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in the BBC miniseries ''Pride and Prejudice'' (1995). Ehle started her car ...

, and

Damian Lewis Damian Watcyn Lewis (born 11 February 1971) is a British actor, musician and producer. He rose to prominence portraying U.S. Army Major Richard Winters in the HBO miniseries ''Band of Brothers (miniseries), Band of Brothers''. Lewis won a Prime ...

. It had its world premiere at

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

on March 9, 2019. It was released in the United States and Canada on March 6, 2020, by

Oscilloscope An oscilloscope (formerly known as an oscillograph, informally scope or O-scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying voltages of one or more signals as a function of time. Their main purpose is capturing i ...

and

Elevation Pictures Elevation Pictures is a Canadian film distribution and production company owned by Black Bear Pictures. The company was founded in 2013 by Laurie May and is co-led by Noah Segal. The company made its debut at the 2013 Toronto International Fi ...

Premise

The film details the turbulent final year of

's tenure as the mayor of

Cast

Production

It was announced in March 2018 that

and

were cast in the film. Filming began the next month in

, along with the additions of

and

to the cast. Lewis, playing the role of Ford, was spotted on set in extensive makeup and donning a body suit.

Release

The film had its world premiere at

on March 9, 2019. It was released commercially in the United States and Canada on March 6, 2020.

Reception

Critics negatively focused on the film for excising the role of investigative journalists Robyn Doolittle and Kevin Donovan in exposing the scandal, instead replacing them with a fictional novice male journalist. Donovan was critical of the film's portrayal of the media, particularly scenes depicting a reporter paying for the Rob Ford video. Allison Smith stated that Doolittle's replacement with a male journalist was problematic, and the film "would have been more interesting if it had followed Doolittle". She stated that Doolittle may have been replaced because her book '' Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story'' had been

optioned In the film industry, an option agreement is a contract that "rents" the rights to a source material to a potential film producer. It grants the film producer the exclusive option to purchase rights to the source material if they live up to the te ...

for a film or television production.

Joe Mihevc Joe Mihevc ( ; born February 24, 1954) is a Canadian politician who was appointed to represent Ward 10 Spadina—Fort York on Toronto City Council on June 1, 2022. He was previously elected to represent Ward 21 St. Paul's from 2000 to 2018, War ...

, formerly a councillor on

Toronto City Council Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The Toronto City Council 2022–2026, current term began on Nove ...

, stated that the film misrepresents Ford's character, portraying him as a mean-spirited individual and omitting the "humanness of Rob" and the traits that attracted those who voted for him. The film was also praised by Donovan for its correct portrayal of the backroom politics, and by Smith for the depiction of reporters reconstructing a timeline of Rob Ford's activities based on postings to his

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

accounts.

Awards

The film received three

Canadian Screen Award The Canadian Screen Awards () are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media ( web series) productions. Given annually by the Academy ...

nominations at the

8th Canadian Screen Awards The 8th Canadian Screen Awards were presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television from 25–28 May 2020 to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2019. The presentations were held as a seri ...

, for Best Art Direction/Production Design (Chris Crane), Best Sound Editing ( Nelson Ferreira, Dashen Naidoo, J.R. Fountain and Dustin Harris) and Best Makeup (Emily O'Quinn, Steve Newburn and Neil Morrill)."Écrans canadiens : Song of Names, The Twentieth Century et Antigone en tête des nominations"

Ici Radio-Canada #REDIRECT ICI {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...

, February 18, 2020.

References

External links

* * *{{Metacritic film *
Run This Town
' at

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; ) is the federal institution tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is the 16th largest library in the world. T ...

2019 drama films 2019 films 2010s political drama films American films based on actual events American political drama films Canadian political drama films Canadian films based on actual events Drama films based on actual events English-language Canadian films Films about journalists Films set in 2013 Films set in Toronto Films shot in Toronto Rob Ford 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films 2010s American films Films about Canadian politicians