Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Run Sweetheart Run’ on Prime Video, Where The Patriarchy Is A Predator And Ella Balinska Is the Prey

Slasher movie mechanics meet midnight movie idiosyncrasies in Run Sweetheart Run (Prime Video), directed and co-written by Shana Feste. Beset by male chauvinism at every turn, Cherie (Ella Balinska of the callously canceled Resident Evil) agrees to meet the client of her lawyer boss for dinner. But that isn’t the spark of romance she’s sensing, and soon enough Cherie is fighting for her life, pursued through an unwelcoming nighttime LA by the patriarchy made manifest.   

RUN SWEETHEART RUN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

 
The Gist: Cherie (Balinska) is pre-law at UCLA, but she’s stuck in the secretary pool at the male-dominated firm where she works, and finds herself having to apologize for filing a sexual harrassment complaint, amongst other indignities. Like being blamed for double-booking her boss, a rich lawyer named James Fuller (an against type Clark Gregg, adding a sinister twist to his usual affability), and then agreeing to meet his swarthy and equally rich client Ethan (Pilou Asbaek) for a dinner, even though her baby daughter is waiting for her at home. But while her bestie watches Luze, Cherie meets Ethan, and she’s charmed by him despite her determination to remain professional.

There was already something untrustable about Ethan, and that was before he reached through the fourth wall with a slimy grin. And suddenly Run Sweetheart Run puts on its trainers, and even provides a histrionic onscreen prompt for its heroine: RUN! Cherie escapes Ethan’s mansion only to find herself phoneless and alone in a shadowy Los Angeles, where she’s treated like a threat instead of an individual in need of a hand. The cops ignore her assault and book her on a bullshit charge. But when a sex worker in the holding cell hears her story, she recoils in flight mode. “This is a man who controls men. You are a marked woman now. You need to call the First Lady…” 

As Ethan openly, blatantly stalks her, Cherie runs to Fuller’s condo, only to find out that he’s in on it. His cowering wife does drop some knowledge, though. Ethan can smell Cherie’s blood, which becomes more problematic as she’s menstruating. A lifeline to her ex Trey (Dayo Okeniyi) and his pals can’t stop her pursuer, and a chase through a church only reveals more of Ethan’s true nature. But what Cherie is is strong, powerful, and perpetually improvisational, and as dawn approaches she finally locates Dina (Shoreh Aghdashloo), “The First Lady,” and her will becomes bound to the matriarchy that’s been planning Ethan’s takedown for an eternity. Who needs to RUN now?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? The recent Barbarian pitted Georgina Campbell in her own race for survival as the film tweaked horror genre convention. And Run Sweetheart Run also shares its energy with something like Kate, where Mary Elizabeth Winstead fights through various levels of evil doing men to achieve salvation.  

Performance Worth Watching: “So what’s it going to be? Stay here and hide? Or kill this fucker with me?” When she finally appears, the First Lady is found to be protecting and preparing women for the fight to come, and Shoreh Aghdashloo plays her formidably in a welcome character role.

Memorable Dialogue: Ethan is assailing Cherie in her jail cell, where of course all of the cops are in his pocket. “It doesn’t matter if it happened or not,” he says of her assault. “Because no one’s gonna believe you. Because no one cares. The only thing that matters now is our little game. I’m gonna hunt you. And if you make it through the night, then I’m gonna let you live.” Yeah, sure.

Sex and Skin: Nothing here.  

Our Take: The garish, emptied out, and red-tinted Los Angeles that both impedes and enables Cherie in Run Sweetheart Run shares a lot of its noirish tenor with the films Nicolas Winding Refn set there, Drive and The Neon Demon, films that also dance with psychological horror, surrealism, and gender roles in a similar manner to Sweetheart. The everyday aggressions and chronic disrespect that Cherie encounters are certainly unfortunate aspects of our society. But they’re also emphasized in bold here, so that by the time a female bus driver lends our heroine her phone, that simple act of kindness is heartbreaking in how lonely it feels. The LA of this night, while Cherie is publicly stalked with impunity by a warrior of the patriarchy, is itself a monster. The shimmering heat lighting synths of on the Run Sweetheart Run soundtrack, by the French musician and composer ROB, only solidify the Refn comparison.

Run Sweetheart Run itself runs on fumes at times, its narrative struggling to sustain itself as the film’s chapters line up. But those unsettling, fourth wall-shattering moments, like when Ethan speaks directly to the camera after another unspeakable act of violence – “Let’s be honest, not a huge fucking surprise” – and the titles that both urge Cherie on (RUN!) and keep us oriented inside a Los Angeles that’s become a nocturnal animal are intriguing stylistic flourishes that lend an idiosyncratic B-movie flair to Sweetheart, and help connect us to Cherie’s plight. Not that we needed any convincing from the technical aspects, though, since Ella Balinska makes her a fully dimensional character with immediate ease.

Our Call: STREAM IT. All the way. Stream it even for Halloween, if you want – Run Sweetheart Run puts slasher movies and toxic masculinity in a blender while giving us a compelling main character who evolves from target into defiant Final Girl. 

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges