THE WASHINGTON POST.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2019EZ20
Movies
Brittany Runs a Marathon
A comedy that runs a predictable course
BY ANN HORNADAYI
n “Brittany Runs a Mara-
thon,” Jillian Bell plays the
title character, a young wom-
an approaching 30 whose life
has stalled into a deadening cycle
of partying, meaningless sex,
shallow friendships and an off-
off-Broadway theater gig that
barely keeps her afloat.
As an archetype, Brittany re-
sembles the characters Amy Schu-
mer has played in such makeover
comedies as “Trainwreck” and “I
Feel Pretty”: the funny, resilient
but wounded girl whose
self-deprecation masks deeper
self-loathing, and whose self-sab-
otage veers precariously toward
self-harm.
The title of “Brittany Runs a
Marathon” is nothing if not liter-
al: Here, the means of the hero-ine’s salvation is her discovery of
running, but the twist is that even
that healthy pastime — and the
positive changes it engenders —
invites new ways for Brittany to
indulge her deepest weaknesses.
Written and directed by new-
comer Paul Downs Colaizzo, “Brit-
tany Runs a Marathon” i s an en-
gaging, modestly amusing, some-
times laugh-out-loud hilarious
comedy of manners in which the
usual millennial excesses are
skewered, from the invidious hell-
hole of social media to the men-
dacities of online dating. Photo-
graphed in a loose, up-close style,
the movie never strays far from
the usual advances, reversals and
resolutions of similar plots — afamiliarity that is either comfort-
ing or cliched, depending on the
viewer’s frame of mind. To his
credit, Colaizzo has enlisted a fine
ensemble of actors, especially Mi-
chaela Watkins, Utkarsh Ambud-
kar and a quietly revelatory Mi-
cah Stock as Brittany’s newfound
posse.
The best part of “Brittany Runs
a Marathon” i s that it provides a
showcase for Bell, who co-starred
with Watkins earlier this summer
in the terrific indie “Sword of
Trust,” and who, before these two
movies, has usually been relegat-
ed to scene-stealing but all-too-
brief supporting roles. Right off
the bat, she gives Brittany a quick-
witted, improvisatory edge,which eventually is shown to cov-
er up for deep-seated social anxi-
ety. Bell plays all the layers with
admirable skill, managing to be
tartly funny, abrasively
off-putting and wrenchingly vul-
nerable within the space of just a
few moments.
She also pulls off the physical
transformation that forms the
somewhat contradictory climax
of “Brittany Runs a Marathon.”
This is a movie that is adamantly
body-positive (“You totally missed
the point of those Dove ads,” Brit-
tany complains to a doctor who
tells her she’s overweight), but it
also revels in the fit, lip-glossed,
romantically fulfilled butterfly
who emerges from her cocoon of
red wine, Aderall and shame.
Not content to leave it there,
Colaizzo preempts his foreor-
dained happy ending just longenough to question how Brittany
— and the audience — would
precisely define that term. “Britta-
ny Runs a Marathon” i s perfunc-
tory, idealized, sometimes awk-
wardly composed, almost always
predictable. But it stays the
course, with admirable grit and
more than a few entertaining
grins.
[email protected]JON PACK/AMAZON STUDIOSR. At area theaters. Contains coarse language throughout, sexuality and some drug material. 104 minutes.
The movie is distributed by Amazon Studios. Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.Bell finds the funny as millennial title character, but
film never strays far from what’s expectedIn “Brittany Runs a
Marathon,” Jillian Bell
moves from her typical
scene-stealing
supporting roles to a
starring one, playing all
the layers of the title
character with
remarkable skill. She
also pulls off quite a
physical transformation.