Election day is coming, but a few other things are happening on November 5th.
“The Outrun,” a movie whose title I can never remember — The Outset, The Upshot? — is coming to streaming after a four week run in theaters.
“The Outrun” made no money in its US theater release and didn’t get much attention, but it’s marvelous. Saoirse Ronan — Oscar nominated for four films including “Ladybird” and “Brooklyn” — gives the performance of her life as Rona, a 29 year old London girl with Scottish roots who is utterly lost. It’s up to Academy voters now to rescue it from oblivion.
The movie, directed by Nora Fingsheidt, takes place in the Orkney Islands on the northern most outstretch of Scotland. It’s winter, and dismal, but also gorgeous, and this is the place Rona (Ronan) lands to get sober after a wild time partying and drinking. Cinematographer Yunus Roy Imer captures of all it brilliantly, exposing the raw nature of Rona’s recovery in muted, washed out colors.
“I’m only happy when I drink,” she says at one point. She’s not kidding. She is dead serious. Her drinking lands in her some pretty tough spots, which we see in flashbacks in the non linear screenplay. Fingscheidt, an award winning German director, cuts back and forth as Rona comes to terms with her parents (the father is severely bipolar), her traumatized childhood, and her sometimes violent present in colorful London.
Saskia Reeves and Stephen Dillane are excellent as the parents. But the movie is all about Rona. You can’t take your eyes off of Ronan. She’s a beacon of light in a dark passage. Even though “The Outrun” didn’t score an audience in theaters, I hope it’s embraced on streaming platforms like Apple etc. “The Outrun” is one of the best films of 2024.
