“Run This Town,” a jagged and catchy procedure that divides its time between a downsizing newspaper and a dysfunctional municipal government, is a fictional tale of a real scandal. In 2013, The Toronto Star and Gawker both said their journalists had watched a video that appeared to show Toronto mayor Rob Ford, smoking crack cocaine. Six months later, he admitted to having used the drug, but did not resign.
Bram (Ben Platt), a young reporter who writes listicles for Toronto media, is clearly out of his depth when he meets a potential source who wants to sell the video to him. The film, which ends with Bram delivering a self-justified, mostly unmotivated, defense of the work ethic of his generation, adopts a strangely sympathetic attitude toward his stumbles.
The film is much sharper at the town hall, where the two other great characters work. Kamal (Mena Massoud), the mayor’s special assistant, happily demonstrates his reporter-stonewalling strategies to Ashley (Nina Dobrev), a new press assistant. She eagerly initiates interference for the mayor until he shows up drunk at work and catches it unduly. Damian Lewis plays Ford, whose name has not changed, in a surprisingly effective prosthetic feat.
Using energetic split screens, screenwriter-director Ricky Tollman shows a gift for the staccato cut and the cut dialogue, as in a lively discussion of terminology at City Hall. Tollman is more knowledgeable about such details than the big picture: the film never quite balances his varied perspectives in one coherent point of view.
Rule this city
Duration: 1 hour 39 minutes. Rated R for language, inappropriate behavior at work and talking about drugs.