You Can’t Run Forever, 2024.
Directed by Michelle Schumacher.
Starring J.K. Simmons, Fernanda Urrejola, Allen Leech, Isabelle Anaya, Nathan Vincenti, Graham Patrick Martin, Andres Velez, Kevin G. Quinn, Olivia Simmons, Michael Spears, Alet Taylor, Randy Gonzalez, Mikaela Poon, Beau Linnell, Spencer Kramber, June Clemons, Max Garfin, Andy Taylor, Matt Flanders, Shannon Hemmings, and Parker Fenady.
SYNOPSIS:
A teenage girl suffering from anxiety due to a tragic event from her past finds herself hunted through the woods by a sociopath on a murderous rampage.
While arriving at a gas station, Wade (J.K. Simmons) is surrounded by a verbally abusive dog owner and some nearby civilians who also want that canine to shut up. Seemingly already on the verge of a psychotic break before this incident, Wade snaps and puts a bullet right between the dog owner’s eyes. Hey, maybe director Michelle Schumacher’s (writing alongside Carolyn Carpenter) You Can’t Run Forever will be about a likable homicidal maniac who goes around killing people who have it coming. Oh, now he is shooting other people, so maybe he is just crazy.
For some reason, J.K. Simmons is committed to the film which continuously turns more trashy by the minute. It’s also understandable why one of cinema’s most consistently great on-screen curmudgeons would find some interest and demented glee in playing a sociopathic serial killer on a rampage, but most of this boils down to obscene shock value. Early on, there is a moment where he murders someone on the road, gets in their car, and starts flipping through photos on their phone, only to start masturbating to the man’s wife. It is no secret that this man has no respect for women, and there is no need to go to such extremes. Just in case you still don’t get it, several women are also gratuitously shot to death, lingering on the fatal wounds.
Also baffling is that You Can’t Run Forever runs over 100 minutes when none of the character details and revelations here come anywhere near justifying 80 minutes, let alone that. It’s the standard Falling Down scenario, with Wade feeling disrespected one too many times by society, primarily the students he happens to be teaching a business survival class. Choosing the nearby woods and empty highway roads as his preferred place to unleash wrath, Wade ends up fixating on teenager Miranda (Isabelle Anaya), a traumatized, anxiety-ridden, already suicidal girl whom he violently isolates from her father and leads into those woods, which also happens to cut off her Internet signal.
At home is Miranda’s nine-month-pregnant mother, Jenny (Fernanda Urrejola), who is terrified upon realizing that the same man suspected in the earlier killings that day is now stalking her daughter. Naturally, she and Miranda’s stepsister Emily (Olivia Simmons) plead with the local deputies to do something, but they are useless and unable to put together a search party until the new sheriff arrives, which makes zero sense considering the urgency of the dangerous situation. Jenny also appears to have been going through a complicated time with Miranda’s stepfather, Eddie (Allen Leech), whereas her biological father took his own life. The latter event is mined for tasteless psychological horror and jump scares during a clichéd drug trip in the woods.
You Can’t Run Forever can’t even develop a suspenseful game of cat and mouse, frequently stopping in its tracks for more misguided attempts at eye-rolling characterization. Meanwhile, Wade wanders around, shooting anyone in sight, including a camping family that is trying to provide Miranda with assistance. Perhaps if the chase and kills had some cleverness or creativity behind them, with the movie taking itself less seriously, everything would feel less tedious, gross, misogynistic, and monotonous.
Technically, there is a personal journey here for Miranda, but it falls somewhere between boring and phony. If anything, it is unsettling that a portion of the climactic sequence implies that a murderous rampage and blunt force is the only way someone like Wade could ever find a family. That final sequence is gesturing at a more compelling study of this insane, grounded nutjob, revealing potential as a single-setting hostage thriller. As is, You Can’t Run Forever is unmitigated trash that feels like it will last forever. At least it’s nice to know J.K. Simmons will put in the work, even for tasteless junk.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
