Jillian Bell is delightful as a woman who takes up running in a sweet, amusing film that also turns a few dark corners
Comedian and former
Saturday Night Live writer Jillian Bell has been scene-stealingly hilarious in supporting roles for quite a while (22 Jump Street, Rough Night). Now here’s a movie that could make her a star. Paul Downs Colaizzo’s New York-set indie
comedy gives Bell the platform for a lovely authentic performance as a woman who takes up running to lose weight and get fit. It’s a film with charm and sweetness but a twinge of anxiety, a little gravitational pull to darker places.
Bell is Brittany, a 28-year-old with issues recognisable from Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck: binge-drinking, picking up the wrong guys, generally failing to sort out her life. When she tries to wheedle prescription drugs out of her GP, he instead warns that her BMI is in the obese range. “You totally missed the point of those Dove ads,” she quips.