Movies | Writing
‘See How They Run’ is in Love with its Own Tropes
and that’s a good thing
‘See How They Run’ announces itself in its first few seconds. It doesn’t have any pretentions about what it is. In fact it doesn’t even try particularly hard to hide its mystery, or to hide its influences.
The film is probably the closest example that I can find to the famed (infamous) “love letter to blank”. This film is the ultimate love letter film, one that understands what it means to be truly in love with a certain aesthetic, vibe, genre, and art form. It doesn’t try to reinvent anything, it doesn’t lean into irony, and it doesn’t try to justify its passion for the murder mystery genre.
Instead it plays it all exactly how one expects a murder mystery film to go. There are no surprises, no twists. One can even see the ending coming because the film lays out the — frankly quite obvious — breadcrumbs for the audience. One can pick up on these and figure out the ending way before it actually happens, but this is not a slight towards the film. Instead it is part of the charm. And I think it is this final word which fully embodies the film.
The film is swimming in charm. It’s a charm born in the infectious and upbeat soundtrack composed by Daniel Pemberton (of ‘Spider-Verse’ fame). That charm…
