The Outrun, based on a memoir by journalist Amy Liptrot, stars Saoirse Ronan as Rona, a young woman battling an alcohol addiction. Hoooo boy, this film is excellent.
It was moving and it really gave me incredible insight into just how complex and difficult it must be to overcome alcohol addiction. I appreciate you may think, derrr, of course that would be hard, but this paints such a clear and compelling picture of why and how it’s hard that it really opened my eyes enormously. Ronan is excellent and I think she can reasonably be disappointed to not be among the nominees for Best Actress at the Golden Globes.
Don’t get yourself along to this for a light toe-tapping good time but if you’re up for an interesting story, performed beautifully, through which you’ll likely learn a lot, then The Outrun is for you. The release strategy for the film in Australia seems a bit strange to be honest, so you may find it hard to catch. It was on as part of the British Film Festival in November but does not seem to have a subsequent wider release as usually happens with Film Festival highlights so it may be that catching it on an online streamer will be your realistic best bet.
The Outrun runs 117 minutes and is rated M. Trailer here.