Marathon Review: Hits The Ground Running With Quirky Runners

Release date: July 6, 2021
Running time: 82 minutes
Directors: Martín Blousson, Macarena García Lenzi
Cast: Kimia Behpoornia, Tavius Cortez, Andrew Hansen, Roberto Raad, Marc Roberts, Natalie Sullivan, Jimmy Slonina and Anais Thomassian 

The mock-doc begins three months before Devil’s Canyon Marathon, an underfunded local race organized by shoe store owner, Ed Clap. We meet and follow some quirky runners, delving into their training, but more importantly, their personal relationships (or lack thereof) with friends, family, and romantic partners.

Marathon has a fun mocumentary style that hits the ground running.  It gathers a quirky, fun cast and explores their running journey in a humorous and over the top way.  I really did like how each character had a very different story and reason for running and that they all addressed the various runners tropes.  From over achievers, to those that wanted to drastically change their lives, to those that just wanted to get out of the house, and those that fail, everyone is here for Marathon.  And the movie starts off very funny, with an introduction to each of these strange characters and some backstory.  As they move along in their running journey, they are presented with new challenges that allow for some humorous solutions (and breakdowns)!

However, Marathon does seem drag the run out without much change.  Like the complaints in the film itself during one of the runs (where one of the characters complains that the run continues but the scenery never changes), the film needed a change of scenery partway through.  There were a few character changes and some interesting situations, but for the most part, the jokes from the first 30 minutes of the movie were similar to the jokes that occurred in the remaining 50 minutes.  I enjoyed the different quirks of the character's personalities, but when the same scenario played out for the 3rd or 4th time, it just blunted the impact of any humor.  And that's not to say that the movie was not funny, the humor is there throughout the film.  But it just loses its impact if you're seeing the same underlying joke or quirk played out again, despite how funny it is.  But that being said, Marathon is a funny concept with a great group of actors doing some very enjoyable, over the top things in preparation for the run of their lives.  

Marathon hits the ground running with a funny, quirky cast embodying and making fun of runners, running, and inspirational sports tropes.

Rent it.

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Marathon is available digitally and on demand on July 6, 2021.  

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