Murikami began running when he was thirty after a decade in dead-end food service work. This memoir (published, as is appropriate, ten years ago) tracks Murakami’s training for the New York Marathon and works to answer Gordon’s question: “Why?” This change hasn’t made a lot of sense until even more recently when I read Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Alternating as best as I can between running and cycling, I prep over the summer for the 150-mile ride, but it hasn’t been until fairly recently that I noticed something change in me. I originally began this ritual as a way to celebrate my having been cancer-free for twenty years and then began the ritual of running as a way to work out on the cheap. Every August for the last four years I have participated in the Obliteride, a weekend charity bike ride around Puget Sound that raises money for Fred Hutch’s cancer research programs. I’ve been running off and on for a little over two years. Why on Earth would you want to subject you and your knees to any amount of an activity essentially designed to protect us from bears? When Dennis first tells Gordon (with whom he is inexplicably still friends) that he will run the marathon, Gordon flatly asks, “Why?” This is a question that comes up a lot in the film and when people talk about running. In short, Dennis is a fuck-up who decides to run a marathon alongside Libby’s new fiancé (Whit, played by Hank Azaria) to prove that he is capable of change and commitment. His life is in shambles and he at least thinks he is trying his best for his grade school-aged son. Still, we are meant to have empathy for Dennis. Do “Good Guys” make transphobic jokes? Probably not. Running down the street after a shoplifter, the film treats its audience to a ham-fisted and transphobic exchange. Good Guy is about the last way we would describe either of our male leads.įive years later, Dennis is a security guard at a high-end lingerie boutique. Libby, who is pregnant, is left at the altar. Two minutes later, Dennis runs out on the wedding. Libby’s cousin, Gordon, uses the fact that the cake looks delicious to say that Libby looks delicious. Dennis’ fiancée, Libby, is baking her wedding cake. Schwimmer’s protagonist in Run, Fatboy, Run opens the film as a very not good guy, however. Elle Magazine, for one, has lauded Schwimmer as a Good Guy. He might even be succeeding in these efforts. Schwimmer intends to do good with his work surrounding #ThatsHarassment and #AskMoreOfHim. In the interest of your time as a reader and my not being more late on submitting this than absolutely necessary, I would like to zoom in on the idea of the “Good Guy.” At the outset, I should say that the title is very problematic and that throughout the film, there are innumerable ableist and fatphobic threads that warrant further investigation and public scrutiny. The letter makes clear that men must understand and make clear to their peers that “sexual harassment and abuse are never acceptable.” Schwimmer and his co-signors, Women’s March co-organizer Ianta Summers, ask that men pledge their support to survivors of harassment and that act with humility as they “engage in own process of critical self-reflection, personal growth and accountability.” With this letter the letter’s authors hope to begin the #AskMoreOfHim movement ( ).Ĭut back ten years to Run, Fatboy, Run. Weeks later, Schwimmer was one of the lead signatories on an open letter to hetero-dudes, demanding that they do more to create safe and inclusive space for women in the workplace. Released four months ahead of Alyssa Milano’s original #MeToo Tweet, #ThatsHarassment, Schwimmer’s film series debuted as 30-second vignettes in New York City and Chicago taxis. While his career has still tended to feature more prominently onscreen, he has directed at least one other feature film, one play on Broadway, and a series of short educational films designed to call attention to harassment and violence against women. Though not his first director credit (Schwimmer had helmed five made-for-TV films and 13 episodes of various shows before 2007), Run, Fatboy, Run was Schwimmer’s debut as a feature film director. In 2018, what draws me to the film now is less Pegg, and more the work of David Schwimmer. Fresh on the heels of Hot Fuzz (at which I will still gasp laughing) and my having watched Shaun of the Dead for the third Halloween in a row, Run, Fatboy, Run looked to be another brightly lit and sharply written vehicle for Simon Pegg and his funny friends. I was so excited for Run, Fatboy, Run when it first came out. Roland Carette-Meyers talks Murakami, the #MeToo movement, and the idea of the “Good Guy” in his re-view of Run, Fatboy, Run.
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