Vague Visages’ Man on the Run review contains minor spoilers. Cassius Michael Kim’s 2023 Netflix documentary features Bill McMurry, Sharon Carpenter and Jennifer Peros. Check out the VV home page for more film reviews, along with cast/character summaries, streaming guides and complete soundtrack song listings.

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Man on the Run ironically betrays its titular con man premise. Still, filmmaker Cassius Michael Kim succeeds with his overall execution by properly analyzing the key elements of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal. Man on the Run uses a celebrity fame hook as a marketing tool, when in fact the 98-minute Netflix film is mostly a procedural-style doc, one that references familiar pop culture names, such as Leonardo DiCaprio, but doesn’t necessarily hold anyone accountable (at least during Hollywood-themed segments).

Corrupt businessman Jho Low sits atop a throne on the official Man on the Run poster. He is portrayed as a mover and shaker; a Malaysian madman who weaseled his way into a business partnership with former Prime Minister Najib Razak, which in turn led to a “special thanks” credit for Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) — a film about American stock trader/con man Jordan Belfort (portrayed by the aforementioned DiCaprio). Low’s sketchy business practices dominate the documentary’s first half, only to be sidelined by segments about the power structures that fueled the focal scandal. British journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown arguably delivers the best soundbites in Man on the Run while calling out Razak, who actually appears for a sit-down interview that essentially exposes his contradictory behavior.

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For every a-ha moment in Man on the Run, there’s an uninspired pop culture-themed segment. Aesthetically, Kim incorporates retro-style TV screens for some visual flair; however, such images never vibe with the 2010s setting. And while it’s important to acknowledge that Low managed to seduce Tinseltown with power and money, Man on the Run merely slaps American celebrities on the wrist without fully exploring the big picture consequences. To be fair, a Hollywood-themed epilogue explains why Low’s celebrity associates don’t appear for on-camera interviews, but the willingness to hype up and subsequently abandon The Wolf of Wall Street element implies that Man on the Run’s producers either needed to beef up the runtime or simply didn’t want any legal trouble (probably both). And so Kim’s Netflix documentary isn’t fundamentally about Low’s low down dirty ways, but rather a spotlight on institutional corruption that kept Razak in power.

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Man on the Run extracts the most value from interviews about Malaysian citizens — specifically, people who feel stuck, people who feel abandoned, people who simply don’t understand the societal forces that keep them down. The Low angle is indeed entertaining throughout Man on the Run, and yet viewers from across the world may feel most shocked by sequences about Malaysian culture. Is there a correlation to be made with celebrity idolization in North America? Probably. In fact, an extra 10 or 15 minutes about Hollywood’s influence on pop culture consumers would’ve benefitted the documentary (and could’ve inspired a full miniseries). Overall, though, Kim mostly hits the mark with Man on the Run, even if some of the Adam McKay-style filmmaking choices don’t land particularly well.

Man on the Run premiered theatrically in 2023. Netflix released the documentary on January 5, 2024.

Q.V. Hough (@QVHough) is Vague Visages’ founding editor.

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