The River Runner

 The River Runner (2021) is a fraudulent little sports documentary about white-water kayaking.  It does everything that 100 Foot Wave does but in a more primitive and obvious manner; however, The River Runner was the virtue of being 4 1/2 hours shorter than the HBO series and more explicit in its cruelly deceptive premises.  The film's plot is virtually identical to 100 Foot Wave: a nasty dysfunctional jock with a painful upbringing discovers solace running his kayak over waterfalls.  He sets out on a quixotic quest to run (one might say "desecrate") the four sacred rivers flowing from the holy mountain of Kailash in west Tibet.  These rivers flow through enormous gorges, some of the deepest on earth, and the huge bodies of moving water pour over a series of vast cataracts.  The hero, who no one likes, desecrates successfully three of the rivers but, then, encounters health problems -- in his case, a brain tumor said to be the size of a baseball.  He's also become obsessed, self-absorbed, possibly alcoholic, and a thoroughly nasty fellow.  After recovering from brain surgery, the river runner can't bring himself to paddle over any more waterfalls for eight years.  He learns his cancer has returned.  As a last hurrah, he travels to Pakistan to desecrate the last river.  This venture is successful and, back in the States, he learns that his cancer is in remission and that, miraculously, the holy river has healed him.  All of the usual suspects are on view:  we meet his blonde, vain mother, his disapproving brother, his blonde, self-absorbed and bitter girlfriend.  Early in the film, a kayaker dies to establish the stakes.  There is lots and lots of picturesque, if repetitive, footage of gorgeous, massive cascades with fools dropping through the white water in kayaks.  The film (streaming on Netflix) adheres so closely to 100 Foot Wave's format that it almost seems a parody of the HBO series. (The main difference is that the surfers in the HBO show were just stupid and misguided; the kayakers seem to be complete morons.) I found offensive the notion that paddling down a river can cure cancer.  The gorges and cataracts are appealing but they look better without a  candy-colored rubber kayak bobbing around in them.  These films are directed by manly men with manly names -- this one is made by someone with a name like Jed Rush or Todd Tuff.  Everyone wears Red Bull hats.